An Elegant Start to the Second Round of Surveying for Marine Mammals and Seabirds

Dearest Gentle Reader,

Excitement abounded and cheers rejoiced throughout the town as the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunterset sail for Leg 2 of the 2024 vessel survey at 12 p.m. on the first day of July. Eager observers awaited bounties of birds and cetaceansightings galore. Who would be the first to find their quarry? This author can tell you, as the fair Gordon Guntersteamed eastward towards our starting point, it was the bird team that went on effort first.

While it was their time to shine, not many birds were actually seen on our transit line. A few laughing gulls and a couple of Caspian and royal terns were the extent of the bird life. There were two sightings of loggerhead turtlesand two pods of bottlenose dolphins as well. A bold statement, indeed! Is the bird team also setting a high bar for the cetacean team?

A red sun rose on the first official observation day, beginning in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico in habitat renowned for sighting Rice's whales. Did these captivating creatures elude the cetacean visual team? The answer is seemingly twofold. While the cetacean team did in fact find large baleen whales, they proved most evasive to our endeavors to confirm the species definitively. Only after the encounter ended were they able to discern Rice's whales from extensive examination of photographs. The cetacean team continued to be clever and resourceful as the day unfolded. In fact, they would add 15 more sightings, where bottlenose dolphins dominated their dance card with nine encounters.

The bird team were no wallflowers, excited to encounter three species of booby near the ship including masked, brown, and a white morph red-footed booby. A bevy of brown boobies remained around the ship for hours in the afternoon into the early evening, shamelessly taking advantage of flying fish fluttering away from the ship's bow. I would like to say this author is shocked by such behavior, but it seems fairly common as far as boobies go. Overachieving as always, the bird team also spotted some band-rumped storm petrels and an Audubon shearwater, as well as non-pelagic species including cattle egret, royal tern, and a sandwich tern.

This author knows you are expecting to hear about acoustics, but the acoustics team didn't hear a thing today. The tracklines proved to be too shallow to deploy the acoustic array.

As we wind down the first day of this new journey, the lords and ladies of this cruise wistfully wonder where and when they may encounter their next diamond sighting. However, a devious spinster known as Beryl may have other plans for the gentle folk aboard the ship. Will they be able to avoid her advances? For now, this author is delightfully intrigued.

Yours truly,

Lady Sinclair

The Beryl reference is that of Hurricane Beryl, a dangerous storm that entered the Gulf of Mexico in early July and made landfall on the Texas coast.

This blog was artfully written in a style reflective of the popular book and television show "Bridgerton." This reference does not constitute an endorsement by NOAA or the Department of Commerce.

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