Mon, May 26, 2008

Well, after seeing J Pod on every trip for over a week, they took off today. They were out west, way way west! Way past Sooke, but...They were last seen late this afternoon headed back this way. I think they were out looking for the Ls and Ks, who are due any day.

Also, there was an interesting story about Giant Calimari...er...Squid, on the net today.

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/fishermen-net-500-pound-squid/20080526150509990001

Giant Squid are the favorite food of the Sperm Whale, the same kind of whale that sank the whaling ship Essex, November 20, 1820, which let to the great American novel, Moby Dick. You can read about the sinking of the Essex in the wonderful book, In the Heart of the Sea, by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Sperm Whales are one of the deepest diving whales, though the Elephant Seal will dive even deeper, with recorded dives to 1,503 meters. The record for mammals goes however to the Cuvier's Beaked Whale.

The Cuvier's beaked whales were tagged in the Ligurian Sea off Italy, while the Blainville's beaked whales were tagged off the Canary Islands in deep water, between 700 and 2,000 meters (2,300 to 6,500 feet) with steep bottom topography. "Shallow dives seem to be performed between deep dives, and both species dive very deep to hunt for prey. They seem to spend equal time ascending and descending in shallow dives, but take longer to ascend from deep dives." Tyack said. "Avoidance of decompression problems by slow ascent, as in scuba divers, cannot account for this behavior if the lungs of these breathhold diving marine mammals are collapsed at depths greater than 100 meters (330 feet)."

Beaked whales are very little known because they spend little time at the surface and are difficult to tag. The better studied sperm whale can dive for more than one hour to depths greater than 1,200 meters (roughly 4,000 feet), with average dives of 45 minutes to depths of 600-1,000 meters (1,968 to 3,280 feet).

Elephant seals can spend up to two hours in depths over 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet), but average dives last only 25-30 minutes to depths of about 500 meters (1,640 feet).

WOW!

We do have room tomorrow.

Capt. Jim