Beam Reach

Setting My Sights on Summertime

June  2012

Before I knew it summer was finally upon me, and that meant that my long awaited (2 weeks at most) return to Lime Kiln Lighthouse was not even a day away…

Lime Kiln Lighthouse has always held a magical charm for me. At first I admired the lighthouse from afar, back in my small hometown in Minnesota. I would look at pictures of this amazing, far off place and imagine what it would be like to see the tall, sleek, black dorsal fin of J1 cutting through the kelp beds just off the rocky shoreline. When I finally arrived at the lighthouse this past March for the Beam Reach course, it still felt as if it was a mythical place to me. But now, now that I have been in the San Juan Islands for over 10 weeks, the lighthouse feels like one of the only things that is still familiar to me now that the Beam Reach course is over.  The thing that I looked forward too the most about my return was seeing the orcas again. I couldn’t wait to have my first solo encounter with the whales at Lime Kiln, to me it seemed that once this happened, my summer would truly begin. Lucky for me, the Southern Residents were extremely cooperative and passed the Light my first day back!

Members of J Pod swam passed the lighthouse within hours of my arrival. To me, it felt as if everything was just beginning, it was the start of a completely new chapter. Of course for J2 Granny, J8 Speiden, and the other members of J Pod it probably was just the usual passing in their West Side Route. Needless to say this encounter with the whales gave me inspiration, and I began to “set my sights” on the goals for summer time.

This summer I plan to study the Southern Resident Killer Whales as they pass Lime Kiln Lighthouse and observe their surface behaviors as well as their acoustic communications. I will also be monitoring underwater noise levels in the SRKW environment and looking for significant changes in their vocalizations.

For a better idea of what I am listening too, check out the Orcasound Hydrophone Network at www.orcasound.net. Here you can listen the live streaming hydrophones at Lime Kiln and other various locations in the Salish Sea, check out the observations of other listeners, and log your own findings as well! Any and all observations that come from fellow listeners are helpful and exciting!

About the Blogger:  Breanna Walker is a Beam Reach Spring 2012 Alumnus. Her project this past quarter focused on the potential effects that shipping traffic might have on Southern Resident Killer Whale echolocation. After such an amazing experience during the Beam Reach course and time in the San Juan Islands this spring, Breanna decided to prolong her stay for the entire summer. Collaborating with Scott Veirs and others in the SRKW Research Community, Breanna will be acting as the Beam Reach Intern, conducting more SRKW Acoustic research at Lime Kiln Lighthouse. Breanna is also working with The Whale Museum this summer as a naturalist, conducting educational outreach both at Lime Kiln Lighthouse and aboard the Washington State Ferries. Breanna has a passion for the Southern Resident Killer Whales and the Salish Sea ecosystem. The only thing she enjoys more than watching the orcas is talking to others about them.