Over the last ten weeks we have learned a tremendous amount. We learned how to: ask a question, design a research project to possibly answer this question, write a proposal, conduct research, sail, live on a boat with seven other people, analyze data, run statistics on our data, and write a final paper on our findings. Another very important lesson we learned was how to give a presentation. Knowing how to conduct research and write up a paper on it is a pretty important part of science. If you can’t explain your findings to the general public then you can’t share your knowledge with others and no one else can use your findings to ask more questions. On Wednesday, we presented our research to the other students at Friday Harbor Labs as well as other community members. I think this lesson was a great one because it is really important for others to understand what you did and what you learned from your research. Public speaking is a skill that every scientist should develop and presenting our findings on Wednesday was the perfect practice. Developing skills using powerpoint is also a good tool to have.
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As Peter has explained in an earlier blog, we chose to do our sustainability project on surfactants. So after learning what surfactants actually are and how common they are we decided to go for it. We realized that this would be difficult to measure and find an effect. We started out just wanting to calculate our output of greywater into the ocean. Since we don’t shower on the boat the main greywater output is from washing dishes. So how do you collect greywater? Well since we were on a catamaran and the drain from our sink is between the two hulls above water that should be easy to collect right? I thought so when I volunteered to take the dinghy under the boat and collect the grey water from dishes one night after dinner. I quickly learned this was more difficult than I anticipated. First I tied a rope to the stern of the boat and had the other end of it in the dinghy with me. Then I tied the bow line of the dinghy to the bow of the boat so that I could pull myself back and forth under the boat and make it easier to position myself for the water collection. Once I was under the boat I realized that the space between the water and the boat is not as big as it looks. Once I was under the boat I managed to get the dinghy to a spot where the bucket was under the drain. I quickly learned that the water didn’t run out of the drain in a nice stream. It splattered and ran along the bottom of the boat for a few centimeters before falling. So I had to hold the bucket under the drain with one hand and hold the dinghy in place with the other.
My set-up
collecting the water
When the dishes were done the bucket had 4 gallons of water (~12 liters). We then collected and filtered about 4 milliliters to take into Russel Barsh’s lab to test the concentration. We found that the concentration of our grey water was 55 parts per million (ppm). So grey water is extremely concentrated. After washing dishes from one night we produced 4 gallons of greywater with a concentration of 55 ppm!
Then we started thinking, we know what we are putting into the water, but we don’t know what is already there. So we decided to take samples from some of the different Harbors we stay at overnight. After running a test sample using water from Friday Harbor we quickly realized that areas with good circulation will not have high concentrations even if they have higher inputs because it is mixed better. Our focus soon became harbors that have poor circulation but still have a lot of boats inhabiting them throughout the summer. The more people and the more boats in the harbors, the more surfactants are put into the water. The harbors we sampled were Mitchell Bay, Reid Harbor, Prevost Harbor, and Roche Harbor. Friday Harbor was also tested but there was no detectable amount of surfactants in the water. We are currently still waiting for the results. This information will be very useful as far as management goes. It is possible that some of these popular Harbors with poor circulation might need to have maximum amount of boats allowed in the Harbor at any given time to keep the concentrations from building up too much.
Results to be posted soon!
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Being in new places means meeting new people. Last weekend Hannah and I met some very interesting people who are members of Sea Shepherd. I had never heard of this group before we met them and it has been interesting reading about their history and some of the things they have done. This organization was established in 1977 as an international nonprofit marine wildlife conservation organization. Their mission is to end destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans. They have a very innovative direct action methodology in order to put a stop to killing of endangered marine species and ecosystems. They actually confront the offenders on high seas and have been known to sabotage ships and equipment. They have also been known to throw stink bombs onto the ships and in the past even ram into ships in order to disable them. The three main industries that Sea Shepherd targets are: the illegal whaling or killing of dolphins, the slaughtering of seals and the shark finning operations. Crewmembers are all volunteers and pay their own way to get to the ship for each mission but food and the stay on the boat is free. This organization has made many enemies and has been called eco terrorists by some governments. At the same time there have been many governments who have actually asked for their help with protecting patrol boats at times. They have raised a lot of awareness to issues that were not well known to the general public. They have also made a lot of political progress in stopping sealing in some European countries. The controversy lies in their sometimes violent methods. We have had some conversations about the organization, their methods, and their goals. Everyone has a different way of looking at it but we do all agree that they have done some good things and some not so good things. In the last year Animal Planet did a 7 show series titled Whale Wars. This show spread the word to the general public that whaling still occurs today and is not just a thing of the past. Although their sometimes violent methods are frowned upon they have made the public more aware of many issues in our marine ecosystems that need to be addressed.
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Jones Island north – FHL
5/3/09
Today we went back to Friday Harbor Labs for our week on land. Gato Verde got a deep clean and we are halfway done with the program!!
Now it’s time to work on those proposals!
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Living on a boat with eight people is an interesting experience. It is fun but it definitely has its challenges. One of those challenges is food. Cooking on a boat is challenging, especially if the seas are very active. Our rations have come from NOLS. They are an educational organization with many different outdoor programs. They ration food for their programs based on the calories needed per day per person, instead of designing meals for each day. These calories are broken down using the food pyramid so that the participants have enough carbs, proteins, sugar and other nutrients. Their method of rationing is really helpful because everyone gets the nutrition and calories they need while allowing for flexibility of the meals. The only food we aren’t getting from NOLS is fresh fruits and vegetables. The food from NOLS is all dried or dehydrated material that is pretty easy to cook. We were able to go to NOLS in Mount Vernon at the beginning of the quarter and bag all of our food for the five weeks on the boat. Everything was calculated by pounds and then divided by week.
We have the NOLS cookbook onboard with an assortment of meals that we can make. Our galley on the boat consists of two stove top burners and an oven that is capable of broiling. These are all fueled by propane. We are now more than halfway done with our time at sea and the food has turned out to be a fun and complicated experience. We have tried many different meals. One of our challenges is satisfying everyone’s preference. Everyone on the boat likes and dislikes different things. I don’t like onions which is a common ingredient in a lot of soups and other meals. Hannah is not a fan of pasta and loves vegetables. Hilary doesn’t eat eggs or potatoes. It is difficult to plan meals to satisfy everyone but we have managed to work through it. Luckily, we are all willing to try and stay away from the things others don’t like for the most part. There are times when we just need to make pasta because we have a lot of it but we make a lot of veggies with it as well. One mornings when we have eggs and hash browns Hilary just eats granola or a bagel, and when onions are used in soup or something else the cooks cut them large enough so that I can pick them out easily or they are just on the side so that whoever wants them can add them.
http://www.nols.edu/store/home.php
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Snug Harbor – Race Rocks – Port Angeles
Today we had an early start so that we could get out to Port Angeles in hopes of catching whales coming in the straight. We stopped by Race Rocks along the way so that we could deploy a hydrophone and see if the current generator makes any noise.
We made two recordings and watched the stellar sea lions sun bath on the rocks nearby. There were also three bald eagles and a lot of harbor seals sun bathing as well.
After the recordings we milled around the area and deployed a hydrophone every once in a while to see if we could hear any whales in the area but we had no such luck!
Eventually we headed into Port Angeles to anchor for the night and plan our trip back to the islands tomorrow. Our new science goals that we discussed are to calculate the calibration for the hydrophone array, and work on the behavior exercise.
We also plan to read this week’s journal article by wednesday for a discussion on it. The biggest goal that everyone agreed on was to find those whales!
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Hilary and I hard at work
Friday Harbor and the San Juan community is giving so much to the Beam Reach students. We are being housed, fed, and learning so much. It’s only fair for us to try and give something back to the community. Yesterday, April 15th, Hilary, Matt and I volunteered at Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Wolf Hollow rehabilitates injured or orphaned wildlife with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. They also put a lot of emphasis on public education about the importance of wildlife and their habitat. They house many different animals throughout the year including river otters, seals, deer, numerous kinds of birds and other animals found on the island.
One of Wolf Hollow’s current projects has been rebuilding the Eagle Flight Enclosure. The previous flight enclosure collapsed in winter of 2006 from heavy snow. Now the new design is almost finished! The three of us spent all morning helping prepare the new structure for it’s grand opening this coming Saturday, April 18th.
We started out the morning raking a mulch path alongside the enclosure for people to walk on. The ground was still pretty muddy from all of the construction and the mulch path will make it much easier for people to walk along the new facility on Saturday. When we were done with that we removed the old nails from the wood that used to make up the old structure before it collapsed. We removed all of the nails and stacked the wood in another area on the lot to possibly be utilized again. Then Hilary and I painted the doors of the enclosure while Matt mowed the lawn in front of Wolf Hollow.
I really enjoyed my morning at Wolf Hollow and look forward to volunteering for another morning later in the quarter. For more information about Wolf Hollow and more details on what they do you can visit their website. http://www.wolfhollowwildlife.org/
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