Hello cyber sailors,
All packed and ready to leave tomorrow for 2 weeks. I am pretty sure my internet will be lacking from the sailboat, but hopefully I will return with tales to fill your webspace.
This past week went really quickly, beginning with a visit from a few good friends! It was great to see and explore San Juan Island with them, go for a hike up Mount Young, visit English camp, and eat some fried food in town. I took a ton of flower/plant pictures.
Roche Harbor
Sunrise. Waiting for the ferry
Flower on the hike up Mount Young
Remember when I said I would love to help do a necropsy on the sea lion from last week? Well, it happened. I got to be knee deep in the intestines of a marine mammal and let my inner child and scientist run free! I am not attaching any photos because they are bloody, but if you would like to see some, let me know.
Schoolwork and proposals filled the rest of the week, but my stories come from a late night walk.
I like to sit at the dock after the sun goes down and look at the stars, see the lights reflecting off the water from Friday Harbor, and listen to the quiet. I have started remembering to bring my headlamp lately for fear of sneaking up on some raccoons and deer that hang out in the area. They must hear me coming, but each time I come around a corner, they scare me worse than I scare them. So, I have become cautious with peaking around corners and checking each building parameter for creatures.
Last night I went for such a walk and was admiring the water critters that glow with a reflective light. I was playing around with seeing if they still glow with a red light – and they do! How cool is that? Just then, I thought that my imagination was running wild because it was like I was in a sci-fi film. Two large, beady red eyes with a small red line between them were flying toward me from about ten feet off the dock in the water. It was moving to quickly. By the I fumbled my headlamp into the white light position, it was almost at my feet. To my surprise, it was not my imagination at all but a sea otter who ducked under the dock just as I to the white light stable enough to spot him. From that point on, I decided to step back a bit, just in case he decided to jump onto the dock. I didn’t want to surprise him by being the landing pad.
I was slowly lulled back into my comfort zone by the stars above and talking to Loretta on the phone. Each little squeak and creak registered in my ears, but my logic told me to calm down, the adventures were probably over for the night. After all, the otter knew I was there, so it would logically leave me alone.
I sat for a long time in the dark, but the dock is pretty uncomfortable, so I laid down to get a better view of the stars. The squeaks of the fender against the boat, the dock shifting, and something else kept registering in my brain. Then, I couldn’t identify the noise. There were a number of squeaks that seemed too close to be the boat (mind you, my head is on the ground), so I turned my face to the right to help identify the noise.
Not three feet from my cheekbone was a large rodent! I screamed bloody murder and jumped to my feet just in time to see a rat butt scamper across the adjoining dock and disappear into the darkness. I picked up my wits and pretty much jogged the 50 or so feet to safe ground. There is something about the body’s reaction to fright that is impressive. You really can move quickly, be completely aware of your surroundings, and see better, even in the dark. Don’t get me wrong, I am pissed that I keep getting lulled into this sense of security, then proven a fool. It’s like the animals here are as upset that I’m in their space as I am with them in mine. I actually enjoy periodically running into beautiful wild creatures…but on the dock….at night….3 feet from my face…? That’s a little much for me.
I went to the safety of the indoors to finish my conversation and had almost forgotten about the whole thing by the time I started walking home. By almost I mean that my heart might never forget and my light was on top alert. I checked all the normal raccoon spots with no sightings and was getting relieved as I got close to home. I was distracted by something in one of the buildings just enough that I momentarily forgot about my frightening encounters until I glanced over to the right to see three raccoons, frozen and five feet from me, waiting for me to pass…hoping they would go unnoticed. Geez. Talk about topping off an evening. It’s hard to rest easy when your body has been startled into alert three times in one evening stroll.
I don’t know if I am brave enough to venture to the dock alone again tonight. It is so pretty…I just can’t help myself.
Yesterday was the “cold plunge†where everyone in our program invites the community to join us in jumping over the dock into the Salish Sea water. I grew up in cold water and used to love swimming in the pool while it was filling up with water from the hose (brrr), but this is slightly different. The air was warm enough for Washington, but when you look around at dinner, there are a few winter jackets in sight. We stripped to our bathing suits and jumped into the breath-taking water. Even I came up for a breath with a start. Not to be outdone by our instructor, I jumped in a few more times from the top of the dock, which is about 20 feet from the surface of the water. Surprisingly, my body felt quite warm in the air compared to the water temp. It was not as bad as I might have thought, and we decided that in order to live a little, we might do it again just for fun. (http://www.beamreach.org/gallery/v/101/coldPlunge/)
The sailboat leaves tomorrow so I am packing my life into one bag once again, this time in search of orca whales.
I hope that all is well!
~libby
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Wow. Things have really picked up around here.
Each class portion builds on the material from the one before it, so I feel like I am becoming an expert in a variety of fields very quickly. This also means that the workload is starting to pull my brain in various directions as I try absorb each piece and appreciate the overall meaning of it.
We had a guest lecturer of particular interest to me named Anna Kagley visit our classroom yesterday to talk about the tracking of salmon populations throughout the shoreline. NOAA is expanding her study to the bays of San Juan Island, so there will soon be high frequency receivers strategically placed throughout the inner waters here. On a personal level, I was eager to distract her from this lecture (although that was also informative) to talk about a recent brain-trust type of seminar which labeled possible impacts of hydropower turbines around the world and at variable distribution levels. Oh how I would love to be even a fly on the wall at one of those meetings. Even if I were squished by the end, I think I would be satisfied to be a part of such meaningful and applied science. My imagination seems to thrive on the possibilities of what could happen, although my core also strives for practicality. This seems to be a perfect combination to draw me towards topics such as hydropower and establishing MPA’s on the west coast of San Juan Island. The scientist in me is slowly being satisfied and intensely awakened after being dormant in my realtor’s assistant body for so long. However, I must add that I am more technically savvy and better at solving problems than my college self. My heart is content to be on this current path. Anna said they are working with the County a lot, here is their website: http://www.snopud.com/PowerSupply/tidal.ashx?p=1155. Click on the “OpenHydro Technology†link to the right.
Typically, when there is a large piece of writing due (as was this morning), my body begins to yearn for the outdoors. Luckily, we are living in a biological preserve with great running trails. Just before dinner, I decided to take advantage of our surroundings and go for a jog. Once I realized that I forgot my camera, I knew it would be a memorable experience. First of all, the trail is sloped towards the middle and is therefore never really dry in this climate. A jog on this trail looks more like a dance with the Lost Boys (Peter Pan) than a form of exercise, which I must say, is where the 10 year old in me excels. I explored a little further than normal and discovered a cove along the beach that is quite protected from other visitors. There are huge mushrooms sprouting just inland of the coast, and even a bright purple seastar rigidly stuffed between rocks of the estuary-type environment. Clearly, if a girl from MN decided to take a nap on these rocks and forgot about the tides, you could be in for a rude awakening. Here is a typical outdoor photo from a different hike: 
The jog was not complete without almost twisting an ankle, getting my foot completely sucked into a mud puddle, and scaring the snot out of an oblivious deer. Today, the sun is shining and it is bright enough to make cloud figures from the sky. Apparently it is supposed to snow for our sailing excursion tomorrow. Figures.
So, we were finishing lunch today (mac & cheese and tomato soup) when Jason found us with a gleam in his eye. He had just gotten a call about a floating (dead) stranded sea lion just off the coast of Lopez Island, and asked if we wanted to help retrieve it. Yea!! All four of us ran back to the house and threw on some warm clothes and rain gear, then headed out on “The Buzzard†across the Straight. Although they call it island hopping, we were not exactly hopping, or even skimming/fluttering – more like skuttering. Laughter filled the salty air as we set off on our adventure with the sun in the sky and the sea in our veins. The bumps and bruises didn’t matter because we were on the water again.
We arrived at the north end of Lopez Island and found a huge male Stellar sea lion with no indication of trauma, just death. It was quite a production for one instructor and four students to maneuver this guy against the will of gravity, the waves, and the wind but we were rewarded with eventual success. During the muscle-aching portion of our endeavor it began to snow/hail for about 8 minutes. My boots were already full of brisk salty sea so by that time I hardly noticed except to see the humor in it. The photo is of Jason and I trying to get the rope around the shoulders to haul it in the boat. 
The sea lion filled the boat – making it look like merely a dingy with it’s massive flippers, torso, and head (length is 3.5 meters). I had never been so close to such a huge (and not moving) marine creature before and was able to let the scientist and the ten year old go free at the same time. The front four teeth are ground down to almost nothing, and the bottom ones that match them are about the same. They should really consider renaming the canine teeth, because the size on the ones in this guy’s mouth could out-bite pretty much any canine I know.
The ride home was cold, bumpy, and overall a drenching experience. The weather picked up and tried to mangle us to pieces, but the shower at our house has never been as appreciated as it was tonight.
The sea lion will be examined by real scientists tomorrow, and I am trying to finagle my way into the experience. Once again, I would love to be a fly on that wall.
Make the most of your day!
~libby
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Hello
This whole week I’ve been having lots of fun looking up scientific papers in the library. I don’t think I fully realized that once you leave an institution, you also leave the privilege of having access to every journal article that they decide to subscribe to. It was like something lit inside me the other day when I started finding articles that are related to what I have been wondering about, then was able to click and save them on my desktop! I haven’t been this giddy about doing my own research maybe ever. Of course, compared to the research on earthworms (some of which had my best references in the early 1800’s) this is new, exciting, applicable stuff. I am right at the cusp of what is being done, and I can’t wait to get my hands dirty. I also think that I took too many to chew at once, but I will slowly make my way through the material.
I feel well-prepared for the tasks in front of me, and obviously, have taken to journaling quite well. There is something to be said about sitting on the back deck after dinner in your Chacos until you can’t see the keyboard or feel your toes. That being said, I am also having a hard time remembering how to sit down and come up with a specific topic, then write a scientific paper about it. I am devoting my Easter Sunday to figuring that out, reading a few applicable papers, and getting some words on a rough draft.
It is so dark and quiet at night that I find myself wishing that I knew the place well enough to be confident walk around without a flashlight. Don’t get me wrong, I keep neglecting to bring my headlamp for short trips to the library or computer lab because I have this innate need to prove that I can navigate without any aid, and then wishing that I had one. You see, campus is placed in the middle of a wildlife preserve which means that there is a high likelihood of an encounter with some woodsy creature. Most of the time, this would be a raccoon, but I have found that it is actually shadows that take away my comfortable confidence first. I have a vivid and ever-present imagination that sees skunks out of tree stumps and lagoon creatures out of rocks.
Sooner or later I will learn my lesson and bring a flashlight, but I also thoroughly enjoy the challenge in connecting to my surroundings with all of my natural senses. I enjoy the intense silence that the calm skies can bring, while I also am inspired by powerful winds on massive branches. There is nothing quite like a good storm in the middle of the woods. The other night I was grateful to be in my dry bed while listening to branches scratching the rooftops and rain pounding the gutters. The sound of the waves crashing on shore mixed with the cold chill of the breeze blowing up the bluff calms my senses until the wind finds the one spot where your skin is and it’s time to go in. I know that things are right with the world as long as the waves pound, the trees creak, and the wind chills my bones. Hopefully walking home without a flashlight will not turn into an unfortunate personality flaw that lands me in the hands of a rampant racoon looking for garbage. I must say that Beam Reach manages their trash well enough that I am not realistically concerned with this, but I have seen enough wild animals that my imagination is on full alert.
The night San Juan Island was struck, gail winds eventually blew the power out. It is harder to run classes, get research studies from the internet, cook/eat food, or even take showers with no power. These are things that are taken for granted until you live in a place where if the power is out, it might not come back on for days. Luckily, there is a backup generator on campus and the power was back on by the end of the day. We live in a world that is so driven by computers, internet and using energy that it is strange to go without it, even for a few hours.
The wind was strong enough to disturb several wild animals out of their comfort zones. While sitting on the deck we watched a river otter run all around campus and even try to get into the basement of the house next door. For some reason, it decided to pose for long enough to grab some cameras and snap a few good shots. I am still trying to figure out why river otters would be here in the first place, but I am pretty sure sea otters never leave the water. This will probably remain a mystery to me.
Yesterday we walked to town to visit the Whale Museum. (http://www.whale-museum.org/)Â Â Being from Seattle, I knew enough to grab my raincoat and considered wearing rain-boots even though the morning was sunny and beautiful. The venture there was pretty uneventful, and the museum was about what I remembered from years ago. I have a better appreciation for the sound exhibit now though and was sure to spend some time gather details about J and K pod that I have never paid attention to before. While we were in the museum it rained like crazy, and then started to hail. There were large pellets of ice everywhere and streams of water with no where to go. I was grateful for my rain jacket and wished for my boots. A few scenes unfolded in the charming harbor town like an old shopkeeper shoveling the sidewalk and a young dad dragging two toddlers behind him in a sled. It was all melted in an hour, but for a moment it was like we were inside a precious snow globe with a major flurry before a calm.
Lastly, I also just found out that there is a close knit network of people that follow the whales pretty extensively and of course, they are up to date with the latest technologies. By this I mean that if anyone that lives near the ocean or is paying attention to where any whales are moving, they “tweet†about it. My instructors get text messages of “tweets†that inform them about the latest information of where the whales are, which pod it might be, and any other interesting information they can come up with. I understand the useful nature of all of this information and thoroughly enjoy the efficient ways to communicate with everyone about it. However, every time my instructor gets a text tweet in my presence, I have contained every joke that pops into my head and limit myself to a smile. Seriously, I know that whales communicate through clicks, pulsed calls, and whistles, but tweets? You’ve got to be kidding me.
These things just get better everyday.
Happy Easter!
~Libby
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Greetings,
Today we walked through names of machines that look fragile and are minimally $1,000 a piece. Apparently if the word “acoustic†is used in the device name, you can assume at least a grand was put into it. Needless to say, I was not sticking my fingers on each button or playing around like I usually would, but I feel like my time will come. Cross your fingers for me that I don’t accidentally knock a particular orange or blue box into the Salish sea somewhere along our journey. I think one of the forms that we signed said that they replace those boxes with our first born child. So….none of that.
I am starting to wish that I still had my notes (or that fancy Iphone application) to help identify the birds in the area. I am familiar with Midwest ornithology, but have to admit that I would love to know the names of the annoying screeching birds in the tree just above the back deck. I also should know the names of several beautiful singers outside my window in the morning. It is now that I wish I could pull my ornithology professor out of my pocket and have an opportunity to expand on what I know. Luckily, the professors keep bringing books for our own personal Beam Reach library to the duplex and I think there is a bird identification guide there. We did discover that the loud ringing noise every early morning is a Northern Red Shafted Flicker marking it’s territory. Here’s all about it: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds
One of the coolest things I was able to see today was not an ocean organism at all, but a charming red fox crossing my path on the way to the dining hall. I was able to snap a few pictures, and although it looks like the animal was far away, I assure you that it was a close and personal encounter. I wonder if this is the only one in the area? What does it feed on? Has anyone done a population survey of the red foxes on the island? I also will expand my wondering to how they got here in the first place? I don’t seem to know enough about the natural history of San Juan Island to know when the last glacial period has been. However, I can easily inform you that the worm population in Northern Wisconsin is mostly invasive and were brought to the land from England accidentally as soil supplements in plants or have been released by recreational fishers.
Anyways, my class spent another portion of the day exploring research topics from past Beam Reach students. When I was first thinking about joining the program I read through the titles and abstracts of most of past student papers, but it was refreshing to start thinking about how to connect those projects to my peak interests. As a biologist, it is clear that regardless of the sweat and tears put into the research topic, there will be a statistical challenge at the end of the program when you find the challenges of making anything statistically significant given the sample size. Anyone the publishes findings and are respected for their research have done experiments over and over again to find true conclusions. With this in mind, I will attempt to connect my research to a dataset from one of a past student. I am interested in the human impacts (aka boat noise) on the behavior of the Southern Residents. There has been increased attention on regulation in the area since NOAA is debating making a significant portion of the West side of the island a Marine Protected Area. Basically, this would mean that any vessel (including canoes and kayaks) cannot enter the water in the MPA. I am not sure if this is according to a particular season, but I believe that it would be in effect year round. I am excited to take part in the process from this point forward. I have been in tune with the changes in regulation and will work on gaining experience on how an MPA is created and what that means for all parties involved. I think that this is the right time to ask around and make observations of various opinions on the proposed changes. This is where the Anthropologist in my wants to run free.
The other thing that peaked my interest today was expanding my ideas about hydropower. I am usually in full support of alternative energy technology and was a bit surprised that I hadn’t thought about the details of how the ecosystem might be impacted. It seems like no one really has an answer to this question, even though there is a tidal generator newly installed in Puget Sound. I can only imagine the impacts that filtering water into a spinning system would have on all of the micro-organisms floating in that same water. Maybe it won’t impact the quality of life at all…..I just wonder what is being done to verify that. Jason also said that in Britain they have developed technology that slows the propulsion blades when whales are present, but that the technology hosted a frequency that caused hemorrhaging in sea lion brains to do so. I think that it might be important to realize that while implementing alternative energy technology is very important, we also need to learn from historical environmental errors and observe all potential impacts before declaring that something is safe and installing technologies around the world. Let’s take our time on this one and make sure that it’s done right. Scientists may not have all the answers now, but we will have them once things start happening. It’s best if those things happen in a controlled, single environment instead of around the whole world. Slow and steady may win the race here.
We keep getting to hear recordings of the orcas. Some transients were even recorded off of Lime Kiln State Park last night. Hopefully we will catch a live feed from a hydrophone soon. I am starting to catch whale fever so it would really be nice to at least hear proof that they exist.
Attached is the campus red fox. I haven’t lost my camera yet… see?
Have a wonderful day : )
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Hello!
I am alive and settled;
My first two days at Friday Harbor have been very exciting and I will share as much with you as you are willing to read. It is beautiful, green , spacious, laid back, quiet (except for the bobcat in front of our cabin at the moment), and basically unreal on all levels.
I met the other members of Beam Reach at the Seattle Aquarium on Saturday morning, for an eye-opening experience. The aquarium is much bigger than I had first anticipated and includes a neat exhibit that was designed to educate the general public about comparing whales to humans both anatomically and socially. There is also a sonar display where you can compare the different sounds of several animals, boats, harbors, and even create your own sonogram. We went to the back where a hydrophone picks up and records sounds of downtown Seattle. The port is notoriously noisy and (not surprisingly) the orca resident pod has not really been seen in the port for a long time. You can listen live here:Â orcasound.net
The sun and rain have been taking turns on and off as seemingly regular as the ferry schedule since I’ve been here. I packed my bag in preparation as we ventured to Lime Kiln State Park, also known as Whale Watch State Park. One of the signs says that on any given day in the summer, there is a 30% chance of seeing a whale during that day. We were able to spot a few Stellar sea lions bobbing around and quite a number of sailboats, but no orcas. We were briefed by Scott Veirs and Jason Wood (who are two of the mentors for the program) on various types of sound data analysis programs and listened to recorded orca calls. We were sent out to the rocks during one of the sunny periods to think of questions about the whales and ecosystem in general. Of course, my questions spun in circles towards hydropower impacts, the logistics of developing marine protected areas, and wondering where the San Francisco sea lions are now….
The dining hall staff seems wonderful and very organized. I am impressed by the accommodations (and patience) that they seem to have for strange allergies and food preferences. Although I was concerned about my preference to not eat or smell seafood, they don’t give it a second thought.
It seems that most of the homework is going to be reading scholar papers about various marine/ecosystem topics, which should be really good for me. As the days get longer I have a feeling that the time I start reading will get later and later, at least until we get on the boat. I will be venturing out on a bike and taking hikes as frequently as possible. These things tend to turn into epic tales, so be sure to stay tuned.
Take care! Enjoy the day!!
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