Aerial survey in the Pelagos Sanctuary: message from the field

All is proceeding here in Corsica. The weather has been horrible and we had to wait almost a week before being able to fly a few transects.

Attached is a figure with an update of the tracks covered so far (click on image to enlarge). The forecast is good for the next three days and we plan to work on the north part tomorrow (C68-C63), finish the west part on Friday and complete the east section on Saturday, including the 'bad weather' tracks.

Then a few fronts are coming in, starting Sunday and they may last up to a week. I have herefore decided to leave Bastia and go home for a week or ten days, until the weather gets better. The pilot has also some commitments in La Rochelle, so all fits well.

Sightings have not been very many, 34 striped dolphin sightings up to now, and just a couple of Tursiops. Still no whales at all.

Simone Panigada