Beam Reach

Garrett’s Beam Reach Experience

This is my first blog entry so I am going to give an overview of my experiences and feelings for the first part of the fall beam reach program.  I have had limited internet access while on the boat for the last week so this is my first chance to update everyone.  I started the first week by getting to know the other students in the program, as well as getting use to our living situation while we are on land at the Friday Harbor Laboratories.  One of the most interesting aspects from the beginning was discovering where each person is from and hearing stories about their previous experiences.  Cat is the only student from the UK and a different country, and that has led to many funny conversations and explanations about differences in our cultures and words.  We started to become a proper group by taking a series of walks along the trail system near the labs which lead to the shoreline of San Juan Island.  While we were out there three of the girls in our group had their first experiences with marine wildlife in Northwest Washington, and this resulted in hundreds of pictures; mostly of tiny seal heads just above the water.  The wildlife in the area is not limited to the marine environment, and we see deer and hawks on a daily basis; we were even lucky enough to see a fox (see picture).  All these animals are associated with a 200 acre biological reserve that is adjacent to the labs, and that has given me a great place to go for a runs and walks.

The academic side of the program has been equally stimulating, and our professors have provided us with a crash course in acoustics, which includes how to use a series of hydrophones to record sounds made by killer whales for our research.  In addition to our daily classes we were lucky enough to have outside guests come give lectures to our class about their personal research and experiences.  On a couple of the nights we rowed into the town of Friday Harbor and enjoyed lectures from an octopus expert from the Seattle Aquarium, and Captain Paul Watson from the Sea Shepards at the local whale museum.  Overall, the first three weeks on land were a great start for getting oriented to this type of program and living arrangement.  However, now that we are on the boat everything has shifted again.

Each day on the boat has a rotation for various jobs which include cleaning up, and preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I think the quality of the meals has surprised everyone, and each night has had a different delicious meal.  We are lucky enough to have access to the 42 foot Gato Verde with Captain Todd Shuster.  The Gato Verde is a 42 foot catamaran sail boat that is powered by a biodiesel generator, and an electric motor.  The electric motor produces extremely low levels of sound which allows us to take very accurate measurements of the whales while we are actively following them.  Captain Todd has also been very helpful and effective at teaching everyone some essential knots, and techniques used for sailing, navigation, and operating the boat in a safely.  As part of the course on sustainability we track our usage of electricity and water daily, and this has helped everyone realize how much each person uses in terms of resources on a daily basis.  This is important information because the boat is a closed system with finite amounts of fresh water, food, fuel, and space for various forms of waste.  Also we try to consume foods on lower trophic levels by staying with a vegetarian diet in order to further reduce our impact on the environment.

On a more exciting note we have encountered numerous marine species in our first week including Minke Whales, Harbor Seals, Stellar Sealions, River Otters, Tufted Puffins, Porpoises, and last but not least killer whales.  We saw our first killer whales early in the week which resulted in a scramble to get some initial recordings which turned out to be amazing.  It was a little difficult to follow them for as long as we would have liked due to heavy fog, however, we have had some very nice sunsets during dinner time for many of the days this week.  On Wednesday we learned a valuable lesson when some of our batteries ran out and we lost some recordings for one of our hydrophones.  Everyone on the boat has become more comfortable with equipment as the week progressed, and tonight is our first night on land in about a week.  Everyone is busy taking showers and using the internet before we leave again tomorrow for another week of studying the whales.  I am sure I will have many new and exciting stories by the end of next week to blog about, and I will post them as soon as I have a chance thanks for reading.

WE ARE ON A BOAT!!

We finally get to get our feet wet (not literally we hope!). On Sunday we packed up S-1 and headed down the dock to the Gato Verde, our home for the next two weeks. Gato Verde means green cat, and the boat really optimises that name, it is a catamaran (hence the cat) and we operate on a combination of biodiesel and sail power (hence the green).

Our first steps on the boat held all the excitement you feel when you first go holiday and see your hotel for the first time – this is far cooler than a hotel though! There are 3 bed rooms in each of the two hulls. The galley has and amazing round sofa in it and an Aladdin lamp (yes we are all immediately thinking Disney!).  Captain Todd is really nice and we have already learnt so much from him in just a couple of days. He also must be very trusting as he quickly let us all have a turn at the helm and decide our anchorage.

We spent the first night in Griffin bay, where we learnt how to drop the anchor. On our first full day the whales were shy so we did some hydrophone tests for ambient (background) noise and headed for Snug harbor, which was our second anchorage. On day two our luck changed and as soon as we set sail (well motor because of the lack of wind) we found the whales! It was so amazing!!!! It was really foggy in the morning so we couldn’t always see the whales but we could hear them through the hydrophone and their blows when they surface, then they would emerge from the fog. We headed back to snug harbor in the evening, and the weather was dramatically different with bright sunshine and few clouds – this called for a few hours ofreading and playing on the trampoline and soaking up the weather!

Day four at sea was the coolest day ever! We set off as normal but soon slowed down when we saw a bait ball and birds feeding on it. We were going to try and catch some fish for Russell Barsh back at the labs when a Minke whale surfaced right in the

middle of the birds we were looking at! Then we saw another – it was sooooooooo cool, i even got some blow recordings. After a while the whales became less frequent and we were just chilling at the back of theboat when a seal pup came up right next to the boat (i could even see his flippers moving as he swam), i thought he would swim off but instead he swam right up to our back steps and a tried to climb on the boat!!! When that failed he swam through the middle of the hulls and under the trampoline!!!! It was very cool. We had to get moving after that and we all thought that would be the thing to write home about but it got even better! We headed out to false bay to catch up with the Orcas, and put our hydrophones in to get some recordings and i got my first successful in air recordings of the Orcas. I was merely recording after lunch when a group of females with their calves started performing some really cool behaviours. My recording was so funny it started out very sciency with me saying things like “female, j-pod, traveling, 150m” and as they got closer it changed to “oh my gosh i can’t believe what im seeing” as they started a greeting display with tail slaps, breeches, pectoral slaps, rolls and above surface calls (and i recorded it!). We were just processing what we had seen when out of the corner ouf our eyes we saw a sealion come up and joined the killer whales! Very weird – were they sharing food!!? On the way home we came across Dalls and Harbor porpoises bow riding with another boat! So our pinnipeds got larger and the day went on but our cetaceans got smaller!

After a couple of quiet days, we got the chance to see bow riding up close. We were heading back to Friday Harbor labs for an overnight stop off when 5 porpoises (4 Dalls and 1 hybrid) stared bow riding the catamaran! They were so close we could feel the splash as they surfaced.

We are now back on land,ready for showers and excited to start our second week at sea tomorrow 🙂 x x