Beam Reach

On what I’ve learned so far

Greetings,

Today we walked through names of machines that look fragile and are minimally $1,000 a piece. Apparently if the word “acoustic” is used in the device name, you can assume at least a grand was put into it. Needless to say, I was not sticking my fingers on each button or playing around like I usually would, but I feel like my time will come. Cross your fingers for me that I don’t accidentally knock a particular orange or blue box into the Salish sea somewhere along our journey. I think one of the forms that we signed said that they replace those boxes with our first born child. So….none of that.

I am starting to wish that I still had my notes (or that fancy Iphone application) to help identify the birds in the area. I am familiar with Midwest ornithology, but have to admit that I would love to know the names of the annoying screeching birds in the tree just above the back deck. I also should know the names of several beautiful singers outside my window in the morning. It is now that I wish I could pull my ornithology professor out of my pocket and have an opportunity to expand on what I know. Luckily, the professors keep bringing books for our own personal Beam Reach library to the duplex and I think there is a bird identification guide there. We did discover that the loud ringing noise every early morning is a Northern Red Shafted Flicker marking it’s territory. Here’s all about it: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds

One of the coolest things I was able to see today was not an ocean organism at all, but a charming red fox crossing my path on the way to the dining hall. I was able to snap a few pictures, and although it looks like the animal was far away, I assure you that it was a close and personal encounter. I wonder if this is the only one in the area? What does it feed on? Has anyone done a population survey of the red foxes on the island? I also will expand my wondering to how they got here in the first place? I don’t seem to know enough about the natural history of San Juan Island to know when the last glacial period has been. However, I can easily inform you that the worm population in Northern Wisconsin is mostly invasive and were brought to the land from England accidentally as soil supplements in plants or have been released by recreational fishers.

Anyways, my class spent another portion of the day exploring research topics from past Beam Reach students. When I was first thinking about joining the program I read through the titles and abstracts of most of past student papers, but it was refreshing to start thinking about how to connect those projects to my peak interests. As a biologist, it is clear that regardless of the sweat and tears put into the research topic, there will be a statistical challenge at the end of the program when you find the challenges of making anything statistically significant given the sample size. Anyone the publishes findings and are respected for their research have done experiments over and over again to find true conclusions. With this in mind, I will attempt to connect my research to a dataset from one of a past student. I am interested in the human impacts (aka boat noise) on the behavior of the Southern Residents. There has been increased attention on regulation in the area since NOAA is debating making a significant portion of the West side of the island a Marine Protected Area. Basically, this would mean that any vessel (including canoes and kayaks) cannot enter the water in the MPA. I am not sure if this is according to a particular season, but I believe that it would be in effect year round. I am excited to take part in the process from this point forward. I have been in tune with the changes in regulation and will work on gaining experience on how an MPA is created and what that means for all parties involved. I think that this is the right time to ask around and make observations of various opinions on the proposed changes. This is where the Anthropologist in my wants to run free.

The other thing that peaked my interest today was expanding my ideas about hydropower. I am usually in full support of alternative energy technology and was a bit surprised that I hadn’t thought about the details of how the ecosystem might be impacted. It seems like no one really has an answer to this question, even though there is a tidal generator newly installed in Puget Sound. I can only imagine the impacts that filtering water into a spinning system would have on all of the micro-organisms floating in that same water. Maybe it won’t impact the quality of life at all…..I just wonder what is being done to verify that. Jason also said that in Britain they have developed technology that slows the propulsion blades when whales are present, but that the technology hosted a frequency that caused hemorrhaging in sea lion brains to do so. I think that it might be important to realize that while implementing alternative energy technology is very important, we also need to learn from historical environmental errors and observe all potential impacts before declaring that something is safe and installing technologies around the world. Let’s take our time on this one and make sure that it’s done right. Scientists may not have all the answers now, but we will have them once things start happening. It’s best if those things happen in a controlled, single environment instead of around the whole world. Slow and steady may win the race here.

We keep getting to hear recordings of the orcas. Some transients were even recorded off of Lime Kiln State Park last night. Hopefully we will catch a live feed from a hydrophone soon. I am starting to catch whale fever so it would really be nice to at least hear proof that they exist.

Attached is the campus red fox. I haven’t lost my camera yet… see?

Have a wonderful day : )