Science blogbook: Garrison Bay – Roche Harbor – Reid
Garrison Bay – Roche Harbor – Reid Harbor
We first started off our day heading towards Roche Harbor to do a captain switch and pick up Val. Before we went into Roche Harbor we did a range (distance estimate) exercise. We had to guess how far an object was then Jason told us the real answer. Then we got to play with the radar and see the difference. Then I got to radio the Harbor Master to find out where we were going to dock while we waited for the rest of the crew!! While we were there the meat eaters got their fix. Once Todd showed up with the supplies we refueled the Gato Verde and headed out to Reid Harbor. Before we went to Reid we floated around Haro Straight hoping to see the Southern Residents. We deployed the listening hydrophone at a latitude of
48 degrees and 38.7 North and a longitude of 123 degrees and 12.72 West. We did see plenty of Harbor porpoies, but we heard no whales. So then we turned everything off and had journal club discussion which I lead. The title of the paper was “Underwater noise of whale-watching boats and potential effects on killer whales (Orcinus Orca), based on an acoustic impact model” by Christine Erber. During journal club we reached Reid Harbor and Matt and I started to cook. We did not see any whales today, but I am sure we will see them as the season goes on.