Beam Reach

Otter, Hail, and ….Twitter?

Hello

This whole week I’ve been having lots of fun looking up scientific papers in the library. I don’t think I fully realized that once you leave an institution, you also leave the privilege of having access to every journal article that they decide to subscribe to. It was like something lit inside me the other day when I started finding articles that are related to what I have been wondering about, then was able to click and save them on my desktop! I haven’t been this giddy about doing my own research maybe ever. Of course, compared to the research on earthworms (some of which had my best references in the early 1800’s) this is new, exciting, applicable stuff. I am right at the cusp of what is being done, and I can’t wait to get my hands dirty. I also think that I took too many to chew at once, but I will slowly make my way through the material.

I feel well-prepared for the tasks in front of me, and obviously, have taken to journaling quite well. There is something to be said about sitting on the back deck after dinner in your Chacos until you can’t see the keyboard or feel your toes. That being said, I am also having a hard time remembering how to sit down and come up with a specific topic, then write a scientific paper about it. I am devoting my Easter Sunday to figuring that out, reading a few applicable papers, and getting some words on a rough draft.

It is so dark and quiet at night that I find myself wishing that I knew the place well enough to be confident walk around without a flashlight. Don’t get me wrong, I keep neglecting to bring my headlamp for short trips to the library or computer lab because I have this innate need to prove that I can navigate without any aid, and then wishing that I had one. You see, campus is placed in the middle of a wildlife preserve which means that there is a high likelihood of an encounter with some woodsy creature. Most of the time, this would be a raccoon, but I have found that it is actually shadows that take away my comfortable confidence first. I have a vivid and ever-present imagination that sees skunks out of tree stumps and lagoon creatures out of rocks.

Sooner or later I will learn my lesson and bring a flashlight, but I also thoroughly enjoy the challenge in connecting to my surroundings with all of my natural senses. I enjoy the intense silence that the calm skies can bring, while I also am inspired by powerful winds on massive branches. There is nothing quite like a good storm in the middle of the woods. The other night I was grateful to be in my dry bed while listening to branches scratching the rooftops and rain pounding the gutters. The sound of the waves crashing on shore mixed with the cold chill of the breeze blowing up the bluff calms my senses until the wind finds the one spot where your skin is and it’s time to go in. I know that things are right with the world as long as the waves pound, the trees creak, and the wind chills my bones. Hopefully walking home without a flashlight will not turn into an unfortunate personality flaw that lands me in the hands of a rampant racoon looking for garbage. I must say that Beam Reach manages their trash well enough that I am not realistically concerned with this, but I have seen enough wild animals that my imagination is on full alert.

The night San Juan Island was struck, gail winds eventually blew the power out. It is harder to run classes, get research studies from the internet, cook/eat food, or even take showers with no power. These are things that are taken for granted until you live in a place where if the power is out, it might not come back on for days. Luckily, there is a backup generator on campus and the power was back on by the end of the day. We live in a world that is so driven by computers, internet and using energy that it is strange to go without it, even for a few hours.

The wind was strong enough to disturb several wild animals out of their comfort zones. While sitting on the deck we watched a river otter run all around campus and even try to get into the basement of the house next door. For some reason, it decided to pose for long enough to grab some cameras and snap a few good shots. I am still trying to figure out why river otters would be here in the first place, but I am pretty sure sea otters never leave the water. This will probably remain a mystery to me.

Yesterday we walked to town to visit the Whale Museum. (http://www.whale-museum.org/)  Being from Seattle, I knew enough to grab my raincoat and considered wearing rain-boots even though the morning was sunny and beautiful. The venture there was pretty uneventful, and the museum was about what I remembered from years ago. I have a better appreciation for the sound exhibit now though and was sure to spend some time gather details about J and K pod that I have never paid attention to before. While we were in the museum it rained like crazy, and then started to hail. There were large pellets of ice everywhere and streams of water with no where to go. I was grateful for my rain jacket and wished for my boots. A few scenes unfolded in the charming harbor town like an old shopkeeper shoveling the sidewalk and a young dad dragging two toddlers behind him in a sled. It was all melted in an hour, but for a moment it was like we were inside a precious snow globe with a major flurry before a calm.

Lastly, I also just found out that there is a close knit network of people that follow the whales pretty extensively and of course, they are up to date with the latest technologies. By this I mean that if anyone that lives near the ocean or is paying attention to where any whales are moving, they “tweet” about it. My instructors get text messages of “tweets” that inform them about the latest information of where the whales are, which pod it might be, and any other interesting information they can come up with. I understand the useful nature of all of this information and thoroughly enjoy the efficient ways to communicate with everyone about it. However, every time my instructor gets a text tweet in my presence, I have contained every joke that pops into my head and limit myself to a smile. Seriously, I know that whales communicate through clicks, pulsed calls, and whistles, but tweets? You’ve got to be kidding me.

These things just get better everyday.

Happy Easter!

~Libby

Opening week to the San Juan Islands

A week has gone by since I first set foot on the San Juan Islands.  Coming from San Francisco, my body has not fully assimilated to the colder temperatures here up in the northwest.  Arriving via the ferry from Anacortes, this is my first time on the San Juan Islands.  My very first impression of the Friday Harbor Labs was a good one.  There was this sense of a small family community here, much like my old high school back two years ago.  It is very different from being in a large lecture hall filled with nothing but hundreds of students.  This year in Beam Reach’s spring 2010 program, including myself, there are only four students.  I feel this is a great opportunity for us to get to know all the instructors one-on-one, enabling a much more in depth relationship towards each other.  Personally, I think a small teaching environment is very rigorous and demanding, but yet again, the experience grants one more friends, support, and encouragement to do better.

On the first week, we were able to learn a lot of the basics of acoustics and how sound works.  I learned a lot of new things that I have never been taught before, and things were revisited that I should have remembered back long ago.  Being the youngest one of the Beam Reach group and a second year undergraduate at UC Davis, I have never had much experience in dealing with loads of reading on a “close to graduate level” expectation level.  The first week dealt with plenty of article reading that we discussed later on during the days in class.  The discussions went well, delving into topics about the southern resident killer whales’ endangerment status, to the influences of boat noises underwater.  Our instructors, Dr. Jason Wood, Dr. Val Veirs, and Dr. Scott Veirs, provided us with a general background to the southern resident killer whales’ world in the northwest.  Acoustics, involving graphs, physics, and noise, really blew my mind.  Even though it might take a while for me to personally adjust to this hard-working environment, I will try my best to keep up with the pace.  Moreover, I would love to take the lead sometimes in the group and help others out as I anticipate the amount of help I shall receive.

We visited the Lime Kiln Lighthouse on the second day of the week, where we formulated our five initial questions to help narrow our thoughts to a potential research question that we will be answering over the course of these ten weeks.  From the photo, the lighthouse can be seen with my two fellow classmates in the background, Kathryn and Nora.  When the weather permitted, we strolled by the docks.

But the most interesting place that we went to was indeed the Whale Museum in town.  Walking there took about half an hour, but that time was worth it.  Although small, I felt that this museum really emphasized that sense of specification with the southern killer whales and other marine species in this particular northwest area.  The exhibits really portrayed what are affecting the species and how we can protect them.  One exhibit that really stuck out to me though, was the acoustic exhibit, created by Dr. Val Veirs himself.  I thought that this exhibit can give the public a general idea of the effects of fluctuating noise levels in the ocean that can cause an irritation to the killer whales.  I had so much fun twiddling around with the different sounds and buttons on the dashboard, quizzing myself to the various calls of the southern resident killer whales out there.

Weather was decent the first week, with much sun, with a gale on Friday and Saturday. :]

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 : )

Friday Harbor Labs: Arrival and Getting Settled

Hello!
I am alive and settled;

My first two days at Friday Harbor have been very exciting and I will share as much with you as you are willing to read. It is beautiful, green , spacious, laid back, quiet (except for the bobcat in front of our cabin at the moment), and basically unreal on all levels.

I met the other members of Beam Reach at the Seattle Aquarium on Saturday morning, for an eye-opening experience. The aquarium is much bigger than I had first anticipated and includes a neat exhibit that was designed to educate the general public about comparing whales to humans both anatomically and socially. There is also a sonar display where you can compare the different sounds of several animals, boats, harbors, and even create your own sonogram. We went to the back where a hydrophone picks up and records sounds of downtown Seattle. The port is notoriously noisy and (not surprisingly) the orca resident pod has not really been seen in the port for a long time. You can listen live here:  orcasound.net

The sun and rain have been taking turns on and off as seemingly regular as the ferry schedule since I’ve been here. I packed my bag in preparation as we ventured to Lime Kiln State Park, also known as Whale Watch State Park. One of the signs says that on any given day in the summer, there is a 30% chance of seeing a whale during that day. We were able to spot a few Stellar sea lions bobbing around and quite a number of sailboats, but no orcas. We were briefed by Scott Veirs and Jason Wood (who are two of the mentors for the program) on various types of sound data analysis programs and listened to recorded orca calls. We were sent out to the rocks during one of the sunny periods to think of questions about the whales and ecosystem in general. Of course, my questions spun in circles towards hydropower impacts, the logistics of developing marine protected areas, and wondering where the San Francisco sea lions are now….

The dining hall staff seems wonderful and very organized. I am impressed by the accommodations (and patience) that they seem to have for strange allergies and food preferences. Although I was concerned about my preference to not eat or smell seafood, they don’t give it a second thought.

It seems that most of the homework is going to be reading scholar papers about various marine/ecosystem topics, which should be really good for me. As the days get longer I have a feeling that the time I start reading will get later and later, at least until we get on the boat. I will be venturing out on a bike and taking hikes as frequently as possible. These things tend to turn into epic tales, so be sure to stay tuned.

Take care! Enjoy the day!!

Back on San Juan Island

I have been waiting to return to San Juan Island for 5 years.  The first time I came to Friday Harbor, I was 15 years old.  I arrived in Washington with the hopes of seeing a wild orca, and I began my hunt on the ferry to the island. I stood on the chilling bow, wind-whipped and shivering in 4 layers of clothing, scanning the horizon for black dorsal fins and telltale plumes of mist suspended in the air.  I knew the chances of seeing whales before I had even reached San Juan Island were slim, but I simply could not contain my excitement.  About halfway through the ferry ride, I noticed a zodiac idling a mile or so away.  The people on the boat were obviously looking at something, and I squinted my eyes to get a better look.  Moments later, a black shape rose out of the water, and my heart skipped a beat – orcas.  Somehow my father managed to snap a photo of me at this exact moment, and I can only describe the expression on my face as one of pure, unadulterated joy.  In suburban Ohio where I grew up, the closest thing to wild orcas are captive animals who lead sad half-lives at Sea World; it was an absolute thrill to see these animals swimming freely in the Salish Sea.  This unexpected encounter set the trend for the remainder of my trip – I saw orcas nearly every day.  I watched whales cruise by the lighthouse at Lime Kiln State Park and I followed them through the fog on a whale watch.  The only way I managed to leave the island without dissolving into tears was to promise myself that I would return someday.

As I boarded the Anacortes ferry one week ago, I was overcome with the same child-like excitement I felt during my first ferry ride.  I had waited so long to be reunited with this thick, fragrant air, the ethereal cathedrals of tall, leaning trees, and, most of all, the whales.  After seven days on the island, I have still yet to see an orca, but my disappointment has been tempered by a multitude of other wildlife experiences.  Friday Harbor Labs is situated within a biological preserve, and the area is bursting with life.  I have had close encounters with deer, sea lions, slugs, foxes, and river otters, temporarily satiating my desire for animal contact.  I have started to use our Sibley’s bird guide to identify the birds around our duplex (including a Red-Shafted Northern Flicker that has been drilling noisily on a metal lamp outside our window for the past few days) in an effort to hone my observational skills.  While these experiences have been fulfilling, there is still part of me impatient to get out on the water – I listen to the hydrophone network daily, ears tweaked for sweeping killer whale calls, and even though I know they don’t frequent the east side of the island, I keep an ear out for the gunshot ring of whales coming up for air.  We’ll be out at sea in two short weeks; in the meantime I will enjoy the company of other creatures and bask in the knowledge that I am finally back in this wonderful place.

First Week

3/29

Today we went on a field trip to Lime Kiln State Park on the west coast of San Juan Island. The weather was typical PNW spring weather when we arrived at the lighthouse, sunny and breezy. It was chilly but nice. We were tasked with thinking of 21 questions, which captured our interest, to do with orca and the environment they live in.

When time was up and we were heading back to the lighthouse from our various inspirational areas, we saw a sea lion. It was very cool. We couldn’t tell what type it was, mainly because we only saw a bit of its head once or twice, but Kathryn thought it was a stellar or California sea lion.

In the lighthouse we eat lunch as a group and talked a bit about our interests, which in turn sparked some discussion about what kind of research has been done and was being investigated currently. That was pretty interesting and allowed us to get a better idea of what were feasible topics for our areas of study.

The lighthouse at Lime Kiln State Park

3/31

Today we did acoustics. It was awesome. Val showed us how to use some of the sound recording and analyzing equipment. Then we did our own experiments to figure out what we were seeing on the computer and how to change the amount of reflected sound the microphone was receiving from the wall behind it.  We used a pillow and a glass bowl! We were also able to work out some of the basic calculations to find the speed of sound, which we managed to get very wrong. It was a lot of fun to see how every thing worked from the ground up.

After Val left Jason taught us more about the technical and mathematical side of acoustics so we would understand more of the jargon as well as the equations and parts of sound, like amplitude (volume) and frequency (pitch). We also got to see how sound waves canceled each other out and made each other louder with a very cool computer program he used.  It was fascinating to first use a hands-on approach to figure out how the simple stuff worked so when we learned about how the more complex things worked it all made sense and fit together.

After lunch we got to meet with Jason to discuss our questions that we want to focus on for our research topics, which was cool. I am finding it very difficult to hone my interests into one narrow researchable field.

4/1

Today we got a great talk from a lady named Lynn. She is a beacon of hope for all people, like me, who struggle with writing. I have never, before today, been excited to write something or understood what was really expected of me.  She was very good at explaining what was expected for both our research proposals as well as our final papers in a very no-nonsense and explicit manner. It was delightful!

After Lynn left we discussed a paper about the effects of sound exposure on the southern resident killer whale community. It never ceases to amaze me that for every decision, action or lifestyle choice we make there are hundreds of other living creatures strongly, and most of the time adversely, effected.

I am excited about the service project. I am still trying to decide between volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation shelter called Wolf Hollow or at the whale museum working as an educational helper.

For the last few days we have been plagued by a strange and very fast metallic hammering noise, the source of which remained a great mystery. Today we finally found who was responsible, through the enthusiastic sleuth work of Kathryn! It turns out that it was a Red-shafted Northern Flicker (a type of woodpecker), which was pecking on a metal streetlight cover. I looked it up and found that many woodpeckers peck on metal during seasons when they want to establish territories and attract mates. It is kind of amusing watching the little guy peck on the light.

Red-shafted Northern Flicker

4/2

Today was blustery to say the least. We had gusts up to 45 mph!

Upon our return from breakfast, we discussed a really cool paper about some of the concerns the AEI (Acoustic Ecology Institute) has as well as some of the new technologies that were being utilized and invented last year. During the discussion the power went out, so after we finished we went down to the computer lab, as it was one of the only buildings with power and internet, to acquire the applications that will help us analyze our eventual sound data. My favorite is a program called RavenLight. The programs we got allow us to look at sounds. It’s really fun!

It was still really windy when we were walking to lunch. Val and Jason mentioned that they should probably check on the state of the ‘Buzzard’, a boat whose purpose is to collect dead samples, to make sure the wind hadn’t blown it away. When we got down to the dock we realized that the winds were so strong that the waves were washing over the dock. The boat was moving around pretty good causing the mooring rubbing against the dock lines to fray. They fixed the lines pretty fast and we went to lunch.

Me and Val on the dock next to the “Buzzard” as the waves wash over.

After lunch we finished our lecture on acoustics, which was really awesome because we got to listen to a bunch of different animal calls and see them on the spectrogram (the thing that lets you see the sound). We could see the amplitude modulation as well as the frequency modulation (change in volume and pitch).

During our lecture we saw two river otters running down towards the water and I managed to get a few good shots.

Tomorrow we have our first day off and are planning to go to the whale museum. Everyone is really excited.

4/3

Today we went to the Whale Museum! It was really cool. They had a lot of different exhibits including some very fun ones for kids. There were also a few skeletons, which really showed the incredible size of the animals!

When we left the museum it had been hailing like crazy. The ice balls were huge, about the size of small peas! It was pretty wild to come out of the museum and see the ground covered in white with small rivers of water running hear and there.

We walked around town for a bit and had lunch at a really good Syrian restaurant. Overall it was a good relaxing day after a fun but hard first week.

Kathryn, Libby, Me and Horace

Spring 2010 program begins

Juvenile rockfish at the Seattle Aquarium

It was a great pleasure to meet the four incoming students for the spring 2010 program last Sunday (3/29). Libby, Kathryn, Horace, and Nora all arrived safely in Seattle in time for a 10:30 tour of the Seattle Aquarium. We saw Pacific salmon and rock fish in the new big outer coast tank, noticed a drift wood log snagged on the cable when viewing the hydrophone station behind the scenes, and listened to underwater sounds and John Ford videos down in the orca exhibit.

After a quick lunch of crumpets and salmon jerky and a brisk walk through Pike Place Market, we drove northward in a caravan just after 13:00. We dodged Seattle traffic detours and light rain to make the 14:45 ferry with just 5 minutes to spare. Amazed that both of our cars got the final two center lane (first off) spots on the ferry, I declared it an auspicious entry into the Archipelago!

Here is a link to the spring 2101 class home page.  There you will find more information about the new students, their instructors, and the adventures upon which they are embarking.