Day 6 - "On-Effort" and Collecting Data

We started our survey! After an uneventful overnight and morning transit to the area of our survey, we finally began our data collection. Prior to beginning, we deployed a couple of sonobuoys to ensure that our receivers were working properly. Then we conducted our initial CTD stations and followed that with the deployment of the passive acoustic monitoring equipment along with the Scanfish which will collect underway CTD information near the surface.

Since sunrise, the visual crew has been looking for whales up on the Flying Bridge (known by sailors at “Monkey Island”, although members of our visual crew don’t appreciate that name for some reason). They have sighted numerous Fin Whales and dolphins throughout the day, most of them quite a distance from the ship. We will continue on our transect route until late tomorrow morning when we will stop again for our oceanographic data collection session.

Day 5 - Arrivederci Mediterraneo

After a rather rough night of winds and waves, and a few of the crew succumbing to a bit of seasickness, we awoke to somewhat calmer seas. But the winds were still with us. The visual crew tried a couple of times to go on effort, but found it just too much and had to stand down.

This afternoon we arrived at Algeciras, Spain, beside the famous Rock of Gibraltar where we did a personnel transfer by small boat. As we stood off-shore, the two people joining us arrived and two people left. One of the people leaving us was an engine technician that was fine tuning the engines. The other, was a man who has been on all of the SIRENA cruises to date and who will be retiring from the Centre soon. It has been a bitter sweet four days for him but we were very glad he could join us for this portion of the cruise.

We now are steaming straight to our survey area and will arrive there mid afternoon tomorrow, when we will start the survey work for SIRENA 10.

Day 4 - Environment

A mix of weather greeted us today, from calm seas and winds in the morning to much stronger seas and winds in the afternoon. We spent 4 or 5 hours continuing our equipment shakedown. In addition to placing our acoustic equipment in the water, we also made practice runs with the CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) instruments. These instruments provide valuable information about the environment that the animals are living in and the productivity of that environment. This information gives us hints as to the probability of the presence of animals in a given area or not without actually having to be there, looking or listening.

While obviously a lot of the work and attention on board is outside and in the water, we still have lots of things happening in our MSL (Main Science Lab). All of the acousticians and oceanographers are set up in the Lab and spend endless hours evaluating the information on their computer screens that are coming from the underwater instruments.

Day 3 - Shakedown

Just finishing up our second day at sea and it was a full day. The day started with the satellite internet connection still down, but by about 10:30 it was back on with the caution that we may lose it again tomorrow, but we are hopeful that it will remain. We had the opportunity to put all of our towed acoustic equipment in the water today for a bit of a shakedown and all seemed to work fairly well. Some additional fine tuning may be needed, but all in all they are working fine.

The visual crew completed their training and equipment check this morning and went “on effort” this afternoon. The visual crew saw dolphins at various times and the acoustic crew detected both the dolphins and some sperm whales in the area. A very satisfying day! Tomorrow it is forecasted for increased winds and waves, so we may be limited in our ability to continue testing equipment. We may also need to make up some time that was lost today due to the communication problem and some of the testing.

Day 2 - Set Up

The first full day at sea began with a meeting of the scientific crew to meet each other and for the Scientist in Charge to go over the aims of the cruise and the roles that each of the crew members will play. Following the meeting, the visual observation team checked out their equipment, including the “Big Eye” binoculars.

The acoustic team finished setting up their equipment and prepared one of the arrays for deployment. We were all pleased to see that the array worked well when placed into the water. Our IT technician worked hard at getting our local area network up and running while dealing with the satellite internet system that just didn’t seem to want to work. Once we discovered that the problem was at the providers end, we breathed a bit easier and will just wait for them to complete their repairs. Meanwhile, the ship's crew worked hard at ensuring that all was in good working order and ready for the 45 days at sea that we have ahead.

Day 1 - Shift Colors, Underway!

SIRENA 10 is underway! The NRV ALLIANCE departed on schedule at 20:00 CET from Pagliari pier in La Spezia. Before leaving, the scientific crew was given a safety briefing by the First Officer and then everyone gathered on the boat deck to watch the Golfo dei Poeti disappear as we sailed into the Mediterranean Sea.

Preparing for the Sea Trial

The NURC Marine Mammal Risk Mitigation project is preparing for the SIRENA 2010 sea trial to be held in May and June 2010 in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal. The objectives of the cruise are to:

• Perform a visual and acoustic survey for marine mammals
• Deploy and compare passive acoustic monitoring technologies, including towed arrays and fixed buoys
• Develop a habitat model of beaked whales and local distribution models of multiple marine mammal species
• Investigate the relationship between the physical, chemical, and biological environment and marine mammal distribution.

The past and continued success of this project is largely dependent on the cooperation of and collaboration with international partners from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States.