Blue Whales off Virginia

Our HDR Inc. and Marine Science Services research team had a fantastic day surveying offshore VA waters last Friday! After making our way through the Norfolk Canyon with sightings of bottlenose and common dolphins, we located 4 blue and 3 fin whales 10 kilometers south of the canyon. Whales were located in depths of 500-700 meters and spread out across several kilometers. Since 2015, this is only the fourth time we’ve seen blue whales in our area. One of our top priorities is to deploy both suction-cup tags (in this case CATS diary tag with camera) for fine-scale dive, vocal, and movement behaviors as well as Wildlife Computers dive/location ‘LIMPET’ dart tags. After some ‘almost there’ approaches we decided to hold off on the suction-cup tag deployment given the time needed to retrieve the tag once deployed. However, we were able to successfully deploy a satellite tag, collect a biopsy sample on a juvenile-sized blue whale, collect loads of identification photos for comparison to other photoID catalogs, and use the drone to obtain length measurements and body condition of one blue and one fin whale.
We were out again on Wednesday and managed to locate one of the four blue whales. Just as we setup for tagging and put the drone up, a massive fog bank rolled in and shut us down for the day. Hoping to get back out there next week when the seas calm down.
This project is funded by United States Fleet Forces Command and managed by Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Atlantic under the U.S. Navy Marine Species Monitoring program www.navymarinespeciesmonitoring.us
All research was conducted under NMFS MMPA/ESA permit 21482 issued to Dan Engelhaupt