New gear to study fish and porpoises
In collaboration with The Whale Museum, including Research Curator Stefan Bräger and Board member Jason Wood, the fall Beam Reach class has been studying fish and porpoises from the Lime Kiln State Park lighthouse. We’ll be posting results as they accrue, but for now this screengrab shows new instruments from the perspective of the Beam Reach underwater video “Splashcam.” On the left is a stand for 3 CPOD porpoise click detectors (now deployed) provided by Jim Thomson of UW/APL; in the middle are cleaned up hydrophones; on the right is a Vemco fish tag receiver deployed as part of a project led by UW’s Tom Quinn and NOAA’s Kurt Fresh.
The fall class has been surveying the ocean near Lime Kiln for harbor and Dall’s porpoises, monitoring the underwater camera for fish, measuring water properties, and sampling the plankton.  Surprises have been seeing seals and salmon swim by underwater just outside the kelp adjacent to Lime Kiln Point.
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