How do you measure happiness?

For our little team of field biologists? By the number of right whales spotted. One big and one little is perfect.

whale calf just above water surface
The 2015 calf of #3292 Photo: S. Parks

By the successful attachment of a suction-cup tag.

tag being placed on back of whale
Successful deployment of a DTAG on #3292. Photo: H. Foley

By a beautiful sunset on the R/V Stellwagen while we track an overnight tag.

red sunset at water line
Photo: D. Cusano

By a home-made latte onboard…

coffee cup
The perfect start to any day. Thanks Sean Sullivan

By the relocation of right whale mother the following day close to the channel entrance with a tag still attached and recording successfully. Too specific?

tag on the back of a whale
Tag still on! Photo: Z. Swaim

By the amount of data collected: 23 hours of DTAG data, plus loads of images, videos, and GPS tracks.

lab member looking through data
Heather working hard.

Now let’s just hope we can get a few more days like this in before the season ends!