Photos from the first 2 weeks
Click on the photos below to see more images from the fall program which began two weeks ago. The program started with the students and Scott emerging from overcast Seattle into the sunny San Juans. We car-pooled up and felt lucky to be one of the last couple cars to be loaded aboard our planned ferry departure.
The first class session was spent at Lime Kiln lighthouse, listing and discussing each student’s questions about the endangered local killer whales and their environment. While the southern resident orcas didn’t pass by the Whale Watch State Park while we were there, we have heard them frequently on the live hydrophones of orcasound.net.
Since then, the focus has been on learning what past students and other researchers have accomplished and practicing with the bioacoustic instrumentation available through Beam Reach, our research vessel, and the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs. This process has led to the formulation of a draft research proposal by each student which will be further refined in the third week on land, as well as during and after initial data collection over weeks 4-5.
You can monitor the students’ progress via their class home page: beamreach.org/102
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Michael H Boulton
September 9th, 2010 at 17:03
Dear Students!!
I am envious of your course!! I am a retired Psychiatric Social Worker, who did his undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology (Ethnography). I have independently studied Orca and Dolphins. I am amazed with the skills and social organization of Dolphins. Consider the term; Culture; a social adaptation to a physical environment that is transmissible to offspring. Cultural artifacts that are transmitted include; language (including dialect), survival skills, and tool use or manufacture. I have read that there is a movement to make cetaceans “non-human” persons with rights. Are you able to receive Oasis HD? (www.oasishd.ca) There are documentaries about Orca and other Cetaceans available. I hope to be able to watch Orca in Juan de Fuca Straight in the spring of 2011.
Cheers, Michael H Boulton BA, Dip ASS (CQSW) Dip HP, ACE
Vanessa102
October 15th, 2010 at 21:27
Hello Michael and thanks for the comment and information. I apologize for not having posted a reply earlier but I saw your message just now. These are our last two weeks in the course, one more with the whales and the final week to prepare our presentations and polish our final papers. Please stay tune to the results of our little research projects. Mine in particular focuses on investigating the leadership role of the matriarchs in the southern resident population through.
I’ll make sure to pass your info along to my comarades.
Have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Vanessa Victoria.
Beam Reach-Fall 2010
Scott Veirs
October 16th, 2010 at 01:30
Hey Michael,
You may enjoy reading this piece by Howard Garrett of Orca Network:
Do orcas use symbols? (208K)
http://orcasphere.net/pdfs/garrett02.pdf
In it he posits that the theory of symbolic interactionism may help account for the divergent and complex cultural traditions found in sympatric orca populations. (October, 2002; 15 page PDF.)