Pictures from the deepest place on Earth

[hop]

Yep, I've been cruising over the Marianas trench! There's some cool stuff out here... a few details and these pics are buried in my "off to sea once more" thread but the pics warrant (IMO) their own post.

First, my office. I look rotate through the flying bridge every 2 hours from sunrise to sunset and look for shit. On the flying bridge we start on the port bigeyes, then center observer/data logger, then starboard bigeyes for 40 min each.

Next, my home/other office. Yep, I live in the back of the Con-Ex human smuggling container. Awesome! (Actually it's got the best ride of any of the sleeping quarters and since I'm ony there when I'm asleep I have no issues with being human cargo.)

Here's what we see most often... a sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) busting through the chop right next to the boat.

And here's a sei whale right under the bow. That wire is from our jackstaff and when you can see that in the photos with no horizon you know the whale is w/in about 50 feet of the boat, or less than 100 feet from me up on the flying bridge.

The next one is a Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni) w/ a skin problem. Notice the Klingon-esque rostrum with three ridges instead of just one for the sei. This is the only reliable way you can tell seis and Bryde's whales apart by eye.

And finally, three pics of melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) coming over (notice the seas...) and playing with us.

[verbier61]

ha!!! really nice way to escape from dryness in the mountains!!!

[Snowy Wintergarden]

Beautiful!

You're very lucky.

[klar]

SPLASH! whooohooo!

[Cono Este]

The next one is a Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni) w/ a skin problem. Notice the Klingon-esque rostrum with three ridges instead of just one for the sei. .

Yeah, I was just about to point that out.

Nice office!

[steve]

looks tasty.

flipper with tarter sauce.. yum..

[shera]

Amazing. And yeah, don't bury these pics.

[Split-It]

Great pics and whale lesson. do you have one of those whistles like at sea world where you can communicate with flipper?

and pardon my ignorance, but remind us where Marianas Trench is. (near Japan, no?)

[Trackhead]

What a horrible job you must have.

Boating around the world.

[Kellie]

Stoked to see some pics! Enjoy the rest of the trip, and bring some snow back!

[yentna]

Nice! Looks like a fun job, at least beautiful at times.

Potential for new desktop images there.

(Well, in the end the dogger keeps his spot, but it's potential nonetheless!)

[grrrr]

and pardon my ignorance, but remind us where Marianas Trench is. (near Japan, no?)

Near the Marianas. Duh.

Nice pics. You timed it right, becuase the deepest place on earth is not currently anywhere near Baker.

Green with envy.

[ArmadaBC]

Damn I was thinking this was snow related, still nice pics.

[brettf]

hells yeah! looks like a nice view from that office!

[TeleHoar]

Awesome pics!


^^required equipment for the drive-by nude beaching!

[comish]

Actually flipper was trying to snake my wave yesterday!

It was pretty dang cool. They were surfing the swell as it came in and a group of 3 or 4 were heading right at me. You are sorta thinking, damn, do they see me? What would happen if flipper comes out of the water and lands on me? Watching them rip the waves is definitely cool!

Thanks for sharing

[bio-smear]

Dude you are living the Sea Hunt life. Where's Lloyd Bridges? Please tell me that you hang out all day in a silver wetsuit, and jump in the water with the slightest provocation...

Sweet pics.

[CascadeCrudSkier]

Nice pics hop.

I thought about you the other day while I was flying off the San Diego coast, there was a pod of about 5 or 6 orcas, plus about 60 dolphins chasing a school of fish along the surface. Pretty cool stuff. There were also some bigger whales away from the feeding frenzy, maybe gray or humpback.

Additionally, there's been tons of dolphins at Blacks lately, they've been getting closer than usual in the lineup (3-4 feet) and have been dropping in on several surfers. Stupid locals think they own the place.

I may be in Guam this spring/summer, hope you're still there.

[Agent 00X]

RAD!!!

Probably old news but
K-Pod and L-Pod spotted off SF, thought to be looking for salmon.

So, what does the ocean taste like there?????

[Nohillsnearby]

Great pics and whale lesson. do you have one of those whistles like at sea world where you can communicate with flipper?

and pardon my ignorance, but remind us where Marianas Trench is. (near Japan, no?)

Near Guam. http://www.cnmi-guide.com/info/sketc...nastrench.html

[ptavv]

Dude you are living the Sea Hunt life. Where's Lloyd Bridges? Please tell me that you hang out all day in a silver wetsuit, and jump in the water with the slightest provocation...

I picture him as more of a Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson) from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

[hutash]

and pardon my ignorance, but remind us where Marianas Trench is. (near Japan, no?)

Between her legs, she was the cute one on Gilligan's Island.

[hop]

Here are some highlights from leg 2 of the trip. I'm truly sorry I have to leave since we're really learning a shitload out here and the work we're doing really is groundbreaking. But then again, since WA and CA are going nutters right now I'm pretty happy I'm going to get some of that sweet sweet frozen goodness.

First off, we've seen a number of small Bryde's whale calves with their mothers. Here's a little guy coming up to breathe. Notice the Klingon head.

2nd up we have some fishenin' action. We're constantly trolling 4-6 lines and have a pretty constant supply of mahi and ono on board. I did not get sick of eating ono sashimi 80% of the nights out here.

3rd: We passed by Saipan a couple of times and heard humpbacks every time, but couldn't find them. One day we decided to let the acousticians drive the boat through the night and low and behold, we had the humpbacks first thing in the AM. We got to witness some nice jousting between males as they went after the sweet sweet whale poon.

4: I guess this should be after the 2nd pic but anyways, here's me with the catch of the day.

5: Matsudaira's storm petrel. One of our bread and butter bird species for the trip. Notice the white upper primary shafts? That's how you ID these guys.

6: Pseudorca crassidens or False killer whales were seen a number of times. For some reason they remind me of penises with dorsal fins.

7: This was the sighting of the trip, and now ranks as the wierdest/coolest thing I've ever seen (up with swimming with dense-beaked whales and seeing a snow leopard). As we were approaching a group of about 7 sperm whales we were rammed by one of the adult males. Fucking nuts!

8: Spinner dolphins were only seen once. Pretty little guys ain't they?

9: As far as bird sightings go, this short-tailed albatross was the best for me. I've never seen one and there are only about 600 left. We weren't too far from their breeding grounds so it wasn't a huge surprise to find one, but given their rarity it's always an event. The other big deal was finding a Parkinson's petrel waaaaaay away from where it should be this time of year (NZ), but I've seen them before.

10: The sunset two days ago. Notice Ruby the Booby on the top of the jackstaff. Good times, good times.

[Free Range Lobster]

Nice bull dorado.

[f2f]

hop is the david attenborough of this board

i love every strange thread from every strange piece of the world i can't even dream of visiting.