Beam Reach

End of Week 2

This last week was our second week on land where we were introduced to a plethora of topics and a great wealth of information about bioaccoustics and the statistical analysis of scientific methods. We had a journal club on Sustainability with Bob Francis, a retired UW professor. I really enjoyed his way of engaging us in conversation and provoking our thoughts about the subject. We started out with a quick write on what we thought sustainability was. He then related ecosystems, economy, and management as three circles (great visual) that need to be addressed in order to attain sustainability on a larger scale. We also had a U.W. grad student, Shannon McCluskey, give a talk on prey in relation to the southern resident killer whales. Finally, we had the opportunity to test/play with the hydrophones and different programs that will help us decipher some parameters of killer whale calls. We ended the week with a quick sail in a 20′ sailboat with Commander Lloyd. The wind nearly thrashed up on the dock while we were taking off and Lloyd was a pro at bringing us safely back to the dock too. I have to admit that I was a little freaked out at the speed in which we came into the dock, but we made it safe and sound! After that we kayaked for about an hour in Griffin Bay. We hit the 5:00 ferry, Seattle bound for the weekend.
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week 2

The first part of this one is taken from my "oldschool" paper and pencil journal.

It’s 8:12am on a Saturday morning and I’m sitting at the bus stop waiting for Joe to pick me up.  He’ll bring me to Snug Harbor where I will meet the Soundwatch crew.  Colleen went out with them yesterday and had a great time.  There were lots of whales yesterday.  The first page of the day came just before I left the cabin this morning and it was 900 or no whales but its still early, they might show up. 

Yesterday was a great day! It started with us meeting Val on the dock to do some hydrophone work.  We put a speaker that played an Orca call every 30 seconds in at one end of the dock and then we spread out along the dock with hydrophones and our computers to try and record the call.  After some initial technical difficulties we were all able to record the call.  There was a lot of background noise, mostly boats so that added to the challenge.  Then we went back to S1 (our classroom) to try and figure out some of the analysis.  I’m starting to get the hang of it.  This practical exercise really helped make sense of some of the stuff that had only been theoretical to that point.  Then we took a quick break for lunch before heading out to play on the water.

At that point I was interrupted by Joe arriving.  Joe is really Jo or Joanna, so I’ll just fill in now the rest of that day. 

We went over to this beach that is covered in drift wood and not just tiny pieces but whole tree trunks.  Around the other side of the point there was a nice dock and small rocky beach.  We went down on the dock and met the Commodore and his Cal20 sailboat built I believe in 1961.  The deck was painted two shades of bright green, it was a neat little boat, I liked it.  We divided into two groups; Rena, Peggy and Juliette went out with the Commodore first and Emily, Jason, Donna and I went kayaking.  We helped them get off the dock, it was a rather interesting departure because the wind was pushing the boat down on the dock so we had to push them off.  It felt good to get in a kayak again.  We paddled around for about 45 min before heading back in to switch groups.  The redocking was rather impressive since it was done entirely under sail.  It’s hard to describe in words but it was basically pulling a Uey by the dock and tossing our lines to people on the dock and them pulling the boat to a stop.  It was fun and we had a perfect warm sunny day!

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