Journals 2004/2005

Katie Roberts
Hingham Middle School, Hingham, Massachusetts

"Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance,and Status of Humpback whales (SPLASH)" NOAA Ship McArthur II June 27-July 26, 2004

Journal Index: June Intro - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 July 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10       11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18       19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25

Photo: Protected Resouces Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California. swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov/PRD/

Another "blue" day on the Gulf of Alaska! As we passed within sight of Middleton Island, we encountered our second blue whale, much to the excitement of scientists and crew. The news of our first sighting had already made national news on the AP wire, and our second sighting was just as exciting. This individual was successfully photographed and biopsied.

Interestingly, the blue whale witnessed on Wednesday was tentatively matched with an individual from the Cascadia catalogue and had been last photographed in Southern California. This match may contribute to the understanding of the migratory patterns of the blues. In other matching news, I made my first humpback match, identifying a whale from our day on Chatham Strait with an individual from the Southeast Alaska catalogue. The information from my "match" was shared with Jan Straley's research team who will provide us information regarding the sighting history of this individual.