Some of our field notes from the 2007 field season are archived here:

19 December 2007:  Montserrat, Caribbean

"We are busy completing the paperwork at the handover between observation shifts, when I happen to look up and see eight boobies circling and diving into the water off our port bow.  Something must be there!  We concentrate on scanning the water below the seabirds, and suddenly see spray and falcate dorsal fins cutting through the swell.  Dolphins!  And they peel away from feeding to swim subsurface towards the ship, their grey shapes clearly visible in the bright blue Caribbean water. I radio the acoustic laboratory to inform them of the dolphins, and then sprint to the ship's bow to try and identify which species we have.

When I reach the bow, I look over to see a small pod of dolphins circling in the bow-wave, twisting and turning in the waves and leaping out of the back of the swell.  The dolphins are clearly identifiable as Pantropical spotted dolphins, although the spotting is almost invisible on these animals.  Still the dark dorsal capes, small dorsal fins and white-lips and beak tips are collectively conclusive as this species.  Unfortunately, the slow speed of our vessel is insufficient to keep the dolphins occupied for long, and they quickly peel away and disappear astern of us".

November/December 2007:  South Africa cetacean trips

Images of southern right whales in Walker Bay and Heaviside's dolphins in Lambert's Bay can be viewed here.  These encounters were from a range of commercial cetacean-watching vessels operating in South Africa.

6 November 2007:  Equatorial Guinea, Seismic survey vessel

"The seas here contain more marine litter than I have seen anywhere else in the world.  The water column is full of plastic, and in some places where the tide and oceanic currents meet the ocean just seems full of plastic bags and other debris.  I am watching one such area of water filled with rubbish this morning, when my eye is caught by a small shape moving next to some plastic and discarded fishing net.  It is a tiny turtle, and I am saddened to see that its hind flipper is caught up in the floating plastic litter.  I watch as the little animal thrashes helplessly at the surface, unable to do anything other than drift along with its plastic prison.  But worse is to come.  As I am photographing the juvenile turtle, my colleague alerts me to the presence of two large turtles thirty metres away.  And these animals are also heavily entangled in a piece of discarded fishing net.  We watch as the animals (both olive ridley turtles) lift their heads above the water to take breaths of air, in between their struggles.  

There is no chance for these turtles to survive in this situation, but we can do nothing except watch them drift helplessly past us and away astern of the ship.  Only 40 min later, and yet another piece of fishing net passes by, this time containing two olive ridley turtles and a single green turtle.  All three animals are alive and thrashing weakly at the surface in a vain attempt for freedom, and it looks like there are other, dead turtles in the net below them.  It is extremely sad to see no less than six endangered turtles caught in fishing net in the course of a single morning and be unable to save a single one. All that I can do is photograph the animals, write a report on the incident and hope that the images will raise awareness of the dangers of plastic and fishing net floating in the oceans".

23 October 2007:  Equatorial Guinea, Seismic survey vessel

"We had almost given up on the dolphins, when finally a few individuals turn and start to swim towards the ship.  We have been tracking this group of dolphins for over 30 min as they ambled around ahead of us, seemingly uncertain of which direction to go in.  Every time we start to draw closer to them, they move just a bit further away!  Finally the frustration is over, as the first dolphins arrive at the front of the ship and turn to play in the bow-wave.  

The hourglass pattern on their sides makes them easily recognisable as common dolphins, although we are not sure whether these animals are the long- or the short-beaked species.  They twist and turn in the waves below us, and we can hear loud whistles from the animals as they communicate with each other.  Our vessel is travelling too slowly to be too much fun for the dolphins, and most of them peel off and head away after only a few minutes.  But three animals persevere for a while longer, clearly finding the ship better entertainment than anything else the tropical waters can offer!"

15 August 2007:  Congo, Seismic survey vessel

"A loud blow sounds close by, audible even over the loud background drone of the engines.  I peer over the railings and see the smooth, wide back of a humpback whale, a mere 20 m off the bow of the vessel.  With a further loud exhalation a second animal surfaces beside it.  I had seen the tall, bushy blows of humpback whales ahead of the ship 15 min ago, but did not expect that they would surface so close.  The whales seem very aware of our approaching ship, and move calmly but purposefully out of our way with a sequence of steady surfacings and bushy blows.  Their progress can be easily traced by the oil slick ‘footprints’ that appear at the surface, from each swipe of their enormous tail flukes as they move forwards through the water.  Finally, they lift their tails into the air and disappear off our port side".

August 2007:  The Minch, west Scotland, research vessel

During August we carried out field work in the Minch, located off the west coast of Scotland.  The survey encountered many groups of common and white-beaked dolphins.  The results of this survey can be viewed here, and a selection of images from the project are available here.

June 16 to July 28 2007:  Angola, Southern Africa, Seismic survey vessel

Please visit our June/July Diary page for details and photographs of the highlights from a cetacean/turtle survey off Angola during June and July 2007.  This survey produced a high diversity of dolphin species, including rough-toothed dolphins, Fraser's dolphins, false killer whales, humpback whales and sperm whales.

Jun 9 2007:  Research survey vessel, Aberdeen, North-east Scotland  

Images of bottlenose dolphins encountered during a photo-identification survey off Aberdeen on 9th June:

Jun 8 2007:  Research survey vessel, Aberdeen, North-east Scotland  

Images of bottlenose dolphins encountered during a photo-identification survey off Aberdeen on 8th June:

Jun 1 2007:  Research survey vessel, Aberdeen, North-east Scotland  

Images of bottlenose dolphins encountered during a photo-identification survey off Aberdeen on 1st June:

May 25 2007:  Research survey vessel, Aberdeen, North-east Scotland  

Images of bottlenose dolphins encountered during a photo-identification survey off Aberdeen:

May 3-18 2007:  Angola, Southern Africa, Seismic survey vessel

Please visit our May Diary page for details of the highlights from a short survey off Angola during May 2007.

April 26 2007: Research survey vessel, Aberdeen, North-east Scotland  

Logbook 10:26 UTC 

"A few hundred metres ahead of the boat a sleek back and the tall, falcate dorsal fin of a dolphin emerges from the calm, grey North Sea.  The dolphin surfaces a couple more times as I am en route to the wheelhouse to note the time and position. Through the window, the dolphin looks large and robust and although I don't really get a good look at it, there is something about it's profile and sedate behaviour does not quite fit the mould of the more typical bottlenose dolphins that we often encounter here off Aberdeenshire.  We stop the boat and drift for a while but the dolphin does not reappear.  Unsure what I have just observed, I record the animal rather unsatisfactorily as 'large dolphin sp'  and am busy filling in the data sheet when the vessel suddenly slows down.  I look ahead just in time to see the slicky 'footprints' from two animals that have clearly just sounded close to the front of the boat.  Brian, our skipper, emerges from the wheelhouse and I can tell from his excitement that these are not the usual bottlenose dolphins.  I already suspected the first animal may have been a Risso's dolphin, and I consequently ask Brian about the size and colouration of the animals he just saw.  His response, 'larger and paler than bottlenoses' pretty much agrees with my suspicion and we turn the boat round and try to re-sight them.  Far ahead of us an animal is half-leaping from the water, creating large splashes.  Presumably another individual dolphin, and I estimate at least four or five animals in total.  But they are spread out in one's and two's and in typical Risso's fashion they are quite elusive, surfacing sporadically and travelling large distances on their subsurface dives.  We finally catch up with one pair, and transit parallel to them around 400 m away.  This pair are very white in colour, exhibiting lots of scarring and with very white bulbous heads.  The first animal had appeared a much more darker grey colour.  We track the 'white pair', and each individual is easily identified by their respective markings.  One adult has a large white irregular-shaped scar on its upper left flank, forward of the fin.  It's companion has a thick horizontal linear scar across the upper left side of the dorsal fin. 

The animals surface several times and then sound, reappearing some time later.  I am so busy concentrating on photographing them that I almost miss another dolphin surface a few metres off the side of the boat.  It's sharp exhalation registers with me only a few seconds later and I lower my camera in time to see it's fin disappearing beneath the water.  A pale oblong moving along subsurface informs me of the animal's location, and I focus on the ghostly shape ready to take a photo-identification 'mug-shot'.  This animal has a large nick missing from the lower trailing edge of it's fin, and should be easy to re-identify.  Again the dolphins disappear, and we travel along for several minutes without any sign of them.  Then, a fin appears a few hundred metres off our port side and we try to catch up with the animal.  It is moving more quickly, and heading slightly offshore away from the cliffs.  On one surfacing it lifts it's head quite high from the water in a head-slap, and I am able to glimpse the large white scar on its back that identifies it as one of the previous pair.  It's companion has completely disappeared from view.  I am surprised how far these dolphins are moving below the water between surfacing, and how inconspicuous they are even in this calm sea.  In light of their elusive behaviour we decide to leave them to their travels, and we turn north again to resume our bottlenose dolphin survey". 

Although this species has been reported from shore on rare occasions, this was the first record of Risso's dolphins from our research vessel in eight years of surveying this coastline and is the first time that photo-identification shots have been taken of Risso's dolphins off the Aberdeenshire coast.

April 18 2007: Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen, North-east Scotland  

Logbook 12:52 UTC 

"Bottlenose dolphins are frequent visitors to Aberdeen Harbour.  In fact, at certain times of the year they are present much more than they are absent, spending many hours daily feeding in and around the breakwaters.  The dolphins have been here every day this week, and I am currently watching at least 18 animals foraging.  There are two deformed youngsters here that are easily recognisable from shore, plus a number of adults.  Occasionally individual animals enter the navigation channel and forage around the Old South Breakwater providing closer range opportunities for photo-identification work.  However, they are still too far away to identify any but the most well-marked of individuals. One such animal is 'Trekky', an adult bottlenose with a distinctive large nick out of the top trailing edge of his fin and another nick near the bottom.  Trekky repeatedly enters the confines of the navigation channel and circles slowly around, presumably foraging for salmonids.  However, he is quick to leave when vessels approach to enter or leave the harbour.  In fact the dolphins are remarkably tolerant of the numerous traffic moving through their feeding ground, and today alone there have been tankers, a ferry, lifeboats, survey vessels, pilot boats, supply boats and fishing boats.  The dolphins largely ignore the various vessels, simply moving out of their way and returning again once they have left". 

Later that week on the 24th April the dolphins are in a boisterous post-feeding mood, and several animals repeatedly approach and bow-ride the vessels entering the harbour!

April 6 2007: Research survey vessel, Aberdeen, North-east Scotland  

Logbook 10:41 UTC 

"Dolphins!  After almost three hours of searching we see splashes and the characteristic rolls of dorsal fins ahead of our boat.  The dolphins are heading north towards us, and at speed.  The nearest fins are about 600 m off the cliffs, but more animals are passing close to the cliff and there are even more further behind the leading group.  This spread out assemblage of bottlenose dolphins is not keen on inter-acting with our boat, and we fail to get within even 100 m of an animal for more than a few seconds.  Disappointed, we make no attempt to follow but instead continue on our survey southwards. 

Ten minutes later we spot more dolphins porpoising our way.  This group appears more compact and is certainly more approachable in nature, so we turn the boat around and travel north alongside them for a while.  There are around six dolphins in the group, and they surface steadily close to the cliff edge.  There are at least three animals in this group that I recognise from our 2006 surveys.  Hubbs and Paperclip (named by the CRRU) travel closely together, accompanied by a mother and calf.  Unfortunately, this small calf shows signs of a spinal deformity, its back clearly distorted and bulging behind its dorsal fin.  This is a similar deformity to the juvenile we monitored last year (see here), and that juvenile's mother Sophie, is also travelling with this group.  The long-term prognosis for these deformed animals is unknown, but is not promising.  We photograph the group for several minutes and I watch the calf surface several times in between Hubbs and Paperclip, as if being protected by the two males.

Shortly, I become aware that several more dolphins are rushing from the south to catch up with us. And clearly visible amongst this new group is Cutter, a very recognisable dolphin with a huge chunk missing out of the front of her dorsal fin almost certainly caused by a propellor collision.  As she surfaces alongside us, a smaller paler shape appears by her side . . . a calf.  Cutter's calf stays very close to it's mother, surfacing in synchrony as if attached by glue.  We are saddened to notice that this calf too looks slightly abnormal.  There is a distinct bulge on its back to the front of the dorsal fin, and this looks like yet another spinal deformity.  Despite this, the calf is keeping up well with its boisterous mother, and they overtake our boat with ease and chase after the other dolphins.

We are thrilled to have caught up with Cutter and some other dolphins we recognise, although the spinal problems with the youngsters is definitely a worry.  This North Sea population of dolphins is geographically isolated from other bottlenose dolphins, and the frequency with which spinal deformities are occurring amongst the calves would certainly seem to be a concern for the long-term viability of the population".

February-March 2007:  Angola, Southern Africa, Seismic survey vessel

Please visit our February/March Diary page for details of the highlights and field notes from survey work carried out in Angola during early 2007, including encounters with sperm whales, dolphins and turtles.