2014 May 22 Thursday
Ewing Bank area, Gulf of Mexico
OWOC’s second formal Whale Shark search of 2014, and our first search in the Ewing Bank area(WS2-EB1)
On this second search of the season for whale sharks, we were excited to visit the area that historically has always been visited by large aggregations of these gentle giants of the sea — the Ewing Bank area, a wide shelf located about 200 miles south-southwest of New Orleans. This was still early in the year, as previously the large groups have been spotted here in June. But there had been some reports from fishermen of sightings, so we were ready and eager.
What we found was heartening — lots of dolphins and large tuna, bonito, and other fish (even some marlin!), but alas, no whale sharks. The sargassum was gorgeous and there was lots of it. There were also many areas of surface oil sheen, some around platforms and drillships, some sitting in apparently isolated areas (pipeline leaks or natural seeps, hard for us to say).
Here are maps showing our flight survey of today. The icons indicate substantial sightings — of sargassum, of bait balls (mostly bonito and smaller except for some larger fish near some of the platforms), groups of dolphin with large tuna and a sighting of some marlin, and surface oil pollution, and some of the more interesting platforms and cargo and drillships.
https://onwingsofcare.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=456:20140522-ws2-eb1&catid=9&Itemid=182#sigProId9323321d9b
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https://onwingsofcare.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=456:20140522-ws2-eb1&catid=9&Itemid=182#sigProId36f7b50ec0
Here are the additional photo galleries:
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https://onwingsofcare.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=456:20140522-ws2-eb1&catid=9&Itemid=182#sigProIdb9a1794083
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https://onwingsofcare.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=456:20140522-ws2-eb1&catid=9&Itemid=182#sigProId709c7103bb
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https://onwingsofcare.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=456:20140522-ws2-eb1&catid=9&Itemid=182#sigProIdb52b24d97a
***** On Wings Of Care Flight Log for 20140522 - Thursday *****
Whale Shark Survey in the Gulf of Mexico
Ewing Bank Survey #1 for 2014 (2014 WS2-EB1)
Note: Flight Route is Light Green on Map
All waypoint numbers below refer to the GPS tracks shown in today’s article at OnWingsOfCare.org.
Times are given in CDT.
Lat/lons are typically given in degrees and decimal minutes (except in the table below, where they are in decimal degrees)
Pilot & Aircraft: Bonny L. Schumaker, Ph.D. (ATP, CFI-AIM), N4784E (“Bessie”)
Spotters/Crew: Jennifer McKinney (LDWF), Stephen Delahoussaye
Seas and weather: Seas 2-3 ft, winds 10 kts from the southwest
Sky & Visibility: Mostly clear, 10-mile visibility.
Flight time: 5.5 hours
Flight route: KNEW -
Actual Flight: 691nm within an area of 4,226 sq nm
Maps of our route showing the following waypoints identified during our flight, plus some relevant waypoints from previous flights, are in today’s article (including a link to our GPS track file).
DVR FLT PLAN: (Xpdr____):
N4784E, C172/U 115 kts. KNEW ETD 11450Z, <1,500’, KNEW. ETE: 6.0 hrs. Wildlife survey.
First Dest: ~185 nm south -southwest (205°) of KNEW (SW corner of Ewing Bank survey grid)
ADIZ-Back: ~N28 52 W090 37
New Waypoints and sightings:
WPT |
LAT |
LON |
TIME |
DESCRIPTION |
1011 |
29.13 |
-90.71 |
2014-05-22T13:56:06Z |
Brown algae (?) in waters north of Isles Dernieres |
1012 |
28.93 |
-90.88 |
2014-05-22T14:03:46Z |
**Dolphin 5—7, S of sarg patch. |
1013 |
28.75 |
-91.02 |
2014-05-22T14:10:41Z |
**Lots of small bait balls. |
1014 |
28.69 |
-91.08 |
2014-05-22T14:13:17Z |
** 3 dolphin + some tuna |
1015 |
28.67 |
-91.09 |
2014-05-22T14:13:52Z |
** ~25 Dolphin + bonito |
1016 |
28.47 |
-91.25 |
2014-05-22T14:21:14Z |
XL Sargassum ~ 2 nm to our west |
1017 |
28.28 |
-91.30 |
2014-05-22T14:27:35Z |
Drillship? “Tetra” Buoys around it |
1018 |
28.22 |
-91.31 |
2014-05-22T14:29:23Z |
3 shrimpers |
1019 |
27.98 |
-91.32 |
2014-05-22T14:37:23Z |
^^ Oil Sheen E-W,>2 nm long x 15m N-S |
1020 |
27.88 |
-91.32 |
2014-05-22T14:40:17Z |
^^ Long sheen N-S ~2 nm, to our SW about 2 nm |
1021 |
27.77 |
-91.31 |
2014-05-22T14:44:06Z |
^^ Sheen, long line N-S, + sargassum patches |
1022 |
27.79 |
-91.19 |
2014-05-22T14:52:15Z |
**Baitballs, ~30 good-sized fish |
1023 |
27.94 |
-91.20 |
2014-05-22T14:57:00Z |
Cargo ship moving westward, “Theodore Storm” |
1024 |
27.83 |
-91.11 |
2014-05-22T15:28:38Z |
^^ Oil sheen, 3/4 nm N-S x 15 m W-E. |
1025 |
27.73 |
-91.11 |
2014-05-22T15:31:44Z |
Ship (w/ ROV?) “Helix Producer 1” |
1026 |
27.96 |
-91.00 |
2014-05-22T15:43:31Z |
Platform “Shell Pipeline GC16” (GC18 to west of us) |
1027 |
28.06 |
-90.99 |
2014-05-22T15:46:51Z |
** Platform + 2 fishing boats + Supply boat; Some small BaitBalls |
1028 |
27.97 |
-90.87 |
2014-05-22T16:16:39Z |
Shrimper |
1029 |
27.97 |
-90.87 |
2014-05-22T16:16:50Z |
**Platform w/ a few large jumping fish (King Mackerel?). Fst boat to our southwest “High Life”; large ship also “Malakaa”. Also platform GC65 + 2 supply boats + 1 fishing boat, buoy to our W. Lots of large fish, Marlin! |
1030 |
27.70 |
-90.83 |
2014-05-22T16:29:58Z |
^^ Oil Sheen about 2 nm to our South, near #0660, W-E ~0.5 nm x 20 m wide. |
1031 |
27.77 |
-90.79 |
2014-05-22T16:33:35Z |
^^ Oil sheen to our west, ~400m N-S, ~300m W-E. |
1032 |
27.84 |
-90.73 |
2014-05-22T16:37:07Z |
Platform + supply boat, “Noble Driller” |
1033 |
28.09 |
-90.73 |
2014-05-22T16:44:47Z |
Platform - ? |
1034 |
28.16 |
-90.72 |
2014-05-22T16:47:00Z |
Platform ST300A (ST295 to west) |
1035 |
28.32 |
-90.59 |
2014-05-22T16:56:48Z |
Lots of sargassum! Esp to west. |
1036 |
27.79 |
-90.64 |
2014-05-22T17:15:38Z |
Shrimper to our East |
1037 |
27.73 |
-90.58 |
2014-05-22T17:18:32Z |
GC1 Deepwater Nautilus MODU |
1038 |
27.77 |
-90.52 |
2014-05-22T17:21:05Z |
Chevron GC?; later Platform ST295A |