Beam Reach

Change over at Friday Harbor for a change

Sunday, October 14, 2007

 

Over breakfast, we enjoyed a rare connection to the outside world over the internet.  Afterwards, we cranked up the anchor to head out to meet Western Prince for Tim’s vessel noise recordings.  We began the weekly clean up of the boat—cleaning the oven, bilge pumps, under the sinks…Alex put forth a good effort of using up some of our still-abundant produce by cooking up French-style veggie omelets for lunch as we pumped out our (very full) holding tank and refilled our (quite empty) water tank at Friday Harbor.  Team VATO entered the last of their data on systems and science, backed up the hard drive, weighed the waste (3 kg), recycling (4.6 kg) and compost (6.6 kg), and downloaded the GPS data for the week.  After grabbing some fresh apple cider off the Friday Harbor Lab docks, we met up with Team JAMI and drove to meet Jason’s friends, Noel and Anne Monin.  The Monins are making a concerted effort to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their sustainability.  Over freshly baked pumpkin bread and brewed coffee with raw milk, we discussed some of their choices and efforts, including cooking foods from scratch (chicken broth, mayonnaise, sour cream), gardening, canning, composting, etc.  Afterwards, Team JAMI loaded up the Gato Verde, while Team VATO headed back to the dorms at the labs.  We enjoyed a Lebanese feast prepared by Wes for an early dinner, and then settled into a long evening of data analysis.

Last week on the water – Week 8 (at sea)

Monday 8^th October

Well, it’s the end of the first day of my last week at sea on the Beam Reach program, and we had whales today! We got some unbelievable recordings, it was literally a chorus of killer whale sounds. I was hearing sounds I’d never heard before – clicks, whistles, calls and sounds that were similar to rubbing two wet balloons together, and ones similar to rubbing two rocks together. It was awesome!

We left

Garrison
Bay as it provides good protection from weather and has good anchoring grounds. The JaMi group accidentally ripped the mainsail on Saturday so we have taped it up and are in the process of stitching it up. Quite a lot has ripped so Anne, myself, Val and Todd have all done a bit of sewing, still have a quite a bit to do tomorrow. Shiftwork will be in order I think. We watched ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?” just earlier, and it was very interesting. Makes you think so I would recommend watching it. I still have to see ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ which I’ve been told is a must see. One final thing before I hit the sack – due to the tension and indecisiveness in our group over the past weeks we have now adopted a “leader of the day’’ in which one member of the group organises and makes major decisions throughout the day. It was an idea put forth so we can get jobs done quickly and efficiently and not sit around discussing what we do next. Ash was today and she did a bloody great job. She hasn’t really exhibited any leadership role while on the program so far, but today she proved she was definitely capable. We have a quick “de-briefing” after dinner and give constructive criticism and positive feedback to the ‘leader of the day’ so they can think about areas to work on. I’m not till Wednesday I don’t think so I’ll see how I go. Anyway, its almost 1am so I’m off to my cold birth. Had to sleep fully clothed last night! Fun times.

 

Tuesday 9^th October

What a full on day! We had warnings of gail force winds and 4-6ft swell arriving mid-morning, but that’s all they were, warnings. There was not a single time during the day that it seemed as though a storm was approaching or the winds were picking up, so we had a bloody great day, all day, with the whales. The weather forecasters got it pretty botched up. Anyway, so I started this morning by recording ‘Glacier Spirit’ from Port Townsend at the NW entrance to

Roche
Harbor. The recordings were awesome and we were all done in 20 min. Glacier Spirit is a whale watching boat based out of Pt Townsend USA and is currently on a 3 day sightseeing trip around the San Juans, and when he saw us out on the water yesterday he contacted Todd (as I mentioned) and so this morning we arranged to meet up, as they were staying at Roche last night, and get some recordings done. After we were done with Glacier Spirit, I opportunistically got a ferry recording and we began our trek down south to where there were reports of whales off False Bay (
SW San Juan). Todd had repaired the alternator bracket last night so we were back up to travelling at our normal speed of 5-6 knots. On the way down I chatted to Anna (POW) and she had the all clear from her boss to get boat recordings (with a few quid pro quo’s of course). We headed the whales off heading north at Eagle Point, J’s and L’s, and I decided today that I didn’t need to get any more echolocation clicks as I have literally hundreds and need to get a mean spectrum for each individual one. Instead, I decided I would be on camera and learn to use the Beam Reach camera and try and get some good orca shots. The camera is one of those ones with a really fat long lens that has an awesome zoom so it was pretty easy to get good shots. Anway, so as I was taking photos, a POW boat came onto the scene so I chatted to them on the radio, it was cleared by headquarters, and I was able to record them as they headed back to Victoria. For any future Beam Reach students that wish to do controlled boat noise recordings I suggest getting in touch with the businesses within the first few weeks, NOT the middle few weeks, because it’s really no good getting in touch with the drivers as they ultimately need the all clear from the bosses. Still, it’s worked out well for me in this last week. I plan on getting another recording (Jim Maya’s Peregrin) in the morning, weather permitting of course, as the change is starting to come in now as I write this. So after I recorded Ocean Magic II we continued north up
San Juan past Lime Kiln and just parked ourselves, dropped the hydrophones, and listened to the abundance of calls and clicks coming in. There were around 30-40 whales in a 2km radius of the GV and they were primarily foraging and playing with spyhops, tail slaps, and a few observed “business times”. (Listen to “Business Time” by Flight of the Conchords to know what I’m talking about). I ended up getting a photo of the elucid “elf shoe”. Again if you can work out what killer whale “business time” is then you can work out what I mean by a killer whale “elf shoe”. We had whales coming in all directions so literally all we could do was just sit there and wait till it was clear to move. There were only a couple of boats on scene as most of them had figured the weather would be bad today so had cancelled their trips. It was awesome because it was calm and we got the whales almost all to ourself! I did record a few clicks but was quite happy to take photos and help Anne with her vertical array. I have spent most, well pretty much all of my time with the whales sitting on the cabin table with the headphones on, so today was my day to enjoy and watch the whales and get some good photos so I can photo ID them in my spare time. We hung around the whales until well after 5pm, after being with them since 11am, so it was a long day of focussing. I loved sitting there watching them in tight groups of 4-5 individuals spyhopping, leaping, diving and tail slapping. J’s and L’s were together so it was much like a party we would have as humans, just socialising. We know they are very social creatures and just witnessing that today was truly amazing. I really do feel soo lucky to be all the way over here, on the other side of the world, seeing these creatures do things I’ve only seen on posters and documentaries. It makes me want to stick around here even more, which is why I’ll be here next summer.

We are anchored again in

Garrison
Bay tonight. We were all pretty exhausted after today so a couple of people had naps this arvo. I wish I could have as I’m always last to bed (except when Scott is on board), but I choose to stay up-to-date on my blog. If the weather is bad like it says it will be then I may have a kip tomorrow arvo. I have to ring Ivan from Western Prince first thing tomorrow morning as he can skipper Jim Maya’s boat. Hopefully the weather is ok to get it done, out of the way, in the computer, and ready for analysis. Today was definitely one that will stick in the memory bank.

 

Wednesday 10^th October

I woke up to drips on my head this morning as I had left my hatch on the ventilation setting and rain was dripping in. Fun fun. It was dead calm on the water with a little rain first thing but it soon cleared and we had clear blue sky all day. Awesome October weather! I was leader of the day today so had to be on my game. I called Ivan this morning but he was a bit crook so was unable to get Peregrine recording. We had reports of whales sighted off Pender Bluff (NW San Juans) so rang around to confirm the reports. It seemed as though that was the word on the water so we headed north out of Garrison and parked at Turn Point on

Stuart
Island and deployed a hydrophone. We sat there floating for a couple of hours, had lunch, by which time other whale watch operators had navigated up to Active Pass into Strait of Georgia and down to Boundary Pass, but found nothing. I really enjoy chatting on the radio, and I think it definitely helps me to get to know the drivers out here, and ultimately assist me in getting employment next summer. As there were no whales and we had to be at Roche at 4 to meet JaMi, we headed back SE to Spieden Channel where Val and I went out in the dinghy and made recordings of the GV. It was dead calm so I was able to get some great recordings. After that was done it was time to head in Roche and meet up with JaMi to get a tour of the Roche Harbor wastewater treatment plant (part of the sustainability component of the course). Surprisingly it was interesting and quite odourless. The guy that runs it there is very passionate about his work and does a great job keeping things natural with basically no environmental impact. When you talk about water conservation I believe it comes down to what people are prepared to do, and I think that what people don’t know won’t hurt them. That may be a crude attitude but I truly believe that we will have to end up drinking treated wastewater, as water really is a precious resource and I’ve known that all my life growing up in the country living off rainwater tanks and having water restrictions. One thing that disgusted me was the fact that Victoria, BC pump their wastewater directly into the
Strait of Juan De Fuca, without any treatment at all. I might end up living there! Apparently there is pressure for them to change their ways which is a bloody good thing! It sickens me to think that what goes straight from their toilet ends up directly in the ocean without any kind of breakdown or treatment. Anyway, enough about wastewater. We talked more about water conservation at dinner on the GV and Jason seemed to be interested in things we do Down Under in terms of building houses, harnessing run-off, and financial incentives for doing so. I think Americans can learn a lot from us Aussies, particularly when it comes to water conservation. I mean, the half flush/full flush toilet is apparently only just catching on here! JaMi left straight after dinner so we went and had a much needed shower at Roche. I know we’re trying to be water conscious on the boat but seriously, one shower a week is not much to ask, and I think it’s more a personal hygiene issue rather than a sustainability issue. It’s the last week at sea anyway so it’s a non-issue now. After showers we pulled off the dock and after one failed attempt and pulling up letting out and pulling up almost 200ft (almost 70m) of chain, we were able to anchor securely. I had my ‘leader of the day’ debriefing and pretty much good comments all round. The general consensus was that today was really a day where I couldn’t fully show my leadership potential as it was a day where a lot of the time people were just doing their own thing (mainly data analysis). They said they’ve definitely witnessed me step up to a leadership position in previous weeks so know what I am capable of. I agreed, as the last two days we had whales and so systems were go go go, but today, a lot of people were tired, and so it was pretty unstructured while we were waiting around to hear reports. Comments were also made that when jobs needed to be done I just went ahead and did them, and didn’t delegate them. In my defence, they were just little jobs (pumping out, filling up freshwater, starting dishes etc) and I felt I could do them all myself, and didn’t want to delegate them. It was also stated that they always felt that I knew what was going on and that made people feel comfortable. Overall I guess I was happy with what I did today but I didn’t really get to truly display what I am capable of, but do believe I have already demonstrated this in previous weeks at sea.

On a final note before I head to my hole, when arriving back to Roche today and meeting up with the JaMi group, and Jason and Val were off chatting, and everyone else (i.e. 9 other females) were socialising, I had the major realisation that I didn’t have a bloke to chat to and kinda felt alone. Not that it’s a big issue and I really don’t know why I’m blogging about it, but I guess if there was a situation for a future male Beam Reach student to be in the same situation I am in, he could probably relate to how I feel. Look, I get along with everyone, but being the only guy I still do feel somewhat isolated and don’t feel comfortable in the girly conversations where they’re chatting soo bloody fast and soo bloody loud that nobody can get a word in either ways. I lived with two chicks back home, and when they were with their friends and chatting and laughing I could hear them through 3 doors and 3 walls in the house! There are all things we miss on this program, but I guess for me the major thing for me is to not be able to sit down with blokes my age and just talk about bloke stuff, over a nice cold ale. Just being there when the 2 groups interact it’s an in-your-face reminder of the fact that I’m surrounded by females and really just want to get away for a moment, but can’t. Don’t read into this too much, cos in 2 weeks I’ll be partying it up in the MIA with old mates and will look back at this and laugh. But, this is a snapshot of how I feel right at this moment. Last week was really good ‘cos there is an Irish guy studying back at the labs and we talked World Cup all week. Women probably wouldn’t understand it, but sometimes guys just need to talk “guy stuff”, and it’s bloody great to do it over a cold fermented vegetable drink.

 

Thursday 11^th October

As I write this we are docked in
Port Angeles, USA! Not much to report today. I finally got boat recordings of Peregrine this morning (Jim Maya’s boat, although his character of a neighbour was skippering it). What a funny bloke Noris was. Would love to have a beer with that guy sometime. Water was almost dead calm today so we did the recordings at 9:30am just out the front of Mitchell Bay, then made our way south with the hope of getting to Race Rocks to see some pinnipeds life. Realistically it was a bit too far as it’s west past Victoria up into the Strait of Juan De Fuca, which is why we are docked in Port Angeles tonight and plan to catch the ebb to Race Rocks in the morning, cruise around checking out elephant seals and Stellar sea lions, maybe even see a Humpback or two (4 have been in the region the last two days so we are hopeful) then cruise the flood back into San Juan tomorrow night. Today was spent analysing data and finalising my Methods section. I’m finalising to a point that will be just a cut and paste into my final report. They have changed slightly in terms of boat recordings so need to adjust that accordingly. I’m pretty happy with the amount of boat recordings I have but would very much like to get a zodiac if I can this week. If not, then so be it.

We got into Pt Angeles at around 5pm. Anne actually used to live here so she spent the evening catching up with old friends while we went to a coffee shop with free wi-fi and got up-to-date on our emails and the like. Ash and I were on dinner, cooked spaghetti and fake meatballs again. It’s a no-brainer but tastes good so I stick to what I know. Watched a dvd on killer whales in
New Zealand that was awesome and now I’m writing this. I’m on breakfast in the morn so better be off. I look forward to seeing elephant seals and Stellars tomorrow! Val promises they will be there! And maybe even catch the southern residents as they come back into the Strait from the open ocean (they have been away since Tuesday, and typically go out for 2-3 days at a time). Fingers crossed!

 

Friday 12^th October

What a marine mammal filled day! These waters are like a marine mammal playground. We saw your regular harbor seals, harbor porpoises and Dall’s porpoises, but we also saw Stellar sea lions and Humpback whales! We left
Port Angeles at around 9am and headed NW across to Race Rocks. Now to familiarise you with Race Rocks it’s a place that is very much frequented by whale watch operators when killer whales are not in the region. They have Stellar sea lions, which are the biggest of the sea lions, actually the biggest of the otariids (for you biologists) and Northern elephant seals this time of year (summer fall), and of course harbor seals that are abundant throughout these waters. But, no elephant seals this morning so I was really disappointed. Apparently the Navy had been letting off blasts above the water in the area which may have scared them off. Buggers! So we cruised around Race Rocks and got some great shots of the Stellars then got a radio call that told us that were humpbacks about 5 miles from Race Rocks in the direction we were going to head to get back to San Juan so off we went. We, the Gato Verde have definitely established ourself out on the water in terms of being known and what we’re doing. People call us up to find out where the whales are! In return of course we tell them, it’s all a big network and no-one gives anyone else false reports. I have definitely established myself out there, being the only Aussie on the radio I mean, so it has put me in good stead for recognising drivers and vessels and hopefully aiding in job prospects next summer. So we headed across to the humpbacks and boy did we get a show! They were very active – tail slaps, pec slaps, lunges and really really loud blows. Unfortunately no breaches but that is definitely something special if you witness that. There were several Stellars playing with the 4 humpbacks and we witnessed the sea lions porpoising out of the water. Got some great photos using the Beam Reach camera, a camera that is a million times better than mine for zoom wildlife shots. There were POW zodiacs in the region but it was just too unsafe to get recordings around humpbacks when they can go down for up to 40min and could surface anywhere., so I decided against contacting them. We left the humpys at around 3pm as it was around 3 hours travel to any of our
US waters anchoring spots. At about 5pm we got a report of J-pod coming in the
Strait of Juan De Fuca and were sighted 2 miles south of Race Rocks, where we were this morning! Grr! Ahh well, we have people monitoring the hydrophones at Lime Kiln and Val’s place in case they come up past Snug where we are anchored tonight. Had bloody great weather today, have actually had bloody good weather most of the week. I really didn’t think our final week at sea was going to be this calm. I guess it means we can’t go sailing as there is just not any wind, so maybe tomorrow we can get a bit of sailing in. Depends if we get whales or not I guess!

 

Saturday 13^th October

‘Twas our last day at sea, and yes, we got whales! Killer whales that is! We woke up at 7:30am to reports from Val’s wife Leslie that she could her vocalisations on the hydrophone out the front of their house, so we hauled anchor and motored out of Snug (Mitchell Bay) to see if we could get a visual on the whales and a direction of travel. As we were motoring out the calls on the hydrophones stopped so it was a bout 15min before we got a visual, well, till I got a visual. I spotted one just off Kellet Bluff heading north around

Friday
Harbor to do the changeover.  We had our sailing assessment this arvo, of which I got a perfect score, so I was pretty chuffed. I then had one last cruise on the dinghy with Todd. I opened it right up, and we hit around 20knots as it was dead calm. I parked it quite well this time, no going underneath the cat or anything like that. We watched ‘Whale Rider’ this evening. It wasn’t quite what I expected but still, not a bad movie. I also spoke to Todd tonight about hybrid electric propulsion systems as I want to do that for my sustainability report and look into putting electric motors onto smaller whale watch vessels such as a zodiac, so they can motor silently when in the vicinity of the whales. It’s better for the environment, and better for the whales. As I write this I’m again the last one to go to bed. It’s  been bloody cold in my berth the last couple of nights. I’ve been fully clothed with my beanie all curled up in a 0 degrees sleeping bag and a blanket! Oh well, one more night of it then back to a heated dorm room. Today was a great day, and made even greater by the fact that it’s our last day at sea and we got to see whales. I’m gonna miss the GV, as I really did enjoy living on the boat and sailing, although unfortunately this week we didn’t get the winds to sail. It was evident that living on the boat was not for everyone, but I could definitely do it.

 

Sunday 14^th October

Well, the sea component of the Beam Reach Program is now over. I was on breakfast this morning and awoke to a magical sunrise over
North Bay. I was leader of the day again today so made a list of all the chores we needed to do for the changeover while I recorded Western Prince just off

Friday
Harbor and were 10 min early at the labs dock. Good work team! We unloaded the GV, I had a moments silence and reminisced over the awesome 4 weeks I had out at sea on this vessel, then we went to a friend of Jason’s who have chosen to live their life sustainably as possible. We all sat down and had a chat with them. The interesting thing was, they (parents and a single child) are living very similar to they way I lived when I was a kid growing up in country
Victoria. We were on rainwater tanks so were very water conscious, we had a compost and a veggie patch, Mum made a lot of our clothes and we often bought food in bulk as we lived a fair way out of town. So the discussions we were having were not really new to me. I guess the difference is though not everyone can bring a family up in a house that can have a compost or a veggie patch, so we discussed how you can you try and live sustainably when you’re in a flat or a house in the middle of the city. This program has definitely opened my eyes to more things and how not to leave as big a carbon footprint, but a lot of the little things I was already doing, and so will continue to do these things when I get home, and develop even more habits to try and live more sustainably. A lot of the focus though when we talk about sustainability is in regard to an American way of life, and so it is often very different to the situation back Down Under. Anyway, so we headed back to the labs, the JaMi group unpacked their gear onto the GV, we farewelled them off, and it was time for an early dinner and a much needed shower and cold beverage to celebrate the end of our sea component. I’m happy with the amount of data I have so the next 2 weeks will be spent in front of a computer writing everything up. It’s gonna be all systems go! I’ve decided NOT to state business names in my report and presentation, instead just the propulsion systems and vessel specifics. I’ve stated this to the various whale watch operators that I have measured and also that I am not out to say that one vessel is “louder” than another, as that is not the purpose of my research. Hopefully all reply with the all clear. I’m also very happy with how I have established myself out on the water in this region among whale watch operators and researchers, as it will definitely assist me in gaining employment next summer in
Canada. I feel very grateful to have been able to communicate with the whale watch operators while out at sea on this program, but even more grateful to Beam Reach for giving me the opportunity to network with people from all over the industry.

Rain, deer and “I feel like…” – Week 7

Monday 1^st October to Wednesday 3^rd October

It’s been an interesting couple of days back on land. We had our peer and program evaluations due just before we got off the boat and it has become evident that there is a bit of tension within the VaTo group. Now me being the only guy in the group and pretty much oblivious to issues between females, I had no idea that there even was tension between certain members. I thank Ash for bringing it to my attention, otherwise I would have had no idea! When she told me I was really surprised. She just looked at me and said “You’re such a boy”, obviously implying I know nothing about the dynamics of females living in close quarters with each other and how little small things can escalate into big issues. I guess if there was another guy my age on the program, and we clashed in one area or another for some reason, we’d lay it out, sort it out, and move on. Pretty simple. Anyway, we had a discussion last night (Tues) and talked about how we can make the last week on the boat much more pleasant and issues between members of the group seem to have been resolved. Time will tell. I got my peer evaluation back and was very pleased with the results. It seems as though I’m doing everything ok and don’t have any complaints so I’ll just continue on the way I’m going. I think it’s important to laugh and I try to bring that to the group. I want to try and make sure everyone is happy and smiling in what can sometimes be a very stressful environment. The happier we are, the more relaxed we can be, and I think the more productive we can be also. I know I don’t want to be in an environment where people are all quiet and awkward around each other, so I think laughter is the best medicine, and I believe I have the remedy! Anyway, enough of that. I have also received my proposal marking back and there are a few things I need to work on, but overall I’m happy with it. Got some data analysis to do this week, and a couple of exercises due this week so have been working away at those. I’m definitely going to give myself a night off as I think it’s important to just relax so that will probably happen Fri night. I’m hoping to go out with Giles this week also when she gets back from
California. We’ve been told to get cracking on our service projects and so I’m really hoping the whales are around so I can get out with Giles and take some boat surveys for Soundwatch. As I write this it’s Wednesday arvo and we may or may not be meeting up with the other group at British Camp (

Garrison
Bay) as they could be out with the whales and obviously need the data. The pager system is no longer because it finished up at the end of September, so now when we want to find out where the whales are we have to be paying close attention to the radio and get on the phone and ring our “special contacts”.

I’d better get back to work but thought I’d leave with an idea that has been running through my head since I’ve been on the program. I’m pretty sure that research is not where I want to head as a career path, well not bio-acoustics anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy listening to the whales but I just want to get out there and educate people about marine life and not be stuck in front of a computer analysing data. Out on the water is what I love, and so I’ve been thinking I’m going to look at opening up my own business when I get back Down Under. I have Beam Reach to thank though for giving me the experience out on the water. I had a good chat to Todd last week about running your own business, and so I now know basically what needs to be done for me to get on the right path. Watch this space! I’m going for a much needed run through the reserve. Catcha.

 

Thursday 4^th October

In theme with the title of this week’s blog I thought I’d clarify why I named it that. Ok, rain, because we’ve had it every morning and some evenings since we got back on land. Deer, because they are bloody everywhere! Apparently San Juan Island is at carrying capacity for these black tail deer and every morning and every evening you just see them wandering around campus. I was walking to the library the other night and there were 4 deer (one buck, a female and two foals) on a patch of grass between some of the lab buildings. One of the foals was making a ‘bleeting’ sound, so I began to ‘bleet’ back at it, and it started to follow me! I continued on my way and it came round the corner in the dark and was staring at me. I thought it was probably a good idea to stop bleeting as I didn’t want to piss mum off, which may in turn piss the buck off, and he had some big antlers! Anyway, so you’re probably wondering why I wrote ‘”I feel like” as the final part of my blog title, well, it’s because this American phrase seems to be rubbing off on me. Help me! It’s not as bad as you may think, I don’t have an accent or anything, thank goodness, (not that having an American accent is bad or anything ;-S ), but I find myself beginning a thought or idea with “I feel like…” and then say what I want to say. The phrase “I feel like…” seems to be a very common introduction when someone wishes to put forth an idea. For example, when discussing a navigation plan on the boat, someone may put forth an idea by saying “I feel like maybe we should consider heading….” I say it sometimes but immediately stop myself after I say “feel”. It may not come across as a big deal in writing but believe me, it’s certainly noticeable for me, and a habit that I will quickly get myself out of. I’ve started using some American words as well instead of the Aussie ones just so I don’t have to repeat myself. For example, “trash” instead of “rubbish”, “trash can” instead of “bin”, and “fosset” instead of “tap”. It’s bad I know, I’m becoming American-ised! But the accent I will never succumb to I promise you that! I put on a pretty good American accent when I need to though.

Back on track now. Last night we went to British Camp on the western side of
San Juan to meet the JaMi group. While having dinner we had a talk given to us by a National Parks historian about the history of British and American Camp on the island and the ‘Pig War’ back in the 1860’s. The history was fascinating, learning about the British and the Americans in these parts back in the day, and how they went about deciding who got what land etc, and how a war almost broke out because someone shot a pig. It turned really cold quite quickly so the JaMi group got back on the boat and we the VaTo group went back to the labs.

Today was spent doing an acoustics exercise that was due in the afternoon. I did mine on the high frequency hydrophone calibration that we recorded early last week. I also had an advisor meeting with Val later in the afternoon. I feel like… (just kidding), that things are on track for my project, I just have to fine-tune my Methods section that is due on Sunday. Off to the Whale Museum in the morning for what is known as ‘Gear-Down’ where local naturalists on board the whale watching vessels on the island get together, listen to talks, and discuss the summer. We as Beam Reach students are on the agenda so will stand up and give a quick spiel about what our research projects are. Should be good.

 

Friday 5^th November to Sunday 7^th November

Friday saw us at the Gear Down held in

Whale
Museum staff. I felt comfortable talking about my research as it’s something that I have planned out all on my own and after 7 weeks, should have a bloody good understanding of it all. We also listened to a couple of other talks on harbor seals and seabirds. I think being a naturalist would be an awesome job, and it’s something that I will essentially be next summer should I get a job with a whale watch company. I know all about the whales, just need to touch up on my seabirds and local natural history. I have all winter! Friday arvo we shopped for decorations and presents for Liz for her 21^st that is on Monday 8^th. Friday night I spent a lot of my time on Skype chatting to family back home and just generally relaxing.

Saturday we were up ready to shop at 10am for the following week’s food inventory on the boat. It rained all day so after shopping and lunch, I was in desperate need of a nap so went and crashed and woke up just before dinner. If there were whales around I was meant to be going out with Giles but obviously she didn’t call me so there were not around (well not till the arvo I heard anyway by which time I’m guessing it wasn’t worth calling me). Saturday night was spent packing up ready for my final week at sea and fine-tuning more of my Methods section.

It’s late Sunday night as I write this, actually it just turned Monday morning, Happy 21^st Liz! We, Team VaTo, decorated Liz’s room this morning with photos, balloons and streamers for her 21^st, so when she arrived back at the dorms this arvo she got a pleasant surprise. A call from her late this arvo came through saying she loved it and was very thankful that we did that for her. A 21^st is a big deal, so even though we couldn’t be on land to celebrate it with her, we did the next best thing. Earlier on today though a major event happened in the VaTo team. Sam has decided that she was not going to get on the boat this week (for reasons I’m not going to go into), so we’re a person less on the GV this week. The changeover at Roche was a wet one, as it was last week. The other group was really keen to get off (hot showers beckoned), so we had a cake for Liz that Leslie made and sang Happy BDay to her, ate it all cos it was bloody delicious, then JaMi headed off to what I’m sure will be a celebratory night for Liz. We were about to head off when Todd opened up the engine hatch to find the bracket that attached the alternator is cracked, so it needs to be either welded or replaced, so we’ll find out about that in the morning if we can get the part or not. So we may not be going anywhere tomorrow, but fingers crossed it sorts itself out. I haven’t heard back from Anna so wrote her an email this evening and hope to chat to her tomorrow about hopefully (really hoping) that I can get some boat recordings.
Shannon arrived back on the boat around 8pm after having almost a week off in the Big Apple. We then all had a chit-chat about the days gone by and why we were one group member short, and then looked forward to the week ahead and what we can do to make it run smoothly and efficiently. It’s going to be a busy week, even if we don’t get whales everyday (which I can pretty much guarantee we won’t). Last week at sea and it’s all happening, so come this time next week I’m going to be in desperate need of a good night’s sleep I’m sure!

Completed last week on the boat!

It is Monday of week 9 of the program, and I am still marveling over the fact that I was able to get through 4 full weeks on the Gato Verde. My last week did not start out well at all; Sunday night I suddenly started to feel very ill, and by Monday morning I had an unpleasantly high fever. I was pretty out of it for most of Monday, and Tuesday I was still recovering. Kind of unfortunate given that Monday and Tuesday were two particularly good orca days for the VaTo team, we not only got excellent recordings, but the whales swam very close to the boat, affording us excellent photo opportunities. Pretty much all that I really remember about it all was that Monday there were a lot of boats around, but I failed to get any good recordings because I was mostly sitting in the corner between the plastic rain covers and the helm, trying to keep warm and to be available if anyone needed an extra hand. That obviously went well; I couldn’t even help myself, let alone anyone else. Tuesday there were terrible weather forecasts so there were hardly any boats out at all, which was not so great for my data collection, but it was definitely cool to have the orcas a little more to ourselves. That bad weather forecast was completely unsubstantiated; we had gorgeous weather all week (well, as gorgeous as temperatures in the 50s could be), no winds at all, which was bad for sailing, but I absolutely could not have asked for a better week of weather. And really, it’s bad enough being sick while on a boat, how much worse it would have been if it were rainy and/or windy on top of that!
Beyond the lovely weather, the rest of the week in general was really excellent. Thursday we made for Port Angeles, which was pretty cool because we got to see another part of the state. The cafe with free wireless wasn’t a bad touch either. We were all kind of amused because when the connection was down, the barista had ME do the repair on the wireless modem box. But it was my day to be leader of the day, so it was only appropriate, right?
The next day we made for Race Rocks where we saw Steller and California sea lions. This is going to sound silly but looking at them all I could think of was those crazy sea lions in the old disney cartoons, bouncing beach balls off their noses. And the vocalizations they made were similar to the cartoon sea lion sounds too, them and Goofy. I don’t know, maybe I just watched way too many cartoons when I was little. It was really exciting a bit later in the day when we encountered a small group of humpback whales. Did THEY ever make strange sounds, they each have two blow holes (I wasn’t previously aware of this) and every time they surfaced their spouts just made the strangest noises. I thought it might be surface vocalization, but nope. My brother used to have a CD of the humpback song, but it’s been a long time since I heard it. So no data collection on Friday, but what an amazing marine mammal experience we all had.
Saturday was our last day with the orcas. And this time I was able to get boat noise recordings after all! There were maybe 15 boats around at any given time, so that was great for me, though I don’t think everyone else was so thrilled because of all the noise the boats created. Hey, fair is fair, I needed at least ONE day of boat noise data this week. Tim had several days of drive-bys from commercial whale-watching boats, and I was usually running around with the range-finder. At least my loud voice was helpful SOMEWHERE.
Finally, beyond data collection and pleasant weather, I think this was the VaTo team’s best week in terms of the group dynamics as well. We had decided to start this new practice, leader of the day, and that really helped a lot I think. Also, this was out last week out after all, and especially for some of us we had to scramble to get the last of our data together (me!) I think my own attitude improved substantially as well, and that was directly dependent on the weather. I never realized how subject my mood was to the environmental conditions around me, perhaps because I’ve never been thrown into a setting before where those conditions were so in my face. Well, there ends for me what was without a doubt the hardest part of the Beam Reach program. Now data analysis and paper-writing? No problem! That’s the stuff that I live for 🙂

Pea Soup (with a few whales thrown in)

Saturday, October 13, 2007

We woke up to news of whales off Val’s house, so enjoyed a quick breakfast of Leslie’s zucchini bread before cranking up the anchor by hand and heading out of Snug Harbor. We encountered whales almost immediately, but the animals were very spread out. We deployed the hydrophones, but the whales seemed to be heading south. We followed the orcas along the coast of San Juan island and had just passed the lighthouse when a thick, pea-soup fog descended. Although we continued to hear the whales intermittently, we could only see about 100 m from the Gato Verde. We made our way through the pea soup, looking and listening for whales and chatting with the other boats in the area. The fog finally lifted and the sun started shining after lunch. We recorded more calls, click, and whistles as we motored along with the whales off the west coast of the island. A group of young whales seemed especially playful as they frolicked, tailslapped, and breached. Regretfully, we had to pull up the hydrophones at around 3 pm to take advantage of the tides through Cattle Pass. Todd gave lectures on Rules of the Road and Sail Theory before pulling into North Bay. After the students took their sailing test, Anne and Ash made a grand attempt to use 2 of the remaining 13 cans of cream of mushroom soup by cooking a Minnesota Hot Dish (casserole to non-Minnesotans).

California sea lions and Stellers and Humpbacks–oh my!

Friday, October 12, 2007

 

After filling up our water tanks and paying our harbor bill, we motored away from civilization at Port Angeles.  The team took turns on the bow searching for whales, while the rest of us listened hopefully to radio chatter and worked on data analysis.  After crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we circled Race Rocks, taking photos and looking through binoculars at Stellers, California sea lions, and harbor seals.  We heard there were humpbacks not too far away so headed southeast to try to catch up with them.  As soon as we were able to spot blows and backs and flukes through our binoculars, we were able to hear the large whales breathing and sighing.  One individual whale had a particularly distinct, loud blow.  The humpbacks were very active at the surface, rolling and fluking before diving.  They were surrounded by a group of playful, porpoising Steller sea lions.  Although we deployed the hydrophones, the humpbacks were quiet.  We watched the whales and sea lions for almost three hours before regretfully, sailing away back towards San Juan Island.  As we headed north up to Snug Harbor for the night, a few Dall’s porpoises joined us for a sunset bowriding session.  Shannon and Alex cooked vegetarian fajitas for dinner and then Shannon gave a post-dinner talk on her thesis research on Australian sea lions.  We looked through Shannon’s photos from Antarctica and watched a short video of the humpback whales there bubble-net feeding before bed.

Killers I Have Known

Thursday, October 11, 2007

 

After waking up at Roche, and having breakfast shortbread freshly baked by Alex, Tim and Anne took a shot at raising the anchor by hand.  With about 15 feet left to go, time had run short and they let the motor take over.  We motored out Mosquito Pass and met Peregrine so Tim could take more high-frequency recordings of vessel noise.  Our daily calls to friends and contacts produced no information on whale whereabouts—it seemed that the whales that had been up north yesterday where most likely transients, and the residents had left the area surrounding the San Juan islands and headed out to sea.  So the group decided to try something different and sail to Port Angeles on the peninsula, in hopes of making it over to Race Rocks early tomorrow.  We arrived in to PA and walked into town to grab coffee and take advantage of the free wireless.  Tragically, the internet crashed shortly after our arrival until our brave leader-of-the-day, Alex climbed a ladder to reset the black box and reconnect us to the world.  Hooray!  After our caffeine and internet fixes, we walked back to the Gato Verde for spaghetti and meatless meatballs with garlic bread.  We ended the day screening Ingrid Visser’s documentary, Killers I Have Known.

Busy, busy, busy

We’re finishing off the last few days of week 8.  I can hardly believe that there are only 2 more weeks left!  There is so much to do between now and the 27th.  Luckily data analysis is finally starting to go well after a mess of computer problems earlier in the week.  I have no idea how many calls I have identified but I’m pretty sure I havn’t quite got the 3654 that I need to do the upper levels of organization so I will most likely end up simply doing zipf’s statistic, which is fine with me.  It takes a surprizing amount of time to ID all the calls in a one minute file.  I have some serious respect for all those researchers out there that have worked with such huge call samples.  I wish I had a lab full of undergrads to put to work.

Unfortunatly I am not really looking forward to getting back on the boat.  I know I won’t be able to get much work done with my data (since i need two computers) and I think that is going to be hanging over my head all week.  Hopefully we’ll get some more Dall’s to lighten me up a bit and I’ll be able to enjoy the last week on the boat as the calm before the storm of things I’ll have to do after we get off.

Boat recordings, Roche, and water-use

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

 

We started the day making phone calls and connecting with friends to try to figure out where the whales were.  There were rumors that whales had been spotted north off Pender Bluff, in between Pender and Moresby Islands.  As no whales had been found south, we decided to motor north to have a look around.  We made it as far as Turn Point on Stuart Island, and decided to drop the hydrophone and listen.  As we listened, we watched and waited and reconnected with our friends, who had traveled north faster than the Gato Verde, but had not been able to find the whales.  Todd finished up sewing the sail, as we finished up lunch at Turn Point.  Afterwards, Tim took vessel noise recordings of the Gato Verde from Gatito.  The students continued to catch up on data analysis and sustainability reports before heading into Roche in the late afternoon.  We pumped out our holding tank, filled up our water tank, and threw in some laundry before meeting up with the other group at Hotel de Haro.  David gave us an entertaining and informative tour of Roche’s water treatment facility.  We then headed back as a group to the boat for dinner—chicken curry and wild rice from Friday Harbor Labs with tempah and root vegetable stew prepared by Anne.  During dinner, Jason gave us statistics on water use to ponder over—the average American uses 69 gallons/day, while onboard the Gato Verde we only use 2.61.  After finishing up the apple pie from the Friday Harbor Labs, the VATO group grabbed quick showers at Roche before anchoring just outside of the harbor.

Whale soup

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

 

Although we were expecting gale force winds, we woke up to a calm morning and flat seas at Garrison Bay.  After porridge prepared by Ash and Tim, we headed out past Roche so Tim could record vessel noise from the Glacier Spirit.  Tim successfully recorded a number of drive-by’s at different distances and speeds.  We then headed back out and down the west coast of San Juan Island to try to catch up with the whales before the weather caught up with us.  We received reports of members of J and L pods at False Bay and Eagle Point, so we continued to motor along the coast.  We found J1 near Edward Point and deployed the hydrophones, getting some great recordings of calls, whistles, and clicks.  Soon, we were surrounded by the whales.  After a couple of hours recording and a great variety of vocalizations, Tim was able to organize another set of drive-by’s with Ocean Magic II.  Tim altered his methodologies and had the vessel circle the Gato Verde instead of deploying the buoy, which seemed to work much more efficiently.  Afterwards, we headed north along the coast of San Juan Island until we passed the whales, and again deployed both the hydrophone array and the high frequency hydrophone.  We saw a number of very young animals and recorded some great calls for another couple of hours.  Tim tried to organize a third drive-by with Prince of Whales, The Jester, but they were heading out to find humpbacks off Race Rocks, so Tim was only able to make a quick recording as they were departing.  We started to head back to Garrison Bay to prepare for the 25-35 knot winds predicted for the night, but stopped one more time to watch the whales just before heading in.  The whales were spyhopping, tailslapping, and resting at the surface.  Anne finally dropped the hydrophone one more time, while the rest of us took photos and watching through binoculars.  Alex and Shannon started preparing vegetarian moussaka, while Tim lowered the anchor at Garrison.