(Newest messages at the top)

Today is transit day.  Since finishing up our work in Mississippi Canyon
yesterday evening, we've been underway at 8-9 knots, headed toward
Galveston.  At breakfast time today, we were on the continental shelf about
60 n miles south of Atchafalaya Bay.  We're on schedule for an 8 AM arrival
at the dock in Galveston tomorrow morning.  Acoustics group will today take
the new 6-phone hydrophone array off the starboard streaming winch, separate
the two sections of the array, and pack both on to their two shipping spools.
After the cruise ends in Galveston, Aaron will have the spools sent FedEx to
Scripps so he can keep the array in covered storage there.  Tom Norris today
plans to top off both of the Ecologic arrays with isopar,  and then his
group will spool both of these arrays on to the other streaming winch. Tom
feels that storing both arrays on a large-diameter winch drum, rather than
coiling the arrays off the drum in figure-8 fashion, is the better method of
storage until needed again next summer 2005.  The streaming winch holding
the arrays will then be covered with tarps to protect the arrays from the
elements, and both streaming winches will again this year be stored outside
on the dock in Galveston.  Today Bruce Mate's group will prepare the small
boats for long-term storage, as well.

Please let us know if you rec'd confirmation that the sailboat research team
departed for sea today.  We send them our best wishes for "fair breezes and
following seas".

-doug biggs sends

Weather cooperated at last, as the seas laid down more and more as the day
progressed.  We launched the R2 by 8:15 AM, and by lunchtime it was calm
enough to launch the ship's avon to allow photo-ID team to join the tag
boat.  Acoustics and visual teams had many contacts with animals today, and
the two small boats followed animals for most of the day. Some of the
animals the tag boat approached turned out to be juveniles (which the tag
boat team judged were not large enough in overall size to carry a
radio-tag), while others didn't stay on surface long enough to allow a close
approach.  But patience paid off, and Bruce tagged a good-sized animal
today, and Dan got the biopsy.

We recovered both small boats by 8 PM today, then pulled in the arrays, and
by 8:30 PM we are underway toward Galveston.  We have a 340 n mile deadhead
run, so we will be steaming all night tonite plus all day tomorrow. We
anticipate arriving back at home port early on Saturday morning.

Everyone is in good spirits.  We finally had a good day, weatherwise.  We
heard and saw lots of animals.  And we got another tag on.  And now it's
time for me to sign off and meet with the rest of the science party to
review the events of the day, log all data, and finish up our cruise report.

-doug biggs sends

Acoustics followed a group of animals last night and the day has dawned with
breeze < 13 knots.  So far there are no whitecaps, although there are still
long swells with about a 1-2 ft sea on top.  But we think we can launch
small boats, so Today's The Day that Bruce Mate will make one final try to
get tags on.  At 6:30 CDT we're at 27 57N, 89 39W (water depth 840 m).
We're preparing to launch R2.  We'll spend the day here in Mississippi
Canyon, following animals as long as we can if breeze/seastate allows.  At
sunset, we'll pull in arrays and begin our 36 h deadhead for Galveston.
Our ETA Galveston is dawn on Saturday morning 19 June.

-doug biggs sends

oops, we were at 89 45W, not 88 45W at 2:30 PM today.  Sea state prevented
us from deploying tag boat, but we'll try again tomorrow.  We're going to
follow whales acoustically tonight; one of the animals is an individual
tagged in summer 2003 (or portable RDF told us this individual's tag
transmitted to Argos at 6-7 PM tonite).
-doug sends

At 14:30 CDT, we're at 28 00N, 88 45W and hearing/seeing group of 7 or so
whales.  Breeze has dropped since this morning, but at the moment it's still
too lumpy for R2 deployment.  We're going to follow this group, to allow
Aaron to gather additional 3D acoustic data, and hope that by 17:00 or later
the sea condition may improve.
-doug biggs sends

We've received the wind/wave data from data buoys offshore that Matt Howard
sent us yesterday, to supplement the twice-daily 04:30 AM and 16:30 PM
forecasts for weather offshore that we get from the Natl Hurricane Ctr. Both
sources predict the weather should be improving offshore today, and we hope
sea state offshore may be workable for small boat by Wednesday afternoon. So
at 23:00 CDT last night (Tues 15 June) GYRE weighed anchor and departed the
hunker-down site where we've spent the last 40 hours riding out the bad
weather.  At 2:30 AM on Wednesday (16 June) we're underway SW towards the
head of Mississippi Canyon.  We're making a speed over ground of about 7
knots, and the ride is not too bad.  We'll stop 30 min to grab a small box
core at the location of DGoMB station MT-1 in water depth of 482 m at the
head of the canyon, which a TAMU grad student back in College Station has
requested we take as opportunity allows to get her a sample of the amphipod
fauna to analyze for chlorinated hydrocarbon signature.  Then we'll continue
seaward following the axis of the canyon towards the south, and deploy our
hydrophone arrays when we reach the 1000 m isobath around breakfast time
today. Bruce Mate got recent transmission locations from several whales that
put these animals recently in the SW part of Mississippi Canyon, so we'll be
listening/looking for them today and will deploy R2 as tag boat if/when sea
conditions allow.

-doug biggs sends
 

It's Tuesday morning, and we're still at anchor in lee of breeze that blew
all day yesterday out of the SSE.  But starting at dark:30 last night, big
swells began reaching us out of the SSW (210 true). Since we're not in the
lees from these, this tells me that the low pressure system must be moving
onshore.  My wife sent me an email yesterday evening "Just heard report that
the plane that Natl Hurricane Ctr sent out to check the 'depression' in the
Gulf found no sign of circular movement, so they expect it to kind of
dissipate" which sure sounds like good news for us.  We're waiting to get
Matt's summary of wind/wave data from several weather buoys offshore, before
we decide whether to head back out this morning, or wait until this
afternoon.

-doug biggs sends

It's Monday morning, and we have moved inshore from Mississippi Canyon.
We're hunkered down in the lee of the Mississippi Delta, here to ride out
the stormy weather that has developed offshore.  At breakfast time, we were
at 29 00N, 89 29W, enroute to an anchorage area in water depth of about 30
feet of water, a few miles north of here.

The weather forecast for today and tomorrow says it all:

SYNOPSIS FOR THE GULF OF MEXICO
(forecast time: 16:30 PM CDT SUN JUN 13 2004)

SYNOPSIS:  BROAD ILL-DEFINED LOW PRESSURE LOCATED IN THE CENTRAL GULF OF
MEXICO WILL MOVE SLOWLY NORTH.  IT IS POSSIBLE A TROPICAL CYCLONE (read that
Tropical Depression, eh?) WILL DEVELOP.  HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE WILL THEN
DEVELOP ALONG 25N BEHIND THE LOW PRESSURE TUESDAY, AND MOVE NORTH TO THE
NORTH GULF WEDNESDAY, THEN CHANGE LITTLE THURSDAY AND FRIDAY.

Winds offshore in Mississippi Canyon, where we were yesterday, are forecast
to breeze to 20 knots today, and if these blow for 6 hrs or more it will
bring seas there to 6-8 feet today.  Offshore conditions were forecast to be
no better either east of Mississippi Canyon, or west of there, so we've done
the obvious and run north to shelter in the lee of the delta.  If conditions
allow, we'll head back to Mississippi Canyon tonite or tomorrow morning, and
then try again to find whales (and get tags on them) later on Tuesday and/or
on Wednesday.

-doug biggs sends
 

We deadheaded through the night of 12-13 June to arrive back in deepwater
central part of Mississippi Canyon by 7 AM local time this morning. This is
the area where we had tagged 5 of the 7 whales so far this year. Both
hydrophones were deployed by 06:30 and we started to listen for whales.
Visual team went on watch by 07:00 to look for animals.  The breeze at
breakfast time was less than 10 knots and seas were less than 2 feet, so we
deployed R2 just after breakfast to help listen for whales (by dipping the
directional hydrophone) and to tag, if conditions allowed.  But within an
hour a very large rain squall developed and blew through, which brought the
wind to 25 kts and seas up to 4-5' swells, so R2 was recalled.

Weather for the rest of today has been breezy (wind average 15-17 knots),
and seas have remained up at 3-4 feet.  We're still pulling both hydrophone
arrays as we cover the area we have had the greatest success in finding
whales this cruise, but we've had few acoustic contacts.  Visuals went off
and back on again on flying bridge as local squalls passed, but they finally
called it a day a little before dinner time.  Weather forecast is for wind
to gust 15-20 knots and seas to build to 5-7 feet tonight and tomorrow, so
we'll likely break off this acoustic survey when the wind rises, and head
north to seek shelter close off SW Pass area of the Mississippi River delta.
We expect that no survey work will be possible on Monday, but we're hoping
that conditions or forecasts will improve sufficiently by Monday night to
allow us to get back here on Tuesday-Wednesday, and make one more attempt to
find and tag animals.  We're about a 30 hour run at a speed of 8 knots from
Galveston, and longer if the seas are up, so we're expecting we may have to
use Thursday as well as Friday as deadhead transit days.

So, our remaining shot at tagging is likely going to be Tuesday-Wednesday.
Until then, we expect we'll have some weather to deal with.

-doug biggs sends

We transited Friday night from the west side of Mississippi Canyon to an
area in 800-1000m water depth close off the mouth of the Mississippi River
on the east side of the Canyon, where in previous summers we've always found
whales.  But this year there were no whales heard/seen there.  So we
continued to survey east, eventually covering the 800-1000m water depth part
of the middle slope between this near-delta location (near 89W longitude)
all the way to near TLP Ram-Powell (near 88W longitude). Much to our
astonishment, we heard/saw no animals along this entire stretch of middle
slope.  Oceanographic conditions show nothing out of the ordinary (in fact,
most of the slope was cyclonic, or upwelling in character) and we saw
several other types of marine mammals (Rizzo's dolphins, spinner dolphins,
pantropical spotted dolphins) as well as a marlin, but no sperm whales.

So, while the good weather is expected to hold through Sunday 13 June, we
deadheaded from 89W back to the deepwater central part of Mississippi
Canyon, to return to the "source" of animals we tagged on 10 June.  At 6:15
on Sunday morning 13 June we're at 28 21N, 89 20W and in a little while
we'll slow down and deploy arrays.  We're expecting to find animals here,
just 3 days after we previously worked this deep central part of the canyon,
and we dearly want to get another 5 or so tags on, in order to have tagged a
dozen animals in the Mississippi Canyon region.  We'll see . . . . I'll type
to you again early Monday morning to report our progress for Sunday 13 June.

-doug biggs sends

The good weather we had yesterday held and we had good weather again today.
We moved some 20 miles WSW last night to arrive at the deep western side of
Mississippi Canyon this morning.  We had heard whales here two weeks ago (29
May), so we were interested to find out whether whales were still in this
area.  Turns out they were.  Acoustics heard and then visual team saw
several animals ahead, and we deployed small boats shortly after breakfast
this morning.  The animals turned out to be more widely dispersed than they
had been yesterday, and on several approaches to animals the tag team judged
the whales were too small to tag.  On other approaches, the animals shallow
dived or otherwise avoided the approaching tag boat.  The tag team also had
to swap out boats mid-afternoon today, when they noticed there were cracked
welds in the bow pulpit support on the OSU boat.  They outfitted the R2 with
bow pulpit and went back out, and the OSU boat also went back out (without
bow pulpit) as photo-ID boat.   No animals were tagged today.  We'll try
again tomorrow, most likely back in the central part of Mississippi Canyon
again where we had tagging success on 10 June.

-doug biggs sends

We finally got a weather break today along the east side of Mississippi
Canyon and, despite 3-4'swells early on, we tagged 4 whales in 11 hours out
in the RHIB. We are all toast (sun, salt, and wind). We have some good tag
photos and a few ID photos, but these whales were not often lifting their
flukes.

One special highlight today was a curious (very small) calf that came over
and investigated the RHIB within 6" while we were slowly underway. This calf
was less than 3m, which is shocking as the reported birth size is usually
quoted as 4m. We believe we may have tagged its mother, but there were
several whales present so the relationship is not assured. Regretably, we
did not get any biopsies today. Two of the taggings were accomplished at the
very last moment of opportunity, which left Dan Engelhaupt no target to
sample. Another whale swam away with both a tag and his sampling dart
attached and we did not get the latter back. We re-encountered many of the
same whales during the course of the day and will work in another area
tomorrow farther to the west, but still in the Canyon area.

Bruce Mate

Just a quick email to say both small boats were deployed a little after
breakfast this morning.  Breeze has dropped and seas are workable.
Visual/acoustic teams are seeing/hearing animals.  We're still in
Mississippi Canyon area, since we believe this is best spot to concentrate
our tagging effort on the good weather days, because we've been
seeing/hearing animals here for the past 5 days.
-doug sends

The weather here today was still too bad to launch boats (large mixed swells
and winds up to 15 kts most of the day). We tried to launch before 09:00, but
the swells made it impossible to control the RHIB when it was in the air.
It remained too dangerous throughout the day with weather not as good as
predicted for the third day in a row. We considered tagging from R2, but
it's elevated bow platform is not sturdy enough in these seas.

However, we have been with many whales all day and heard two of the 3
whales we tagged with the ADF, when their transmission cycle came on from
1800-1900 this evening. About 19:30 we passed two groups of sperm whales within
40-150m of the starboard side of the ship. Everyone got a good view. The
first group was a calf, subadult, a medium sized whale and one of the
bigger whales we have seen out here ever. They surfaced between the arrays about
100m behind the Gyre once we had passed them. In the acoustics area, we
heard (and recorded) clicks, codas and creeks with the gain turned all the
way down as these whales socialized and then apparently investigated the
arrays acoustically.

Aaron Thode finished developing code today, which allows him to give us
range as well as bearing from the acoustic arrays, which will be a big
asset once we get out onto the water to resume tagging. Forecasts are for similar
predictions of good weather (which is better weather than we have had)
through Sunday, but we are hoping it will be as predicted, instead of what
we have experienced.

Bruce

  Subject:     Cruise report for 6-8-04
   Date:        Wed, 09 Jun 2004 01:14:38 -0500

A blustery day today. We woke up to heavy swells this morning with the ship
rocking and rolling. By shortly after breakfast, the wind also came up and
we had winds of 17 knots nearly all day, which made it impossible to launch
boats for tagging. We obtained locations last night from two of the
2003-tagged whales, which were within 9 miles of each other. Locations for
one of them had not moved more than three miles since the previous location
3 days earlier. With this in mind, we made sure we were in that area at the
tag's scheduled transmit time from 15:00 - 1600 this afternoon. Despite the
rough seas, we wanted to see if we could re-locate these tagged whales with
an automatic direction finder (ADF), which we had brought for that purpose.
One of our principle objectives this year is to re-locate previously tagsged
whales, which are still running (five currently), and re-tag them to get
information on the year-to-year variability in sperm whale movements. When
we tag "new" whales and see something "different" in their movements, we
never know whether or not these changes are due to differences between
individuals or differences between years. Re-tagging is the best way to get
at this important information.

Usually the ADF can pick up signals out to about 8-10 miles from the height
of the flying bridge in fair weather. This is the "line of sight" distance,
which is the limit for VHF and UHF transmitter frequencies, regardless of
power. With the weather still awful this afternoon, we expected a reduced
ability to acquire signals to a range of 2-4 miles. Amazingly, we picked up
two whales at the same time during the scheduled transmission period in the
target area! Hurray!!!! We had one on each side of the ship initially: 330*
(forward-port side) and 100-120* (starboard beam). While we could not get
the receiver to display the ID codes, each transmitter displayed the
characteristic 10-second repetition rate for consecutive transmissions,
affirming that they were ours (we have a special exemption from Service
Argos to transmit this frequently, as most Argos transmitters have a
60-second or more transmission interval).

We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening trying to see these
tagged whales, even though we could not get off the ship to re-tag them. The
reason for this intense interest is because one of them had its tag exposed
4" when we tagged it and we are very interested to know whether that is
still the case or if the tag is now flush, like the other 2002-2003 tags we
have seen so far on this trip.

By 6:00pm the winds had dropped to 13 knots so most of the white caps were
gone, but the swell was still too strong to send the tagging team out. We
plan to be at this spot again tomorrow at day break in the hopes that calmer
seas will allow us to get out to see (if not tag) these and other whales in
this area.

The weather has been very unfavorable for us so far. We have had just two
days of really good weather so far on this cruise. The big swells here have
not been predicted (5' now, despite a 1-2' prediction, which extends through
Thursday. Especially with such bad weather, we all appreciate having 5
whales still out there identifying their whereabouts (and of course their
compatriates at the same time). This has been a real blessing this year. In
previous years, we have not had large numbers of whales in Mississippi
Canyon during the S-tag cruise. That is where most of our tagged whales are
and where most of the acoustic and visual sighting success has been as well.
We saw/heard very little in the eastern areas we searched. It probably is
not a coincidence that none of the tagged whales have been over there for
some time.

Bruce Mate

We're still in the Mississippi Canyon area, following whales again today.
During the night we moved about 20 miles ENE from where we ended up late
yesterday, and by dawn we had come on what is probably a different group
of animals from those we were with yesterday.  Weather is a lot like it was
yesterday morning; it's breezy with 1-2 ft confused sea running atop a
big swell.  So we haven't yet deployed small boats but we'll do so if
conditions improve by afternoon.  Since Bruce Mate expects to get transmissions from
tagged animal(s) at 10:30 CDT today, we'll like drive to where the tagged
animal(s) is in hopes of seas calming and being able to re-tag a 2003
animal with radio tag that will permit collection of another year of location
data before batteries fail on the 2003 tags.
-doug biggs sends

Seas today started out quite rough with a mixed swell and whitecaps, not at
all like yesterday. When the breeze dropped and swells came down some about
mid-day, the boats were launched for 7 hours of small boat work.  The tag
boat headed towards several animals but was unable to get within tagging
distance because of the heavy swells.  We believe the animals hear or see
the tag boat behind them as the boat slaps, they slip down or fluke up to
dive.  Nevertheless, the tag boat got close enough to see that one of the
animals carried a 2003 tag.  This animal "looked great", said Bruce Mate.
Another animal seen today had also been previously tagged, although it no
longer had the tag attached.  This animal also "looked great".  A third
animal the tag boat approached turned out to be the 2nd animal that they
tagged yesterday, but that Dan Engelhaupt had been unable to biopsy
yesterday.  Dan was successful today so he now has biopsies from all 3
animals that were tagged yesterday.  How about that for good fortune!!
Despite the lumpy seas, we had visual and acoustic contacts with animals
throughout the day today.  Visuals judge they saw 10-15 animals today, and
our plan is to move to a different part of Mississippi Canyon tonight and
see where/when we hear/see animals there tomorrow.  If seas allow, we'll
deploy tag boat and photo-ID boat and see what we can accomplish in this new
work area.

-doug biggs sends

Morning dawned a bit more blustery and choppy than predicted by the weather
forecast, but after the breeze and seas dropped in early afternoon, we
deployed both small boats to try to tag some of the whales that we've been
hearing/seeing today.  We're still in the Mississippi Canyon area and we're
hoping for 6 hours or so of good sea conditions this afternoon in which
Bruce will approach and try to tag animals.  We've received update info from
Keith Mullin aboard NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter to tell us they are seeing
whales in deepwater to the south and southeast of our work area in
Mississippi Canyon, and we're recording the locations of these sightings for
if/when Bruce is able to tag 10-15 whales here off the Mississippi River and
we can get out into deepwater next week.

Thank you Matt, for sending us the SSH update.  We'll keep and eye out for
warm filament that seems to be forming on the NW side of Titanic Eddy.

-doug biggs sends

Today was the day we've been waiting for, both for whales and for weather.
Bruce Mate tagged 3 animals today as his tag boats followed whales in
Mississippi Canyon.  In the canyon here there is mixing of green water and
blue water, because of the clockwise entrainment of shelf water by the warm
slope eddy (WSE) located just to the south. In this WSE, 15C depths reach
235 m, i.e. not deep enough (yet) to indicate any incoming filaments of
Titanic Eddy.  We saw/heard whales both in green and blue water.  Weather today
was ideal (no breeze, flat seas) and similar conditions are forecast for
tomorrow, and possibly continuing into Tuesday. Bruce says that the last
animal that the tag boat followed today was the second animal he tagged this
morning, so this indicates the animals are staying in the area after they
are tagged.  Dan E got biopsy samples from 2 of the 3 animals that were
tagged today, and the photographers in other boat got several good fluke-out
photos.

Acoustics heard whales about 2 AM and they were able to follow these animals
till dawn, when visual observers picked them up.  Both small boats were
deployed by 8:30 AM and by 9:30 AM Bruce had put on the 1st tag of the
cruise.  Bruce or I will send a summary report for today's activities
sometime this evening.

-doug biggs sends

Well, what started out as pleasant weather and lotsa whales this morning
deteriorated rapidly, as rain squalls (with lightning) came and went, and
the wind and seas rose and then only very slowly relaxed.  We launched both
small boats after the initial squalls had passed and the boats stayed out
for about 3 hours this morning, but then Bruce et al gave up as the boats
continued to be slammed by waves.  Unhappily, neither of the boats were able
to get close enough during this 3 hr period to even see, let alone put a tag
on a whale.  About lunchtime, we lost visual contact with this group of
whales when the flying bridge observers had to vacate their watch station
during another rain & lightning storm, and eventually we lost them
acoustically as well during some maneuvering to avoid the possibility of
entangling our hydrophone arrays in long-lines being set around us by
long-line fishermen.  Sigh.  So, in mid afternoon we elected to leave the
area and resume our survey from NE to SW along the 1000 m isobath, heading
ultimately toward Mississippi Canyon and the areas where 4 animals have
transmitted location info yesterday and today.
About dinnetime today, we crossed a sharp salinity front from blue into
green-brown water; lots of water hyacinths marked the off-margin convergence
zone.

I'll be sure let ya'll know when we get tag(s)on to animal(s); until then,
it's look/listen time again.  By late afternoon, the breeze has died, and
the seas have relaxed down to a low swell; whitecaps are gone.  So, when we
see animals tomorrow, we ought to be able to deploy tag boats.

I'm waiting to see what tomorrow brings . . . .

-doug biggs sends

We reached 1000 m isobath south of Gulfport a little before midnite last
night, and acoustics heard a whale as we worked SW towards Miss Canyon.  At
6:45 AM this morning we were seeing and hearing a group of about 5 animals.
Seas are almost calm this morning, and our local weather forecast is good
although we've been running in/out of some local rain squalls.  We're
preparing to launch both small boats now, to follow and attempt to tag one
or more of this group of animals.  At 8 AM we're at 28 52N, 88 34W.

-doug biggs sends

We did a CTD as we passed through the Mississippi River plume over the outer
shelf to find the high chlorophyll freshwater extends about 14 m deep, and
we reached the 1000 m isobath south of Gulfport a little before midnite 4-5
June and deployed our two arrays.  We're listening for whales as we work out
way SW along the middle slope towards Mississippi Canyon.  At 1 AM CDT we're
at 29 00N, 88 08W.  We're logging underway hydrographic data and weather is
great (light breeze, low seas).  Bruce Mate expects to get update positions
on whales radio-tagged last summer, as these animals which transmit to
satellite every 3 days are expected to transmit again today.
-doug biggs sends

We pulled away from the Gulfport pier just after 8:00 AM.  The repaired OSU boat,
which was bay tested yesterday and again this morning, was brought aboard
using ship's jib crane and stowed in its trailer on the back deck.

At 08:20 CDT we're headed down the channel to sea.  It's a lovely morning,
with only a gentle breeze, mild air temp, and full sunny.  Hope this weather
is a harbinger of things to come!

-doug biggs sends

Repairs to OSU RHIB were succcessfully completed mid-afternoon on Thurs 3
June.  Follow-on 4 PM harbor tests of the repaired small boat volvo inboard
diesel engine were "go".  Ship also also re-provisioned some groceries on
Thursday. However, Thurs brought an unplanned change of crew.
The offshore forecast for Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon is for
light breeze (< 10 knots) and lower seas (2 ft or less), so the entire
science party is quite anxious to get back out for Leg Two.
Our next stop will the 1000 m isobath, 100 miles due south of here, from
where I hope I'll be typing to you all on Saturday morning.  Once we reach
the 1000 isobath on the slope of the north central GOM, we'll deploy both
acoustic arays and then listen/watch for whales. We've had a detailed reply
back from email sent to NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter, from Keith Mullin to tell
us when/where that NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter survey that started 26 June has
seen whales in the last two weeks in the north central GOM.

-doug biggs sends

We docked at Gulfport MS at 8:30 AM this morning, as planned, just as a rain
squall hit the port.  The rain came down in sheets, as lightning cracked
overhead.  Urgh!  But by 9:15 AM the squall was passing, and by 9:30 AM the
OSU boat had been offloaded on to a trailer and taken away for engine repair
work by the small boat repair mechanics that we've contracted here in
Gulfport.  By early afternoon, the mechanics working on repairing the engine
told us that if they can locate all the necessary parts here in
Gulfport/Pascagoula, the repair should be completed by noon tomorrow.

These two days in Gulfport will, we hope, allow the necessary time for the
breeze and seas offshore to drop.  If we are able to head back out tomorrow
afternoon, then we're hoping for good tag-boat weather for
Friday-Saturday-Sunday.

-doug biggs sends

Subject:  SWSS S-tag04 cruise: supplemental for 1 June
   Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 20:23:37 -0500

After additional inspection of the engine condition of RHIB-1 yesterday and
today, it's been determined that the existing engine can likely be repaired.
We've arranged with a Gulfport marine mechanic to do the repairs tomorrow 2
June, so at 4 PM local time today we recovered our hydrophone arrays and are
now (6 PM) underway for Gulfport.  We should arrive there about 8:30 AM
local time tomorrow 2 June, and we hope the repairs can be completed same
day.

We have now completed our survey work along the eastern side of DeSoto
Canyon, which encountered whales in only two locations.  We are unlikely to
return here but will instead focus our effort on the continental slope
between the western side of DeSoto Canyon and Mississippi Canyon, when we
depart Gulfport for the remaining period of the cruise.

After our port call in Gulfport, the long-range weather forecast is for
lighter breezes and lower seas.  We certainly hope this will be the case;
we're tired of 15 knot breezes and 4 foot seas!

-doug biggs sends

Subject: SWSS S-tag04 report for Tuesday morning 1 June
   Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 07:26:49 -0500

Hello Everyone,
 We're this morning surveying SE to NW in deepwater, generally following
the 2000 m isobath in deepwater on the eastern side of DeSoto Canyon.  We're
today in the region of deepwater cyclonic circulation (last XBT showed 15C
depth of 184 m) and watching/listening for animals.  We've had no contacts
wth animals, though, since the group of 3 whales we heard and saw yesterday,
as we surveyed about 30 miles to the east of our track today, when we
followed the 1000 m isobath from NW to SE from 29N to 28N along this east
side of DeSoto Canyon.  Our survey track yesterday took us through a warm,
salty surface filament that stretches north from Eddy Titanic on the eastern
side of the deepwater cyclone.  This warm filament is visible in the
SSH-on-SST overlay for 20 May that Matt Howard brought to the
ship before we sailed.

Seas today are a bit lower but also more confused than yesterday.  Some
whitecaps are present.  We hope the breeze doesn't build as the day
progresses. At our survey speed of 5 knots, if we don't encounter animals
then we'll reach the 1000 m isobath just west of the head of DeSoto Canyon
sometime about dusk today, to put us back where we started 2 days ago.  Then
our plan is to work WSW along the west side of the Canyon, generally
following the 1000 m isobath, so we can survey the region that we passed by
when we transited from Miss Canyon to the head of DeSoto Canyon to escape
the blustery weather in the north central Gulf off the River, a few days ago.

-doug biggs sends

Subject:  31 May SWSS S-tag04: now tracking whales on east side of DeSoto Canyon
   Date:   Mon, 31 May 2004 14:42:29 -0500

About mid-morning, acoustics team started hearing whales as we continued
heading SSE along the east side of DeSoto Canyon.  Aaron says at the moment
(11 AM local time, CDT), he's hearing up to 3 animals, and he's been using
both arrays to record their clicking noises during a series of dive cycles.
Seas and swells are still too high to deploy the small boat, but perhaps by
late afternoon or early evening .   We're hearing the whales in water
depth of 700-800 m, near 28 35N, 86 54W.  Visual team saw one animal
come up and breach, twice.  Dan L got a telephoto of this animal as if fluked
up to dive.  However, RHIB boats work better for photo-ID, since they are a
lot more maneuverable than Gyre.

-doug biggs sends

Subject: SWSS S-tag04 report for Mon 31 May
   Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 08:24:00 -0500

This morning we're working our way SE along the eastern side of DeSoto
Canyon.  Acoustics watch heard a whale last night and with both hydrophone
arrays in the water, they tracked it through 2 dive cycles.  But we've had
no acoustic contact with any whales since then.  At 7:45 CDT we're at 28
39N, 87 01W.  There has been no substantial change in breeze or sea state
since yesterday, and though it's still early in the day, if the SE breeze of
15 knots or so continues again through today we don't expect to be able to
deploy small boat today.  So, we'll continue to look/listen and continue to
document where/when we come across animals.  When later today we reach the
southernmost point of our survey later (we're planning to drive south to
about 28.1N, 87.0W), we'll turn NW and survey across the deepwater (water
depths 2-3 km), cyclonic circulation in DeSoto Canyon, as we head back on
margin toward the 1000 m isobath on the west side of the Canyon.

Long-range weather forecast is predicting lighter breezes for tomorrow
through Thursday, by which time we're planning to be back on the 1000 m
isobath on the western side of the DeSoto Canyon and anxious for the
opportunity to begin small boat ops!

-doug biggs sends

Subject: SWSS S-tag04 cruise supplemental for 30 May
   Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 19:42:01 -0500

Weather was not cooperative today; SE breeze was steady at > 15 knots all
day, so seas did not lay down.  Small boat ops weren't possible today.  So,we
completed our west-to-east hydrographic survey along the 1000
m isobath by just after lunchtime today, and then acousics team swapped out
Ecologic arrays.  Both phones in the replacement array are working fine, and
the new 6-phone array is working fine, too.  Now that we're here at the head
of DeSoto Canyon, we've been towing both arrays and listening for animals.
So far (as of 7:45 PM Sunday nite 30 May), no acoustic contacts.  Our
plan for tomorrow (if weather is still bad) is to tow arrays and listen
for contacts along the east side of the canyon.  By Tuesday, the weather
should be better and may allow small boat ops again.

-doug biggs sends

Subject: SWSS S-tag04 cruise report for Sunday morning 30 May
   Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 08:45:27 -0500

Yesterday afternoon, after we rec'd latest weather forecast, we decided we
might be better off to pick up and head NE to the head of DeSoto Canyon
instead of staying in Mississippi Canyon. We've documented that there are
many whales in Mississippi Canyon area, but it's forecast to be too rough in
north Central Gulf, until at least Tuesday, to allow us to deploy tag boat.
Weather is forecast to be better (lower breeze, and so lower sea state, we
hope) to the east than it is in the north central Gulf.  So, we pulled in
the array a little after 20:00 CDT and ran NE along the 1000 m isobath all
night.  At 8:30 CDT we are underway at 29 01N, 88 07W.  Bridge said we
passed close to NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter about dawn this morning; NOAA marine
mammal researchers are also surveying for whales in this area of the NE
Gulf, though when we finish our transit today we will end up 50 n miles or so
to the NE of where Gunter is working today.

Visual observers aboard Gyre are using hand-held binoculars this morning (on
our heading to the NE, we're in the troughs of a 3-4 foot swell out that's
still coming out of the SE, so we're rolling too much to allow BigEye
binocular use).  We'll deploy both arrays when we reach the head of DeSoto
Canyon, and begin to look/listen for whales there.  As we transited last
night and continuing today, we're dropping XBTs every 10 n miles, and we're
also running both ADCPs and logging underway T, S & CHL fluorescence.  All
is going well with hydrographic characterization, but we sure wish sea
conditions will improve enough today or tomorrow to allow us to do small
boat work.
-doug biggs send

Subject: SWSS S-tag04 cruise supplemental report for Sat 29 May
  Date:  Sat, 29 May 2004 18:40:23 -0500

Tag boat returned to Gyre about noon today.  Over the course of the morning,
the breeze had increased to 15 knots steady, and the seas came up from 2-3
feet to 4 feet.  This height of sea will prevent any further small boat tag
operations for today.  Several whales were approached this morning, but
because of the lumpy sea state the tag crew in RHIB-2 were unable to close
to within an adequate distance to tag.  We're hoping for better weather
tomorrow, although the long-range weather forecast is for 10-15 knot winds
and 2-4 foot seas for today through Tues 1 June. Wind speed at 4 PM
CDT this afternoon is now up to 19 knots.  It's sunny, and not too hot, but
that level of breeze is not going to allow the seas to drop anytime soon.

Since we're weathered out from small-boat operations today, we are using
today and tomorrow to do a fine-scale survey of the Mississippi Canyon area
to see where we see and hear whales, in relation to the bathymetry and
salinity/CHL fronts that mark the periphery of the WSE clockwise circulation
feature here.  We're towing the 6-phone acoustic array and visual observers
are doing their best to look through the BigEyes on a rolling ship.
Everyone was surprised when a whale was spotted within 300m of the bow this
afternoon, and even more surprised when the visual observers found that it
had a radio-tag.  As it crossed the bow and before it fluked up to dive, Dan
L got a digital photograph of the dorsal hump area.  Based on the tag
position to the left of the midline, and from the color of the tag antenna,
we'll try to identify which animal this might be.  Because the tag antenna
looked to be solid yellow in color (it did not appear to be bi-colored, as
were those tags put on animals in summer 2003), Bruce Mate thinks perhaps
this might be animal that he radio-tagged two years ago, in summer 2002.
I'll send more news about this animal to follow, if Bruce can get a more
specific identification from the data we have with us at sea.  Despite the
4-foot sea conditions, we have determined that there are a number of whales
in the Mississippi Canyon area, and among this population are 4 individuals
whose radio-tags are still transmitting.  We should have recent
transmissions from these 4 individuals tonight and tomorrow, so we will be
watching to see where they've moved since their last transmissions 3 days
ago.

The acoustics team has decided to swap out the 2-phone Ecologic array which
they've been using,  and which has been having intermittent drop-out signal
from one of its two hydrophones.  The other 2-phone Ecologic array is being
readied and Tom and Aaron will likely deploy this replacement array later
today or tomorrow, to allow them to use it in tandem with the new 6-phone
array.

So, we're hoping the breeze (and the sea state) will drop sometime soon, and
allow us to get back out in the small boats, and get some tags on!!

-doug biggs sends

Subject: SWSS S-tag04 report for Sat 29 May
   Date:  Sat, 29 May 2004 09:30:56 -0500

Yesterday 28 May, visual and acoustic teams put us on whales in Mississippi
Canyon.  We deployed both small boats by 9 AM CDT, but the whales were
widely scattered and they did not stay on surface for especially long times.
Because of this, no whales were tagged, but Bruce got close enough in RHIB-1
to see that one of the whales he approached carried a 2003-tag.  The other
small boat (RHIB-2) approached and photographed a sperm whale calf.  From
previous summers of research by us and others, we know that the calf, which
was about 5 meters in overall length, typically remains at the surface while
the mother sperm whale dives down to feed.  The RHIB-2 photographers
reported this calf was "playing" with a floating piece of wood, and from
time to time it turned on its side and raised a pectoral flipper into the
air.  Dan L got some pix of both behaviors before they left this little guy.

As the afternoon progressed, the breeze dropped and seas calmed and some of
the animals at the surface moved closer together.  This would have been the
ideal time to try to get in close to the animals to put tag(s) on, but
RHIB-1 developed an engine/transmission problem and had to break off and
return to the ship.

Today 29 May, we're still in the Mississippi Canyon area.  Acoustics team
kept us on animals during the night, and this morning they and visual team
are tracking these animals.  Bruce has outfitted RHIB-2 with a bow platform
that will give him a forward and elevated vantage point from which to
approach animals, and he is this morning getting ready to deploy RHIB-2 as
the tag-boat.  It's breezy (10-15 knots again) and seas have some whitecaps,
so conditions for small boat work are not ideal, but Bruce intends to deploy
RHIB-2, try to approach animals, and get one or more tag(s) on today.  If he
is successful, I'll send a follow-up email later today or this evening.

Oceanographic habitat here in Mississippi Canyon is mostly high salinity
"blue" water, but during our survey yesterday we documented that just to the
east of our work area is a plume of low salinity green water that is being
entrained and wrapped clockwise and off margin by the eastern edge of the
WSE located 91-89W.  We continue to measure underway salinity, temperature,
and CHL fluorescence today to document our approaches to this frontal zone,
and we're also running ADCPs and dropping XBTs to give subsurface detail.
-doug biggs sends

Subject: SWSS S-tag04 cruise report for Fri 28 May: "There Be Whales Here"!
   Date:  Fri, 28 May 2004 07:47:14 -0500

Good morning from Mississipi Canyon!  Latest positions of several of the
whales that were radio-tagged in 2003 (from S-tag transmissions to System
Argos yesterday) put these animals in Mississippi Canyon area, and Gyre
reached this area late yesterday.  It was after dusk when we arrived, so our
visual team did not get to see any of the animals yesterday, but our
acoustics team have been hearing whales as we surveyed the deeper part of
the canyon area since yesterday evening.

Acoustics tracked a group of animals during the night, and our plan today is
to deploy the small boats and try to get some radio tags out.  Weather today
is the best we've had so far, with breeze < 10 knots and seas < 3 feet.  So
the away teams who will be going out in the small boats are in good spirits!

Our survey along the 1000 m isobath yesterday gave us a fine-scale look at
the northern part of the interior as well as the western periphery of the
warm slope eddy (WSE) that is centered south of Mississippi Canyon.  From
XBTs we dropped every 10 n miles along track yesterday, we can demonstrate
that 15C depths in the interior reach as deep as 300 m, even though our CTD
cast in the interior yesterday found no evidence of Subtropical Underwater.
In strong contrast, in a recently-formed Loop Current Eddy (like Titanic
Eddy which is still located in deepwater farther to the SE of our work area
here in Mississippi Canyon), the 15C depths should be > 400 m and subsurface
salinity should exceed 36.8 psu.

All of us out here wish all of you ashore a safe and happy Memorial
Day holiday!
-doug biggs sends

Subject: SWSS S-tag04 cruise report supplemental for 27 May: yippee, our 1st whale sighting
   Date:  Thu, 27 May 2004 13:31:11 -0500

Around lunchtime today, just after finishing a CTD cast in the warm slope
eddy SE of Miss Canyon, the Visual Observers on BigEye watch saw the first
sperm whale of the trip.  We've deployed the hydrophones now and will
look/listen to see whether there are others in the area.
-doug biggs sends

Subject: R/V Gyre S-tag04 cruise rpt for 27 May
   Date:  Thu, 27 May 2004 09:25:47 -0500

We're continuing to survey east following the 1000 m isobath.  At 08:45 CDT
we were at 27 40.8N and 90 44.5W.  Early this morning, we crossed into the
western part of the warm slope eddy that is visible between 91W and 89W in
the SSH altimetry map we had brought along with us. ADCP confirms we've
entered this clock-wise rotating feature, showing that at western perimeter we
had surface currents running about 1 knot from SE to NW.  Water color went
from blue-green at western part of eddy to deep blue in interior.  Acoustics has
last night and this morning been hearing the industry seismic survey that we
know is operating over the continental slope in this Green Canyon lease area.
We're still towing the new 6-phone array, which is working well and which
Aaron Thode now has calibrated. The Ecologic array also works well, though
at higher tow speeds (greater than 5 knots) acoustics reports loss of signal from
one of the two hydrophones.  Acoustics has not heard any sperm whale sounds,
though, nor have visual observers seen any animals.  Sea state conditions could
be better:  It's still breezy with wind 10-15 knots out of SSE, with whitecaps.
We hope that breeze may drop by mid afternoon, as it did yesterday afternoon,
so we lose some of the whitecaps and allow visual observers to look out to
greater distance from the vessel.

We remain in good spirits, and hope soon to hear/see whales.  Later today or
this evening, we should be coming up on general region where animals that
were radio-tagged last summer 2003 have been transmitting.  Bruce Mate tells
us that he got Argos positions from 4 of 6 animals this week, so we'll do a
fine-scale search in this area of recent radio-tag transmissions later this
week.

I'll update again later today should we encounter any whales today.
-doug biggs sends

Subject: Gyre 04G05 report for 26 May supplemental
   Date:  Wed, 26 May 2004 21:52:13 -0500

The 2-phone Ecologic array was recovered in good working condition late
morning today and Tom and Aaron then deployed the new 6-phone array.  We've
been towing that new6-phone array all day, at various ship speeds to check
its performance.  No sperm whales were heard or seen today, though we
certainly listened (and looked) hard today.  Seas are still whitecapped,
with forecast of 10-15 knot breezes tomorrow and Friday (sigh).  We're
continuing to head west-to-east following the 1000 m isobath and at 21:00
CDT Wednesday night we were at 27 33N, 91 25W.  We're dropping XBTs every 10
nautical miles along track, as well as logging the full suite of other
underway environmental data.
-doug biggs sends

Subject: R/V Gyre S-tag04 report for 26 May
   Date:  Wed, 26 May 2004 10:39:24 -0500

At 08:48 CDT this morning, we're surveying east along the 1000 m isobath,
just passing 27 27.3N, 92 28.7W.  We're towing one hydrophone array
(Ecologic) which was deployed last night, and we plan to deploy the second
hydrophone array (the new one) later today.  Acoustics team are doing 3-hour
watch rotations, and last night they heard some seismic survey sounds
although they have not heard sperm whales, yet.  Acoustics is this morning
trouble-shooting a series of reception problems with the Ecologic array,
which we hope will be resolved shortly.  All six hydrophones in the new
array passed on-deck tap testing, and Aaron Thode has got it in place on
winch and connected up with deck cable.  So we'll try to get it in the water
shortly.  The Visual observers are on watch, although breeze is 10-15 knots
from SE and seas have some whitecaps.  We're dropping XBTs as we go to
profile temperature down to 760 m, and we did a CTD yesterday before
deploying the array.  GDAS underway logging of temperature + salinity +
chlorophyll fluorescence continues, and both ADCPs are logging data.  The
ADCP record shows an alternating record of on-margin and off-margin flow
between 93W and 92 30W, in good general agreement with the SSH map of 21 May.
We're still hoping the breeze will drop enough to allow small boat
deployment if/when we encounter whales today.  Everyone has gotten their
"sea legs", and we're falling in to the routine of survey.
-doug biggs sends

Subject: R/V Gyre report for Tues 25 May
   Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 10:38:13 -0500

Hello from the bounding main!  SWSS S-tag04 cruise 04G05 is underway.  We
finished pre-cruise preparations yesterday 24 May as planned, and sailed for
sea at 22:45 CDT last night.  Once clear of the jetties we headed SSE and
today are transiting the continental shelf toward our work area along the
1000 m curve.  Our deepwater way point is 27.4N, 93W. We've slowed to a
speed of 6.5 knots to allow for a better ride, since today the breeze is
10-15 knots and seas are running 4-6 feet.  There are too many whitecaps for
any visual obs today, and we won't deploy the hydrophone array(s) until we
get to deep water late today or tonight.  So our science activity for the
day is to complete the deck cable addition to the new hydrophone array that
Aaron Thode will be using, and get it tested and ready to use.  Both ADCPs
are on and logging data, and the GDAS system is logging temperature,
salinity, and chlorophyll fluorescence as we transit the continental shelf.

At 09:43 CDT we're over the mid shelf, passing 28 24.8N, 94 00.4W.  Our
spirits are high, and we're hoping for lighter breezes tomorrow, and lower
seas.

-doug biggs sends