Grampus griseus, R. Antunes
July 24 - Kick-off Azores-Baseline 2013
During our first Risso encounter, we were very happy to meet some old acquaintances from 2012. Risso’s dolphin group 2012_3, seen regularly in the 2012 field season, is a group of seven white adult Risso’s dolphins. The group was first seen from the land station, which started our first tracking of the season. When the group moved out of sight of the land team, tracking was taken over by the sea team.
We completed a full focal and acoustic follow from our new research vessel, RV MAQO, equipped with the towed hydrophone array and set up for long-term tracking of our focal groups. The Risso’s dolphins travelled northwest, close together and at slow speed, until they reached the western tip of the island. They then turned around and started feeding and socialising, and continued their track back eastwards along the coast. This ‘hairpin’ track appears to be a typical Risso route, that groups often take along the south coast of the island. We have since then encountered groups Cuvier’s beaked whales, bottlenose dolphins, Bryde’s whales, sperm whales and common dolphins. Since then the wind has picked up, resulting in two days with marginal conditions used for finalising the set up and testing our tagging vessel Max. Fully operational and waiting for good conditions…