2006-2007 International Whaling Commission-Southern Ocean Whale and

experiments designed to improve and interpret estimates of minke whale abundance from previous cruises. After departing Cape Town, the ship first transited south to the research area for fin whales, located between latitudes 55°S and 61°S. From 27 December to 2 January a visual survey for fin whales was conducted in Closing Mode. A total of 100.29 nmiles of trackline were covered in primary searching and 16 groups of fin whales (comprising 43 animals) were detected. Humpback whales were the most frequently sighted species in the fin whale research area with 53 groups/102 animals detected. Minke whale research was carried out from 4 January to 13 February in the vicinity of the ice edge. The focus of this research component was to evaluate BT mode (Buckland and Turnock, 1992) survey methodology and to conduct school size estimation experiments. 2,258 nmiles of trackline were surveyed during the minke whale research, including 1,482 nmiles in two BT modes and 634 nmiles during two school size estimation experiments. Minke whales were the most frequently sighted species in this research area, totaling 651 groups/2,174 animals. During the cruise, additional research was carried out on blue whales and humpback whales. 55 groups of 125 blue whales were sighted (121 individuals were identified as true blue whales). Of these, biopsies were collected from 72 whales and photo-id images collected from 114 whales. Acoustics recording was conducted at a total of 55 stations using sonobuoys. Sounds attributed to blue whales were recorded at 40 of 45 stations conducte