Beam Reach

Spring students arrive safely

Walking to the Port Townsend beach to ask 21 questions. (From the left: Matthew, Erica, Peter, Hilary, and Hannah)

We’ve made it safely from a fun initial meeting at the Seattle Aquarium to Val’s boat at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center dock.  Thanks to Leslie and Val for a delicious sesame noodle dinner, supplemented with fresh-baked rolls from Jason, we were re-fueled and ready for a first class exercise.

We walked to the local lighthouse at Point Wilson and sat on the beach for a half hour to think up 21 questions we have about killer whales and their environment.  These questions, or other ones inspired by the workshop talks we’ll attend the next two days, may form the basis for student proposals that will develop in the first three weeks of the program.

Despite some big ship wakes, we all got a good night’s sleep.  Now we’re off to the Transboundary Naturalists Workshop to hear from local experts about the status of the southern residents and our efforts to recover the population.  Here are some more photographs from our first day.