ASI Survey – introducing the team on Song of the Whale

Conor introduces the current team on Song of the Whale and describes a bit about life on board during the ASI project…. Working as part of a well-functioning and dedicated team at sea is exceptionally rewarding. We often post blogs, tweets, Instagram and Facebook photos about the animals that we have encountered. But, given that there is a team working 24 hours, 7 days a week, I thought it important to dedicate some blog-space to them and their life on board Song of the Whale. From our social media presence, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we spend most of our time out here on the sea “with animals”. In reality we spend the vast majority looking for, rather than looking at, whales and dolphins. We search for them continuously along our thousands of miles of transect lines.

DCIM100GOPROG0016779. — Brian and Mat haul in the manta trawl. Both have many years’ experience on Song of the Whale, most recently in the Southern Ocean. Due to take a break in Barcelona, they will re-join the vessel later in the summer.

The work can require a high threshold for boredom, but the rewards are great when they come: we get to see and hear cetaceans, and work with amazing colleagues. The secret to productive fieldwork is a happy team. And the secret to a happy team is: good food, good fun, rewording (read: hard!) work, a tidy living space and fair, equal division of labour. Thankfully, we have all of the above in abundance!

Oliver Boisseau is the senior scientist on SOTW team. Last week he was in Samos setting up a second vessel for a survey off Libya, and running a training workshop for several other boat-based teams that will collectively survey coastal waters in the eastern Mediterranean Sea

You’ll have read about some of the fascinating animals that we have been privileged enough to see during this project so far. We are close to half-way through our contribution to the ASI survey. An opportune time perhaps, to tell you about some of the people behind the headphones, the computer screens, the binoculars and the cameras. Right now, we are a very international team hailing from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Montenegro, Israel and France. As our 3-month field season progresses, the team evolves: we have said farewell to our Moroccan and Algerian colleagues and welcomed the current team on board in Sardinia, Italy two weeks ago.

Yotam (right) is from Israel and is excited to apply his new knowledge of acoustics there when he heads home to start a postgraduate degree later this year. Jelena (left) joins us from Montenegro, wears a continuous smile, and is enjoying the experience of being part of the team.

It has been fascinating to participate in the cultural and religious traditions of our colleagues. We have worked throughout Ramadan, celebrated the end of Ramadan (an evening of cake-eating and music) and last week we observed the Jewish Sabbath with our Israeli colleagues. Yotam and Yali put on a wonderful spread of food which was blessed and shared as the sun came down over the mountains of northern Mallorca. As we are a dry ship, we did not have wine as tradition dictates, but opted for raisins instead! We’re also getting to learn some Montenegrin phrases and learning about what sounds like a beautiful country.

Jonny Reid is the resident Field Assistant on board for the summer, and in September starts an MSc in marine mammal biology at St Andrew’s University.

Before setting sail from Cagliari, Sardinia, we provisioned the boat with enough fruit, vegetables, chocolate, coffee and juice to keep 11 hard working people happy for 2 weeks. When we run out of fresh water, we make our own from sea water, with the water maker that uses reverse osmosis. We sail as much as possible, not only to keep quiet and reduce our carbon footprint, but also to ensure that we have sufficient fuel to complete over 2000 miles of trackline before going ashore again… to stock up and push on along our route which zigzags across the entire western basin of the Mediterranean Sea.

Regarding the division of labour, sure we all have our areas of expertise, but everyone on board (skipper included) follows the same rota: four hour stints of keeping watch during the day and two hour stints at night. Keeping watch during the day involves searching our trackline for cetaceans, turtles, other megafauna and litter. The next hour you are at the helm – driving the vessel, checking the fuel and watching out for other vessels. The following hour you are the data recorder, tied (figuratively!) to the computer, ready to input any data that comes your way, while monitoring the signals from the hydrophone. Then comes another hour of observations followed by several hours “off” to rest the eyes.

I’m the resident fruit-pusher on board: daily surveying the stores of fruit and fervently promoting the consumption of fruit that is about to go off (It’s definitely not gone off yet). Time off might include a nap, baking some bread, reading a book or perhaps, if it’s your lucky day: cleaning the heads (toilets), vacuuming, cooking a meal or washing the dishes. These tasks rotate daily so everyone gets a turn. This system engenders a sense of pride in keeping our ship clean and tidy and it ensures that a relatively small working and living space is kept functional. We all share a meal in the evenings which is our time to unwind, recount moments from the day gone-by and maybe spin a few yarns. The weather and sea conditions distort one’s sense of time: rolly seas can be tiresome and we’ve had more than our fair share of late. But because we work on a well-oiled machine, the days slip on by quite quickly… blending into one another, and before you know it, nobody on board knows what day it is…. Although Saturdays and Sundays are conspicuous for their lack of emails!