2 weeks to go...

Well, there's actually 13 days to go, but since the day just started for me (it's 1 am right now), 2 weeks is a good estimate. There is not much exciting to report at this point, except that we are 2 days away from finishing shooting the airguns. We should have been done with that yesterday by the original plan, but the chief scientist added a number of extra lines at the last minute. In his defense, we have saved a significant amount of time compared to the original plan, as it contains contigency time for bad weather and/or airgun issues. We will be picking up all of the instruments after shooting stops, and will probably be done with that about a week from now. That will leave us with 4-5 days to collect bathymetry, sonar, magnetic, and gravity data in the portion of the basin west of where we are, which is what my advisor is interested in. Then we have a ~33-36 hour transit to Fiji and we are done. It seems like it will go so fast when I write it like that, but 13 days still seems like a long time to me right now.

1. We are keeping a close watch on the weather, there is another low pressure system south of us right now, which could stay out of our way or could develop into something bigger. The last week or so, the waves, wind, and ship motion have noticeably increased, but it hasn't been nearly as bad as the cyclone. There actually was a second cyclone last week, I think it was named Innini (sp?), but it stayed well west of us and we only felt marginal effects and it has dissipated by now. If the weather kicks up while we are retrieving OBS's, it could be a significant issue, so we're hoping it doesn't get worse.

2. There has been some marine mammal-related drama developing as well. We got an email forwarded to us from a guy who was in a conference in Hawaii. He is a marine biologist who has worked with some of the people on this boat in the past, I think in a MMO capacity. Apparently, he even shut down a previous cruise due to whale activity. A woman from Tonga who was at the conference mentioned to him that 6 pilot whales had washed up in Tonga over a ~2 week period from mid-January to the very beginning of Feb. The email said that this is an "extremely rare" event, but then proceeds to say that 10 pilot whales washed up in a similar fashion just 6 years ago (more like somewhat uncommon then extremely rare if you ask me). She said she is "aware" of our cruise and our schedule and along with others in Tonga, including some in the government, is trying to blame our activities for these deaths. There are a few huge holes in this theory however. 4 of the 6 whales washed up before we were even in the water, proving not only that they had nothing to do with our airguns, but that this person was not "aware" of our schedule at all. The 5th whale washed up I think 2-3 days after we were in the water, before the airguns were even turned on. The 6th whale is the only one that could even marginally be connected to our activities, but given that the other 5 clearly had nothing to do with us, it's reasonable to conclude the 6th didn't either. Unfortunately, logic and reason will probably not suffice to convince these people, especially when politicians get involved who want to show that they "care" about the environment (i.e. reelection). It's unlikely that this will affect us, but it's possible there may be some protests or something like that when we reach Fiji.
The real drama will begin when the boat gets to Taiwan, where some similar research will be done around the island (thankfully I'll be long gone by then). I don't know a whole lot about this issue, except for the few things I've heard here and there, so I don't have many details, but I imagine the whales washing up in Tonga will only add fuel to the fire. The crew is expecting to be greeted by angry protests when they arrive. There is apparently a growing number of people who have become convinced that seismic research with airguns is harmful to all kinds of sea life and want to shut it down permanently. Many of these people are fanatics that aren't really concerned with petty things like evidence and reason, and simply will believe what they want to believe. However, there certainly could be some truth to what they are saying. The airguns produce an extremely loud sound (>200 dB) which certainly could have a negative effect on sea life and marine mammals and/or disrupt the communication of whales. They used to use dynamite, so I think it's safe to say that airguns are at least an improvement. These potential negative effects are exactly why we have marine mammal observers (MMO's) on the boat monitoring 24/7. They constantly monitor with an acoustic device that allows them to listen for any sign of whale activities and during the day this is combined with visual inspections from the MMO tower. If whales are anywhere within a range that could be harmful to them, the airguns are shut down. It seems logical to me that any fish or other animals that may be harmed by this would hear the guns from a long distance and stay away. The sonar-based devices, as well as the engines, also produce a much quieter and more frequent sound that would likely scare away anything within a dangerous distance of the ship. This is most likely why we haven't seen much sea life on the cruise. I don't claim to know the solution to this issue, but as of yet there really isn't any clear-cut evidence that any of the ships activities harm sea life in anyway. If I find out some more info on this I'll post it, but I've been writing way too long, so I'm going to stop.