June 11, 2017 Ocean Exploration Cruise

2017 June 11th  Stellwagen Bank waters, off Gloucester MA:

Birds seen offshore:

• Wilson's Storm-petrel, 1.
• Manx Shearwater, 3.
• Northern Gannet, 30.
• Black-bellied Plover, 3.
• Herring Gull, 50.
• Great Black-backed Gull, 30.
• Chimney Swift, 1, about 5 miles off shore.

The marine mammal and fish list, thanks to Krill:

• 1 basking shark
• 4 - 5 harbor porpoise
• 1 humpback whale - Nile
• 3 to 4 minke whales
• 1 finback whale

The plankton list, thanks to Lydia Norton at UConn (thanks to Hans Dam lab):

• PHYTOPLANKTON: dinoflagellate Protoperidinium sp.  Many. 
• PHYTOPLANKTON: Diatoms.  A few.
• COPEPODA: Centropages sp. The predominant organism in our sample.
• COPEPODA: Oithona sp.  Fewer than the centropages.
• COPEPODA: nauplii. 
• CLADOCERANS:  Many.
• LARVAE:  Fish eggs. Many. Lots more than we had last October in this area.

Every field trip is valuable, in that each one reveals more of Nature and sheds light on its patterns. This six hour 100-mile round trip benefitted by beautiful sunny weather but there were few whales and almost no seabirds (50 N.Gannets, zero shearwaters and only one individual storm petrel). Unlike many of our other trips in this series, we found no "hot spots" buzzing with high activity. The only area with a few whales was near the southeast end of our journey, and we did one 7-minute plankton tow there at 11:55am, and found a moderate amount of zooplankton and greenish/brownish phytoplankton (mostly dinoflagelates, few diatoms -- unlike last October). More trip details will be added here over the next week...

Here is the chlorophyll concentration map based on MODIS/Aqua satellite photos the day before, on June 10, 2017 around 5pm.  Note the relatively low concentrations (no red or orange) off the coast of Massachusetts, compared with the Maine coast (orange and especially red indicates high concentration of chlorophyll-a, required for photosynthesis, and a good indicator of phytoplankton concentrations in these waters). Given these low chlorophyll/plankton concentrations in waters off Massachusetts, we should probably not be surprised that we had few birds and whales... 

You can expand your view of this map by clicking on it, and then later pressing the Esc key to return. This map comes from...  www.seasurface.umaine.edu/frames_xband.html

which is part of the MODIS data published at UMaine...  

Satellite Images, Satellite Oceanography Data Lab

This 500ml bottle contains most of the plankton collected at 11:55am June 11, 2017 in a seven minute tow, at about 3knots. Note the many thousands of dots (zooplankton, probably mostly copepods, each around 1mm or less), plus the green/brown color, indicating chlorophyll-a and the presence of phytoplankton, probably diatoms (1/100 to 1/1000 the size of the copepods), to be confirmed by lab analysis in a few weeeks. Noticeably lacking from this plankton tow were any Salps (which prey on phytoplankton), which we regularly collect in these same waters in the Autumn.  Click on the image to enlarge it, and then press the Esc key to return... 

We need to look at these under a good microscope...

Wayne Petersen studying our good plankton catch:

If we compare the color in this bottle of plankton on June 11, with the color we found last October 22, 2016 in that hot-spot of high activity (see the next post below, and the second of the two bottles shown below), this June 11th bottle is only half as dark, half as green/brown, suggesting less phytoplankton than we had last October in that hot-spot. This is consistent with our emerging theory that whale and seabird concentrations are positively correlated with the density of phytoplankton and its darker shade of green/brown (caused by chlorophyll-a).  Note that the plankton net and collection methods were the same for both the October 2016 and the June 2017 plankton tows, so they are comparable...

These two bottles are not from June 2017. These two bottles are plankton samples collected in October 2016 from two different parts of Stellwagen Bank: a quiet area with no birds (bottle on left) and a highly active area with whales and seabirds (the bottle on the right). Note that the second bottle is darker than the plankton we collected on June 11th, in a relatively quiet area, with just a few whales, and hardly any seabirds. 

Note that this green/brown color shows on satellite photographs taken from high above the Earth, and gives an indication of where the phytoplankton is "blooming". See the map above, where the green/brown actual colors of the ocean have been transformed into red/orange/yellow, etc.

A review of our plankton sample was done at UConn on June 16th. Compared with our October 2016 sample from the same general area of SW Stellwagen Bank, this June 11 sample had fewer planktonic organisms, which correlates with the low number of seabirds and whales, and may be causal. Unlike October, the phytoplankton were mostly Protoperidinium dinoflagellates, with few diatoms. June had many more fish eggs than we had in October. The predominant organism on June 11 was Centropages copepods, with a smaller number of Oithona copepods. We also had a large number of Cladocerans in June, another microscopic crustacean.   Some photos will be inserted here...

The commonest phytoplankton we had on June 11 was the dinoflagellate Protoperidinium, several of which are shown here, with their 3 appendages...

The most numerous zooplankton on June 11 was the copepod called Centropages...

Some of our Naturalists: Prof. Adrian Jordaan (bright blue sweater, sitting, in the back), 

Jim Sweeney (green cap),  Krill Carson (dark blue cap and red sweater), 

Wayne Petersen (eyeglasses, facing Krill)... 

October 22, 2016 Ocean Exploration Cruise

This is an evolving DRAFT trip report, a work in progress:

KEY POINT:  The ongoing QUESTION for this trip is why do seabirds (and whales) concentrate in some parts (aka "hotspots") of the ocean and not other locations (and what are these seabirds & whales eating there?). We found one such hotspot on 10/22/2016, which included intense whale activity, many seabirds and especially one Sabine's Gull. We took samples of the water to analyze, to see if we could identify some differences. More on those comparative results in the coming weeks, at this website.


Wow!! What a surprisingly good trip. Highlights included seabirds ( Sabine's Gull ! plus fulmars, kittiwakes, jaegers, and 4 species of shearwaters), whales (4 species and lots of close-up action), a striking difference in plankton between two areas of the sanctuary, and a great group of about 90 appreciative people:

SEABIRDS:
Common Eider, 40.
White-winged Scoter, 1.
Surf Scoter, 3 (plus 19 in harbor, Sarah Faulkner, HAS).
Common Loon, 3.
YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS, 1 adult, photographed near us on 10/22 but not from our ship. See the photos below.
Northern Fulmar, 5. 
Cory's Shearwater, 1200.
Great Shearwater, 400.
Sooty Shearwater, 15.
Manx Shearwater, 12.
shearwater species, 150.
Northern Gannet, 164.
Pomarine Jaeger, 5.
jaeger species, 1.
Black-legged Kittiwake, 60. 
SABINE'S GULL, 1 juvenile (we originally thought it was two individuals). Quite late in its migration cycle.
Bonaparte's Gull, 2.
Herring Gull, 102. 
Great Black-backed Gull, 20.

albatross species, 1.  Seen nearby, late afternoon, by BHC marine trip, but not by our trip. Am researching the details and will publish more here soon.
www.bostonharborcruises.com/naturalists-notes/october-2016/october-22-2016/
Naturalist Rich D, at BHC, told me that the albatross was seen on 10/22 at Latitude 42*25.05, Longitude 70*24.05, at approximately 14:23 (not far from where we were). No further info available at this time. Note that an albatross was reported nearby in early October by Blair Nikula and others...
eBird Checklist – First Encounter Beach, Massachusetts – Mon Oct 10, 2016 – 33 species
Mary Keleher got 8 photos of that same(?) distant bird on 10/10...
IMG_5829 | Mary Keleher | Flickr ...  including this one...

On Dec.23rd, thanks to many people's efforts, we received good photographs (shown below) of an albatross seen in this same area, on the day of our trip. Most likely there was one albatross in these New England waters this year, and all sightings were of this one bird.

Here are two photos of that bird, which we missed by only a few miles on October 22nd!
This is an adult Yellow-nosed Albatross (almost certainly the recently split-off Atlantic species). Note the mostly black bill with a yellow culminicorn (ridge of the bill) and a pinkish tip (premaxillary nail)....

These 2 albatross photos were taken on 10/22/2016 at position 13825/44167 (in TD form TD conversion ).
The photographer was Captain Danny Holmes of the F/V Perseverance out of Plymouth, MA.
We got these photos thanks to Wayne Petersen, Anne-Marie Runfola, David Wiley, David Slocum and Captain Jonathan Stasinos. Thank you all, and especially to Danny Holmes, the photographer!

MARINE MAMMALS:
Harbor Porpoise, 3-5.
Fin Whale, 1.
Minke Whale, 1.
Humpback Whales, 12-15.

(come back here in a week to see more photos of the birds, whales, etc)
(come back in a month to see the plankton analysis results).
Also please see Krill Carson's blog for the NECWA review of this terrific trip:  NECWAnews.blogspot.com

It was a really enjoyable trip! Tammy Silva, Krill Carson, Mike Thompson, and Courtney Callahan.  Photo by Anne-Marie Runfola....

Thanks to Krill Carson for creating NECWA and all the good work it does, and for running these annual pelagic trips for a decade. Without Krill these 8-hour New England trips would not exist. Thank you Krill!!


And to captain/owner Jay Frontierro, thanks for many things, including finding the whales in limited visibility, and spotting the Sabine's Gull which everybody onboard enjoyed seeing. Photo thanks to Krill Carson, NECWA...

SUMMARY:
About 90 people on board. Perhaps 1/3 were bird watchers. Departed Gloucester, MA, USA at 8:00am. Traveled 97miles, round trip. Returned to dock 7.5 hours later, around 3:30pm. Cloudy all day, with fog in the AM and occasional light rain in the PM. Morning winds were out of the north, northwest at 3-9 mph, and later they were west, northwest at 6-13 mph. Seas 3-6 feet.



PLANKTON:

One research question for this trip was: Are there any differences in the water where whales and seabirds are active (i.e., a so-called "hotspot"), vs waters where they are not active? We towed a plankton net (150 micron mesh, 20inch diameter at net mouth) just below the surface, about 50ft behind our ship, at about 5km/hr, in both those types of waters, for 5 minutes, and looked for differences in what we collected with the net...

Station #1:  The first five-minute plankton tow was begun at 8:37:00 LCL at  42 31.458,  -70 33.885.
Station #2:  The second five-minute tow was begun at 11:27:30 LCL at 42 14.057,  -70 18.27.

These two stations were about 20 nautical miles apart. The first was in the NW corner of Stellwagen Bank NMS (outlined by the white polygon on the map), at the NERACOOS buoy A01, and the second (the "hotspot" of activity) was in the south central part of the NMS. These two locations are shown on this map, provided by courtesy of its creator Michael Thompson, NOAA...

The trip included discovery of a striking difference in phytoplankton between two areas of Stellwagen/GOM (more on this next week, and after we confirm this by a lab analysis). The greater greenish-yellow of the second sample (where there was a hot-spot of activity of whales and seabirds) is almost certainly caused by chlorophyll-a, telling us there is much photosynthesis happening here, at this "hotspot" patch, in phytoplankton (but these are usually too tiny to be caught in a 150micron mesh, so lab analysis is needed), which feeds the zooplankton, forage fish, and the entire food chain/web, right up to the whales and seabirds. The differences in these two samples, taken the same day in different areas of GOM, certainly confirms that the spatial distribution of plankton is indeed PATCHY! These two samples are preserved (with 5% formalin) and refrigerated, and are going to UConn labs (Prof. Hans Dam) for a full plankton analysis on 11/4, after which the results and comparison will be published, here and elsewhere:

These samples were taken at two different areas of Stellwagen Bank. The second one, on the right, was from an area which had many whales and seabirds feeding, unlike the one on the left. The second bottle's coloration is probably due to chlorophyll, which enables photosynthesis in phytoplankton, which are the microscopic "plants" of the ocean, and the base of the marine food web. These phytoplankton also provide 40-50% of the oxygen we breathe on the planet, and absorb a lot of CO2 from the atmosphere, and send it via the carbon cycle to the bottom of the ocean. 

Yours Truly and Wayne Petersen showing and describing the two sample bottles. The clearer one on the LEFT was taken from the waters around the A01 buoy where we saw no whales and almost no seabirds. The yellow-green one on the RIGHT was taken from a "hotspot" area of intense whales and seabird concentration and activity.....

Photo by Anne-Marie Runfola

Here (below) is a photo of the plankton net collection bottle, after the first sample was taken. Notice the dozens of Salps. The black dot is their digestive tract.
ALES at Stony Brook:  What IS a Salp???
Scientists believe that salps have one of the first occurrences of a primitive nervous system. More complex nervous systems, such as ours, likely evolved from salps!
Salps are a fascinating life form, and much more coming on them next month...

Salp - Wikipedia

Pelagic Tunicates – Featuring Jellyfish & Other Gelatinous Zooplankton

Dive and Discover : Expedition 10 : Antarctica

Rethinking the Role of Salps in the Ocean: Trends in Ecology & Evolution

The role of salps in marine ecosystem function  << very good article.
"Salps ... consume phytoplankton and bacteria that are at the bottom of the food chain (Muller, 1983), allowing them to respond quickly to increases in primary production. Salps are often either avoided or a prey of last resort for predators such as fish (Mianzan et al., 2001), due to their low nutritional value."


Salps: 20 Q&A will be inserted here...
Note that Salps are NOT " Jellyfish " (true jellies, box jellies, etc);   they are CHORDATES, like us!

Professor  Hans Dam , Univ. of Connecticut, taking a first look on Nov.4th at our samples from Oct.22, 2016...

The first quick scan by Hans and Lydia suggests the major difference between the two samples is lots of photosynthetic phytoplankton in the second sample, and almost none in the first sample. Both had plenty of copepods and other zooplankton. A detailed analysis of these plankton samples will be received and published here in the coming weeks.

Here is an example, temporarily displayed here, to show what a zooplankton analysis can look like. Here is part of such an analysis for Long Island Sound, in December 2009, by Prof. Hans Dam, Matt Lyman and Katie O'Brien-Clayton (click to enlarge, and press ESC key to return)...

We hope to have an analysis something like this for each of our two sample bottles of water, and to be able to compare their different plankton contents. And perhaps then to speculate on what those differences might mean.

As of Feb.4,2017 here is a very preliminary DRAFT of some RAW and extrapolated counts data we have just started working on, and this will change during the month, so do not take this too seriously yet...

Note that the largest difference between these two samples is the marine Diatoms ( Diatom - Wikipedia ), which are phytoplankton, very small photosynthetic "plants", which look like this... 

A draft proposed simplified food web will be inserted here, next month...

Food web - Wikipedia

Recent satellite photo map, with green indicating areas of chlorophyll-a, probably due to phytoplankton, which need the chlorophyll to perform photosynthesis. Thanks to Lydia ....

FISH & OTHER NEKTON:

Nekton (unlike plankton) are aquatic animals that are able to swim and move independently of water currents, such as fish and squids. Unfortunately we were not able to observe or catch any of these (other than viewing several whales) during our trip. Many seabirds feed on small fish (bait fish, forage fish), but this is a link in the food web which we are missing.

SEABIRDS:

Some of the top-gun birders onboard: Jim Sweeney, Wayne Petersen, Peter Flood, Maureen and Paul Wolter. Peter is also an amazing photographer, and you can see his white Canon sticking out from under his jacket. Photo by Anne-Marie Runfola...

Here is Jim Sweeney's official (near final) checklist for our trip:
eBird Checklist – Stellwagen Bank NMS, Massachusetts – Sat Oct 22, 2016 – 15 species (+2 other taxa)

Here are some of Peter Flood's excellent photos of 10/22 birds:
SabinesGull and Kittiwake

Sabine's Gull excitement. THANKS to captain Jay Frontierro for finding the bird!  Wonderfully timed photo by Anne-Marie Runfola...

First sighting of a Sabine's Gull: Here are Peter Flood's 3 photos of our first sighting of SAGU (= Sabine's Gull):
Notice the relatively straight trailing edge of the dark gray zone on the wing (the greater coverts), without much of a "notch" (that notch is more common), without the white of the secondaries notching sharply forward toward the front edge of the wing...

The same SAGU on the left, near the larger Black-legged Kittiwake... (Peter Flood)

Another Peter Flood photo of the first sighting SAGU.  Notice again the relatively straight trailing edge of the dark gray zone on the wing (the greater coverts), without much of a "notch" (in the green oval)... 

Is this the same bird as shown in the Dan Prima photo below, with the red oval, taken half an hour later? Notice the sharp notch in Dan's photo, in the red circle below, where the three color zones on the upper wing meet (this is more common in SAGU), compared with the relative lack of a notch in the first bird, in the green oval above (probably because the greater coverts get shorter more gradually further out on the wing)...

Second sighting of a Sabine's Gull:
Here is our SAGU second sighting, as photographed by Dan Prima, at very long distance, at 11:00am.  Our first SAGU sighting was around 10:30am. Both were juveniles, without the light gray area on the mantle or the clean black hood (either complete or partial). To be conservative we have to assume that one SAGU was responsible for both sightings, half an hour apart, although analysis of these photos (and the trailing edge shape of the greater coverts) caused considerable conversation among our team. We finally decided that they were one and the same bird. We felt that the evidence was not strong enough to conclusively prove there were two different birds, especially since this is the ONLY eBird report of any Sabine's Gull(s) along the entire US East Coast in the past 30 days, between 9/22 and 10/22... 

Here are the locations of the two SAGU sightings, at 10:30am and 11:00am on Oct.22:

On this Autumn trip we have had a Sabine's Gull in 2014 and 2016, and just barely missed one in 2015 by a few miles. So it is fair to call this trip the "annual search for Edward Sabine's gorgeous small gull"!


Many more details coming, but here was our first-draft bird numbers, thanks to Jim Berry. Note that October 22 is very late to see Sabine's Gulls along the US East Coast, and if there were TWO, that would be amazing: 
========

> Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
> Oct 22, 2016 8:30 AM - 3:20 PM

> Comments:  We covered the bank from end to end.  Totals are tentative,
> pending comparison of numbers with Jim Sweeney and Peter Flood.

> 13 species (+1 other taxon)
>
> Common Eider  53     These were birds seen well out at sea and do not
> include any in Gloucester Harbor.
> Northern Fulmar  4
> Cory's Shearwater  350
> Great Shearwater  280
> Sooty Shearwater  8
> Manx Shearwater  6
> shearwater sp.  650     My rough estimate of large shearwaters seen at a
> distance--there were many hundreds of shearwaters out there today, well
> over 1000 in total
> Northern Gannet  195  (all ages, but mostly adults)
> Pomarine Jaeger  4
> Black-legged Kittiwake  28  (mostly immatures)
> SAGU:  Sabine's Gull  2[actually 1]     Immature and adult [photograph later showed that neither was an adult, and that they were the same bird!], seen by virtually every birder 
> onboard.  Both had the beautiful black and white triangles on the wings.
> They were smaller than the kittiwakes they flew with, and the immature
> kittiwakes provided a nice contrast.
> Bonaparte's Gull  1     this bird too was on the bank
> Herring Gull  X
> Great Black-backed Gull  X

========

This map is just for Sabine's Gulls. It reflects every Sabine's Gull ever reported to eBird in this region. Red icons indicate Sabine's Gulls seen in the last 30 days (since Sept.23,2016). Until our 10/22 trip there were none seen on the East Coast in the last 30 days!  And we had two (well, two sightings half an hour apart, but probably the same bird)...

Click on image to enlarge it. Press ESC key to return. 

WHALES AND OTHER MARINE LIFE:

For information on whales seen and all other marine life, see Krill Carson's NECWA blog (  NECWA News Blog and the post for this trip:  Ocean Exploration Cruise on Oct.26,2016 ) and website ( New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance - NECWA ).


Thanks to Krill Carson for creating NECWA and all the good work it does, and for running these annual pelagic trips for a decade. Without Krill these 8-hour New England trips would not exist. 


Thanks to ship owner/captain Jay Frontierro for his excellent ship (7 Seas Whale Watch), his captain skills, and his bird/whale spotting and ID skills. He found and called the first sighting of the Sabine's Gull. 


OTHER:

Here is our 7.5-hour 97-mile round-trip route on 10/22/2016, cutting across the Stellwagen Bank NMS, off the coast of Massachusetts...

Click on image to enlarge it. Press ESC key to return. 
Green circles are Christmas Bird Count circles, 15miles in diameter.  
The white polygon shows the area of the Stellwagen Bank NMS

Our stop #1 was the red dot on the map, at the buoy A01, where we towed for plankton for five minutes. The 13 measurements at that buoy, shown on the right, were taken at 8:30pm the night before our trip...

This graph of the trip shows ship speed vs distance travelled, including the initial pause around ten miles, at buoy A01 to take samples at our first "station", which had almost zero activity of whales or seabirds, and also yielded a very clear uncolored sample of water.... 

Heading back to Gloucester MA after the heavy rain started around 3pm...

Mike Thompson & Anne-Marie Runfola from NOAA...

================
NOTIFICATIONS & LATEST UPDATES:  will be shown here


Oct.21 update at 730am:   
This trip is ON for Oct.22, leaving on time, but MIGHT have to cut it short after 4-5 hours IF the weather becomes as windy as is forecast for the afternoon.  The NECWA blog gives further details about this 10/22 trip:       NECWA News Blog    <= click on this link



THIS 10/1 TRIP HAS BEEN POSTPONED to October 22!

Based on the marine weather forecast,  we had to reschedule this 10/1 trip to October 22.   

THIS 10/22 TRIP IS NOT FULL,  NOT SOLD-OUT,  as of Monday, October 17, 2016 at 11am:

1)     If you are NOT registered for the 10/1 trip, but want to register and pay for the 10/22 trip, just go to the following website and click on the "Register Now" button at the bottom...
Ocean Exploration Cruise 2016   <<< click on this link to register and pay.

2)     If you ARE already registered and paid for the (cancelled) 10/1 trip, and want to join the new 10/22 trip, please email to KrillCarson@mac.com and notify her, and you will be transferred to the 10/22 trip automatically.


You can contact KrillCarson@mac.com  or  robben99@gmail.com  with questions, etc. for this 10/22 trip.
This is NECWA's annual autumn trip ( New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance - NECWA ), which HAS supports.

New info on this trip will be published here (and at the NECWA sites, listed below), if there are any changes or additions between now and 10/22... we use this site to help trip coordination, especially for the bird watching community.


WEATHER AROUND GLOUCESTER MA:
Gloucester, MA (01930) Forecast | Weather Underground


WHAT MAKES THIS 10/22 TRIP DIFFERENT:
We will search for uncommon seabirds & whales, hopefully finding high-activity "hot-spots" (ocean areas where recurrent patterns and processes sometimes generate high activity) where they are feeding. We will then measure and sample those waters to try to determine what is different there, what is being eaten there, and causing the high-activity (without us disturbing the whales, etc). During this trip we will try to explain the overall marine ecosystem and use that to help trip participants better understand our sightings of seabirds, whales, plankton and other ocean elements and how they relate to each other.

In addition to hot pursuit of whales and seabirds, we will also tow a plankton net to see what prey items are available near the surface, and cast a CTD probe into the water in-real-time to measure its changing characteristics, such as water temperature, acidity, oxygen, plankton indicators, etc. ( see the photo of the Hydrolab DS5 CTD probe below, in a box on my living room floor )...

These photos were taken in ocean waters off Massachusetts and these species are possible on our trip.
What are the seabirds eating & what are the whales eating?  On Oct. 1st we are going to try to find out.

As water becomes a more and more precious resource it is crucial that we have ways to measure and monitor all its characteristics: physical, chemical and biological. Some of the very best equipment for this is provided by OTT/Hydromet/Hydrolab ( OTT Hydromet USA ) which is a part of Hach ( Manufactures Water Quality Testing and Analytical Instruments & Reagents | Hach USA ).  They have generously lent us expensive equipment for our pelagic trip, and that is greatly appreciated. THANK YOU!

This CTD probe we will cast into the water during our trip to measure

changes in ocean temperature, acidity, oxygen, plankton, etc.
The sensors are the multiple black cylinders at the right end of the two-foot long instrument.
This excellent DS5 instrument was very generously lent to us by Hach/Hydrolab...many Thanks to them!

An example of a mini "hot-spot" is shown in the 2012 photo below, where a Humpback Whale is bubble-net-feeding and Manx Shearwaters, Common Terns and Laughing Gulls are swarming around, sometimes actually touching on the mouth of the whale... taken east of Race Point, MA on our 2012-09-29 trip ( that trip report is here...  Results of our 9/29/2012 seabirding trip )... Click on this image (by K.Mueller) to enlarge it, and then press ESC key to return...

And here is a photo of a somewhat similar mini hot-spot, which I photographed over Carmel Canyon, California in mid-Sept. 2014. That trip is reported here... The Week After our 2014 Sept 7th Trip . Click to enlarge, ESC to return...

LIST OF KEY POINTS:
WHEN:  October 22, 2016  Saturday (had to be rescheduled from Sept.11 and again from Oct.1).
WHERE:  departing from the docks at Gloucester, MA, USA.​ (a 2-hour drive from Hartford CT)​. At 63 Rogers Street, Gloucester, MA…. next to the Gloucester House Restaurant.  Dirt parking lot is 300ft north of dock.
DESTINATION:  Gulf Of Maine (GOM) waters, including Stellwagen Bank & Jeffrey's Ledge. Heading NE, East, or SE, depending upon best locations that day, TBD.
TIME:  8 hours on the water, beginning at 8am when ship leaves the dock. Please arrive before 7:30am
SHIP:  modern 108-foot ship   7 Seas Whale Watch: Our Vessel The Privateer IV
GOALS FOR THE TRIP:  includes seeing great birds & whales AND learning a lot more about how the whole marine ecosystem fits together, with birds, whales, fish, plankton, etc​.
ACTIVITIES:  searching for whales and seabirds offshore, PLUS stopping at a few high-activity hot-spots and collecting some water and sealife samples (fish, plankton, etc), and taking some water measurements, to address the question, "What are the whales and seabirds eating, and is it changing?"
POST TRIP:  Trip will be well documented. Track, photos, videos and lab results will be published.
PRIORITIES:  Seabirds, whales/dolphins, marine-science, marine-ecosystem​, human interactions​.
POSSIBLE SEABIRDS: Northern Fulmar, 3-4 shearwater species, 1-2 storm-petrel species, Northern Gannet, and possibly phalaropes, Black-legged Kittiwake, Sabine’s Gull,  1-3 species of jaegers, and alcids.
SEVERAL WHALE SPECIES: probably including Humpback, Minke and Fin.
GUEST NATURALISTS/NARRATORS:  will include a team of wildlife experts, including W.Petersen, J.Sweeney, J.Frontierro, T.Robben  (plus NECWA's naturalists K.Carson & T.Silva).
MARINE ECOSYSTEM FOCUS:   L.Kaufman | Biology
POST TRIP PLANKTON LAB ANALYSIS:  Hans G. Dam | Marine Sciences
​COMMUNICATION: interactive opportunities, with lots of Q&A encouraged.​ Multiple experts to address questions.
AUDIO SYSTEM:  Exceptionally clear loud audio system all around the ship.
ORGANIZERS:  NECWA (K.Carson, T.Silva), working jointly with HAS/COA (T.Robben).
SPONSOR:  NECWA - New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance
PRICE:  $90@ payable to NECWA. This is the annual fund-raiser for NECWA. 100% non-profit.
LODGINGS:  if anybody has suggestions near Gloucester, please let us know. One possibility is  www.CapeAnnMarina.com which may offer 10% discount for those going on a "whale watch".
CLOTHING: Ocean often 10 degrees colder than on land, and some October days can be cold and windy offshore. Wind & rain resistant hoodie recommended, along with layers of sweaters underneath, & hat for sun protection.
BINOCULARS:  Please do not forget your binoculars   (-:
ADVERTISING WEBPAGE:  advertising one pager  #1 DRAFT   &   advertising one pager  #2 DRAFT
NECWA TRIP DESCRIPTION:  Ocean Exploration Cruise 2016
NECWA REGISTRATION & PAYMENT:  Ocean Exploration Cruise 2016: register and pay
NECWA BLOG:  NECWAnews.blogspot.com

THIS 10/22 TRIP HAS OPENINGS FOR MORE PEOPLE.

MORE ABOUT THIS TRIP:

See good whales and seabirds and other marine life forms in the GOM

AND learn more about their life….

• What birds, whales, dolphins, etc can we find here today?

• Why are they here? Why do they migrate? Why are they in just a few patches?
• Is it all about food? What do they eat? Can we collect some of their prey items?
• What about temperature?
• What is their life cycle throughout the year?
• What are the four seasons like under the water? What changes month-to-month?
• What are scientists studying here, in the GOM?  Why?
• What does today’s satellite photo of the GOM tell us?
• How many robots are already patrolling GOM waters? Why?
• Can we collect and view some of these life forms?
• What is special about the Gulf Of Maine?
• How are the fishermen doing here?
• How is the energy industry doing here?
• Is this marine environment changing over time?
• What was different here, 20, 50, 100 and 200 years ago?
• What is changing about these life forms and the ocean? Why?
• Might there be any impacts on us?

This trip will feature scientists and naturalists, and your direct experiences with all this.

We will make a few brief stops and collect samples, and explain everything.

This is not a typical trip and you will learn a lot about the ocean.
Bring your camera.
This trip will be well documented, on the internet, soon after the trip.

BIRDS OFF RACE POINT IN THE DAYS PRIOR TO 10/1:

eBird Checklist – Race Point Beach, Provincetown, Massachusetts – Thu Sep 29, 2016 – 18 species (+2 other taxa)

eBird Checklist – Race Point Beach, Provincetown, Massachusetts – Fri Sep 30, 2016 – 31 species (+4 other taxa)

Birding News | #birdingnews via @aba 10/1 Race Point seabird spectacular





THE WEATHER FORECAST WHICH POSTPONED THE 10/1 TRIP TO 10/22:
This was part of the weather forecast which caused us to POSTPONE the trip especially regarding wind:
National Weather Service Marine Forecast for MA and RI coastal waters: <=MARINE FORECAST.

The image below shows the ten-day weather forecast for Gloucester, MA, as of Sept.27 at 2pm.  The yellow line is forecasted for 11am on October 1st. Click on this image to expand it, and press ESC key to return...

Looks like several fronts are going to stall around mid-Atlantic on Oct.1st ( WPC Sea-level Pressures and Fronts )...

September 17-18, 2016 Great Skua YES

OUR TRIP REPORT:

THIS IS THE HARTFORD AUDUBON SOCIETY GULF OF MAINE PELAGIC TRIP ON SEPT.17-18, 2016:


We got our #1 target bird, Great Skua (aka GRSK), at least two of them, far off shore, both on Sunday September 18, 2016.

Here is one of the two skuas we saw, in mid-GOM; this one closer to Maine than Nova Scotia. Both popped up on the north (starboard) side of the ship and quickly flew away, apparently as the ship got too close to them in the water.  Photo thanks to Dave Pettee...

Scroll down to see the full species checklist near the bottom of this post. We got almost every species we were hoping to see. Not bad for just six observers on a high-speed (35knots) ferry!

This trip was designed this year as an experiment, a test of the new ferry, on this long (210 miles each way) and sometimes rough route (so rough that it is cancelled several times a year). We "advertised" only one week in advance, so as to get a small group of motivated birders who were "up" for this experimental trip. Several birders were not sure about this trip, and we recommended they take the always successful Maine Audubon pelagic trip, on the same weekend (and it was very successful last weekend, including more skuas than we had). Our trip did have its challenges but we dug-in, and we dug-out some good birds, including our #1Target bird, Great Skua, two of them, fairly close to the ship.  So, overall this trip was successful, and a good learning experience about this new ship, which is frankly a lot better than we expected (including a staff which was super cooperative and helpful in working with us).

This was an experimental birding trip, with additional "benefits"...
1.  One key goal for this trip was to see one or more skuas, and we accomplished that.
2.  Another goal was to enjoy the beautiful wild Gulf Of Maine. We certainly did that.
3.  We also hoped to enjoy a small team of talented friendly birding enthusiasts, and we had that.
4.  We also wanted to learn what more science might be possible on this ship, and we made progress.
5.  Another key goal was to evaluate & test this new ship's "birder-friendliness", to find the best locations and ways to watch birds from this new ship. We observed from inside the front windows, from the two open side areas, from the open rear deck, and from inside the bridge (as you can see from the photos directly below)...

We got special access to the bridge, thanks to Bay Ferries Ltd.  Thank you!
Here is Dan and Anthony scanning forward, from the left wing of the bridge, of the new 350-foot CAT ferry...

And here is Nicole (left) scanning forward for rare birds, with Gretchen Holoubek, Second Officer, on-watch, in the bridge, "steering" the ship....

Most of our observations, especially on the second day, were from the two open side areas. Whichever open side area was on the north side seemed the better of the two for birds, and for also avoiding the winds from the south. The right/starboard side open area was the only smoking area on the ship, and yet almost nobody ever came and smoked there (at least during the transit, when we were there).  The first 1/3 of these side decks had protection from the wind generated by the 35knot speed of the ship, while the rear 2/3 of them experienced much of the winds (and a bit of the spray) caused by the ship's speed. Nevertheless, these open side areas became our preferred areas on the ship for observing seabirds...

Our team: Dave Pettee (from MA), Nicole Giambro (MA), Christine Howe (from CT/HAS), Dan Nickerson (ME), Anthony Laguidara (MA), and photo by Tom Robben (CT/HAS)...

Another open area was the open rear deck... shown here the way it looked on 9/12, which was a beautiful cloudless day. This is a great area to sit down and relax. A lot of hot air comes out of the exhausts, however, and some of the air behind the ship gets distorted by that, so some bird viewing can be difficult at times from this location, as can happen on many large ships....

Another good area is the front windows and the comfortable seats in that area, photographed here on 9/12, a sunny day. The cenral tables and chairs one level up were best, because from there you had a panoramic 180degree view, over the heads of people sitting in the front tables. This can be a good location to start the trip, or to use in stormy weather, however this vantage spot is a bit too removed from the water to easily spot smaller birds like storm-petrels, so we ended up preferring the excellent open side areas as the best viewing locations on the ship...

Here are some of the oceanographic conditions, at the main buoy at Jordan Basin, in mid-GOM (my red arrow points to the particular buoy), the next day, but with conditions almost identical to what we had on 9/18, except that it was windier on 9/18, along with lots (95%) of clouds and occasional light rain showers (which had almost no impact on us, because of protected areas on the ship -- how nice to be unaffected by the rainy weather!). Click on the image to enlarge it, and press ESC to return...

Here is our actual route map (logged via GPS device and resulting GPX file), on Saturday, September 17th,  210 miles from Portland ME to Yarmouth NS, where green circles are Christmas Bird Count circles. You can click on this image to enlarge it, and press ESC key to return....

This map shows the (yellow) Hague Line, which separates the GOM into US and Canadian waters.  The red line is the ferry route, also known as the GNATS transect by scientists (for GOM North Atlantic Time Series).  Note that at least 2/3 of our trip along this red line is in US waters, and less than 1/3 is in Canadian waters....

This is it for all of the Americas... ALL of the North American eBird reports for GRSK... with most of them in the northern half of the Gulf Of Maine, including several which we have contributed from the Nova Star over the last two years (although we have not reported all our sightings to eBird)...

EBIRD CHECKLISTS FOR SEPTEMBER 17, 2016:

Dave Pettee created two eBird checklists for our Sept.17th trip from Portland ME to Yarmouth NS. Here is the first one, for the first half of the trip, on the US side...
eBird Checklist – Ferry Trip - Yarmouth, NS to Portland, ME, Maine – Sat Sep 17, 2016 – 11 species (+1 other taxa)

Here is the one for the Canadian side, for the second half on Sept.17, for Nova Scotia waters...
eBird Checklist – Portland, Maine - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Ferry (NS waters), Nova Scotia – Sat Sep 17, 2016 – 7 species

EBIRD CHECKLISTS FOR SEPTEMBER 18, 2016:

Dave Pettee also created several eBird reports for our Sept.18 return trip, starting with one for the Yarmouth harbor area...
eBird Checklist – Yarmouth Harbour--Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia – Sun Sep 18, 2016 – 15 species
All of these harbor birds were excluded from all other reporting for this trip.

and then two offshore, covering our two Great Skuas. The first one for the Canadian waters...
eBird Checklist – Portland, Maine - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Ferry (NS waters), Nova Scotia – Sun Sep 18, 2016 – 8 species (+2 other taxa)

and this second one (with a photo of one of our two Great Skuas) for US waters....
eBird Checklist – Ferry Trip - Yarmouth, NS to Portland, ME, Maine – Sun Sep 18, 2016 – 9 species


OVERALL CHECKLIST OF BIRDS:

Here is our checklist for 3 of our CAT/GOM crossings in Sept.2016, with all birds within harbors excluded...

Our evolving count for both days can be seen here, in this live worksheet...
Species checklist for Sept.2016 CAT/GOM trips - Google Sheets
The first tab is the summary sheet (as shown in the image above), for 9/17 and 18, plus the prep trip on 9/12. The second tab shows minute-by-minute details of 9/17.

Interesting differences between Monday 9/12 and the weekend. Many more gannets, gulls and jaegers on 9/12. The gull numbers were estimated (as were most larger numbers), but the jaegers were counted more than estimated, and seen well, many near the ship. Perhaps the calm sunny weather on Monday encouraged the gulls in the harbors to go out fishing. Storm-petrels were looked for on 9/12 but could not be found, while many were seen on the weekend.  Quite a lot of variability in just one week, during this changing time of year.

The greater number of species seen on the weekend probably reflects the number of observers watching:  one on Monday and six on the weekend. There is no way for one person to see everything six observers can see, especially speeding 35 knots at sea.

By the way, Maine Audubon had its usual annual dedicated pelagic trip on 9/17 with 50 observers, and as always, was excellent and very successful, going to some of the best locations in the northern GOM, recording about seven skuas, plus a good list of species very similar to ours....
Bar Harbor Pelagic Trip 2016 | Events & Programs
pelagic-route-2016.jpg (3259×2333)
eBird Checklist – Maine Audubon Pelagic 2016-- Segment IV, Maine – Sat Sep 17, 2016 – 5 species
Birding News | #birdingnews via @aba  << posting on the Maine birds internet forum.


Bottom line: we had a successful trip on Bay Ferry's CAT ship, with only six observers, even with no chumming and no pursuit of birds. But we did have to work for it. This included a thrilling ride across 210 miles of open water, twice. And the ship gets unexpectedly high-marks (for a commercial public ship) from a seabirding point of view!

How we scanned this 210 mile transect, twice, within 24hours, at 35knots, will be described here.
Trip details coming, here, this week.

LESSONS LEARNED:
Will be drafted here next week, with suggestions from our whole team. One is this...
Our two Great Skuas popped-up right next to the ship, and probably were sitting in the water, and disturbed by the ship's approach. We did not see them approach the ship, in flight, before they suddenly appeared next to us, on the north side of the ship.


========================
and here is the trip report as submitted to MaineBirds internet forum:

2more Great Skuas on Sept.18 GOM ferry crossing:

GREAT SKUAS SEEN ALONG 210-MILE "CAT" FERRY CROSSING OF GOM

Hi Everyone:

​September 17-18​ was the only weekend we could schedule this long Gulf Of Maine "overnight pelagic"

​round-​trip for, and sorry for the Saturday​ conflict with the excellent annual Maine Audubon pelagic trip, but we (6 observers ​assembled together with only one week lead time) did okay with the birds, including our #1 target, GREAT SKUA;  we got two of them, fairly close to the ship on 9/18​. As noted in 3 places below, I also ran a preparatory trip on this route on Sept.12th and filled-in a few additional species (Fulmar, Cory's and one more Great Skua):

Northern Fulmar - 0, 0   (10 on Monday 9/12 prep trip).

Cory's Shearwater - 0, 0   (1 on Monday 9/12). 

Great Shearwater - 20, 85.

Sooty Shearwater - 0, 0.

Manx Shearwater - 3, 2.

Wilson's Storm-Petrel -200, 40. 

Leach's Storm-Petrel - 0, 2. 

Northern Gannet - 32, 32. 

Double-crested Cormorant - 1, 0. 

Red-necked Phalarope - 2, 0. 

phalarope species - 12, 14.

Black-legged Kittiwake - 2, 0.

Bonaparte's Gull - 10, 0.

Herring Gull - 7, 3.

Great Black-backed Gull - 15, 9.

Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2, 1.

tern species - 31, 6.

Arctic Tern - 13, 0.

GREAT SKUA - 0, 2  (plus  1 on Monday 9/12) 

Pomarine Jaeger - 3, 2.

Long-tailed Jaeger - 0, 0.

jaeger species - 3, 16.

Atlantic Puffin - 1, 0.

The pairs of numbers shown are for birds seen on 9/17 and on​  9/18, the two legs of our GOM ferry round trip, 210-miles each way​.   Harbor birds are excluded. 

We also confirmed that the new CAT ferry (formerly called Alakai​ Superferry​, when it was working in Hawaii) is more birder​-friendly than we expected. Even at high speed (35 knots) the ship is stable and has less vibration than we expected. The front views from behind glass are good, and the two side views from open decks are excellent and a full 180 degrees wide. The open rear deck is a good place to sit and relax, but hot exhaust from the engines

​ can​ blur parts of that rear view. All onboard facilities are very good, and the crew is very friendly and helpful.

http://www.ferries.ca/thecat/

Thanks to our collaborative team of six​ Observers that worked well together​:   

Nicole Giambro,  Christine Howe,  Anthony Laguidara,  Dan Nickerson,  Dave Pettee,  Tom Robben.

Thanks to HAS (Hartford Audubon Society, CT​) for enabling this trip, and thanks to Bay Ferries Ltd for working closely with us on this project. 

For more trip details and photos, see this website:

http://trips33.blogspot.com

​And see David Pettee eBird reports on 9/18/2016 for skua photos.​

Thanks and good birding,

Tom Robben

robben99@gmail.com

Photos by Chris Howe from GOM trip on 2016 Sept.17-18:
Clhowe2 | Flickr 
Please remember that all these highly-cropped photos (of distant birds) were taken on 2 windy days, from a high-speed ferry zooming along at 35knots!

Leach's Storm-petrel on Sept.18th. Photo by Chris Howe.

Pomarine Jaeger on Sept.18th. Photo by Chris Howe.

Distant Northern Fulmar on Sept.17th.  Photo by Chris Howe.
Needs to be added to our checklist.

Cory's Shearwater on Sept.18th. Photo by Chris Howe.
Needs to be added to our checklist.

Great Shearwater on Sept.18th. Photo by Chris Howe.

Great Shearwater on 2016-09-18 mid GOM.  Photo by Chris Howe.