Cruising across the Drake Lake
Today was the first full day at sea for our voyage, and the excitement of waking up on the ship with a view of blue ocean as far as one could see was palpable, bringing renewed energy after our long and largely sleepless journey to Ushuaia. The excitement worked in tandem with nerves at the thought of going through the dreaded Drake Passage, as we knew the positive weather forecasts could change in a second. While this forecast held for an easy ocean, the weather had other ideas as observations started in cold wind and pouring rain, quickly forcing us to shelter in the lower deck. Luckily, it turned in the afternoon, and the rest of the day was like having a picnic on Drake Lake. While sea sickness did take its toll on a good portion of the group as we tried to grow our sea legs, everyone powered through to survey while still having time for much needed rest.
Those on deck had some high buzz moments when fins were spotted. A mixed-species pod of (potentially) hourglass dolphins and pilot whales surfaced in quick succession to the port side. There were lots of splashes and some jumps matching our excitement of our first cetacean sightings in the Drake Passage. All of us were kept busy learning the many new species of seabirds. In between the abundant numbers of smaller petrels, there were a number of the medium sized black-browed albatross and one snowy albatross showing off their impressive wingspans around the ship. While only six students were officially recording marine mammals and seabirds at a time, over the course of the day everybody got outside, enjoying the good weather and searching for any animals they could find, adding to their individual lists of new species and practicing identifications. This proved to go even better than expected, as a few of us spotted a small group of rarely-seen Gray’s beaked whales. A fellow passenger’s photograph and a quick look at the ID guide helped to confirm the species ID. The day was long, but by the end we were all practiced and confident in our order of operations, and excited to do it again tomorrow
written by Sam
Would love to visit the Drake passage one day! The mixed cetacean pod sounds amazing to witness. Is it usual behaviour for whales and dolphins to group together like this? I wonder if this type of grouping has only been adopted by intelligent animals looking to compensate for their species reduced numbers that are still recovering from Antarctic whaling practises. It's amazing we have so many whale species. Can't believe there are 14 other whale species within the Mesoplodon genus alongside the grey beaked whale.