There was a decent weather window for SOCAL-14 to work offshore the last there days. We had workable conditions with acoustic detections and sightings of a few beaked whales, which are our priority species when we are able to work in areas around the Navy range west of San Clemente Island. Unfortunately we weren’t able to tag any beaked whales and there just weren’t many other animals of any species around. Today the offshore weather went downhill and we fell back to Catalina targeting Risso’s dolphins (like the one below; taken under NMFS permit #14534-2, credit A. Friedlaender). There were plenty of animals around but the weather picked up on us before we were able to get tags deployed. Overnight here in Avalon with an early start hoping for either beaked whales or Risso’s dolphins in the morning off the deep waters around this beautiful island.
