Cruise Report : NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter Cruise (GU18-06), November 10 - December 4, 2018, Trophic Interactions and Habitat Requirements of Rice's Whales

The primary objectives of this cruise were to conduct visual and passive acoustic surveys to localize Rice’s whales and conduct close approaches to deploy telemetry tags, collect biopsy samples, and collect photographic data on select Rice’s whales. A mix of tag types was available, with a focus on deploying short-term camera and/or acoustic tags that provide detailed information on animal movement and feeding over short durations. Tags are attached via close approach to free-ranging whales with the scientific small boat, R3. Additional survey objectives included acoustic recordings via deployed sonobuoys, scientific echosounder surveys (EK80) and cetacean tissue biopsy sampling. This report was created in 2020 and published at NOAA’s Institutional Repository in February 2024.