Beam Reach

Real Time Chart of the Gato Verde

This is a cool new feature we’ve just implemented. On the Gato Verde we’ve got a transponder that sends a signal every 10 minutes or so and it is logged in a database so that we know where the boat is. The company that makes this transponder is called SPOT and they created a new map sharing tool that allows us to safely share the near-real-time position of the Gato Verde.

I don’t have it confirmed yet, but I think I just saw the GV sail past Lime Kiln. When I look at the SPOT chart it seems possible. It’s fun to look at the chart, listen to Orcasound, and watch the Orcacam.

Here are the links:

http://beamreach.org/map.html

http://www.whaleresearch.com/thecenter/orcacam01.html

http://orcasound.net/

Enjoy!

Brrr…

It’s cold in that water.

All of our students have to complete the swim test before they can sail on the Gato Verde.  It almost always makes the students nervous.  Of course it happens just days before they sail (many of them for the first time), so it gets wrapped up in the mind with “what if’s” and “what’s going to happen”.  Always, every one makes it just fine and with an increased sense of not wanting to do that on accident.  We come away knowing that they’ll be able to take a few swimming strokes in the cold water.

Here’s what Dr. Val Veirs wrote about the plunge: “A few minutes after our ‘cold plunge’ in the waters off the Friday Harbor Labs’ dock, snow came spitting from the grey clouds above. But, all of us are now warm and dry and pretty pleased with ourselves. And, we now really know how cold that water is and we really, really won’t fall in during our weeks at sea!”

Dr. Veirs and Dr. Woods joined the students in the plunge (as they have with each program), so it was truly a team experience.

466014659846589

Students set sail

On Monday of this week the Spring 08 Beam Reach program set sail on the Gato Verde. They’ve been all over the west side of the San Juan Islands including False Bay and Snug Harbor. I’ve gotten several emails and as of Tuesday they hadn’t seen the whales. I hope they are getting to use the tools from Biosonics to check out the salmon. I’m sure they are seeing plenty of other interesting sea life. I’ll post an update once I get more details.

Fish Tools and a Pilot Project

We now have another state of the art tool for our students. In a pilot project with Biosonics — a fisheries research equipment manufacturer in Seattle — Beam Reach students will be using a 200kHz hydroacoustic instrument to track salmon (the food of choice for the killer whales).

This will allow students to investigate the whale’s food when the whales aren’t around, which could lead to some answers about where the whales go, when they go, and why. It really opens up a whole new dimension through which the students can investigate why the whale population is declining and what we can do about it.

I’ll continue to post updates, but I also recommend following Dr. Scott Veirs’s entries to see how this unfolds. It will also be interesting to see how the students utilize this new tool.

Acoustic Spreading…what's that?

Well the Beam Reach students are about to figure that out. It’s amazing to me how quickly students learn in this hands on program. The instructors provide them with an introduction, show them how things work and why, and then help the students in the field. Some of the students know almost nothing about acoustics when they arrive and leave knowing how to gather acoustical data, interpret it, and use it to draw conclusions.

I’ve been a part of Beam Reach for a little over two years now (I’m in the office) and, while some of this rings familiar, it is still so complicated to me because I’m not a scientist and I haven’t gotten to do the program. (I’m finding it more and more difficult to get away for a week, much less ten of them!)

So it is with true joy and amazement that I watch our students absorb this information and become confident in their abilities. Here’s a sample from a beginning exercise they do. To some of you out there this will make sense, to the rest of us, well we can only be grateful that somebody understands it.

4598845920

Dear students,

Congratulations on making it through the calibration and spreading sessions
on the dock this morning, as well as the very brief Matlab tutorial.

For your exercise that you should hand in before 5:30 this afternoon (via
email) you should include the following information:

The metadata for the two experiments.
The calibration factor for each of the 4 hydrophones and an explanation of
how you calculated it.
The received level (in dB re 1 microPascal) of each hydrophone for the
spreading experiment.
A plot of those received levels vs the log of the distance from the source.
A regression line through those data points with the slope, R-squared value
and the source level (in dB re 1 microPascal @ 1 m).

Just in case your confused; the following channels correspond to the
following wav files:

Calibration ex:
A01_1.wav       Ch 1
A01_2.wav       Ch 2
C01_1.wav       Ch3
C01_2.wav       Ch4

Spreading ex:
A03_1.wav       Ch1 (the farthest hydrophone from the speaker)
A03_2.wav       Ch2
C03_1.wav       Ch3
C03_2.wav       Ch4 (the closest hydrophone from the speaker)

Also as a reminder, the energy exercise is Due at 8:30 on the
16th.  Because we will be off island this weekend and again on Tues to pick
up food for our adventures at sea, you should plan on collecting the data
that is needed for the energy exercise today or on Monday (look back at the
excel sheet that Val gave you for a reminder).

I'll post next week's syllabus in S1 so you have an idea of what will be
happening.

Good luck

Jason

Jason Wood, PhD, Instructor
Beam Reach, http://beamreach.org
Marine Science and Sustainability School
jason@beamreach.org

Mating Seals

This note from Tim was published in the email notices sent out by Orca Network.

Hi Susan,

My name is Tim Hunt and I’m an Australian student on the Beam Reach
program studying killer whale acoustics and behaviour with Scott and Val
Veirs. We came across something a couple of days ago that apparently, is
rarely witnessed in the waters around the San Juan Islands.

At mid-morning on Tuesday 28th August we were travelling south out of
Roche Harbor aboard the Gato Verde catamaran when we noticed off the
starboard bow what we thought was a dead harbor seal floating in the
water. We turned the boat around and upon approaching the seal it did not
move, we got closer and I noticed it was in fact two seals, one laying on
top of the other. Still no movement as we pulled up right alongside the
seals but then they both opened their black beady eyes and just turned
their heads and looked at us as if to say “Do you mind?”. Still holding on
to each other tightly they slowly sank beneath the surface of the water
and down out of our sight.

Now we’ve been informed by our onboard PhD seal expert that most pinnipeds
are land breeders and the harbor seal is one of only a few species that
are aquatic breeders. The seal on top appeared too large to be a juvenile
as both of them were relatively the same size, and pups are weaned at
about one month anyway. So attached is a photo and we thought people might
like to view a rare sight of harbor seals in “action”. Enjoy!

Cheers, Tim Hunt on behalf of the Beam Reach
team

Meeting Fall 071 students in person

I got out of the office last week (yeah!) and got to meet the Fall 2007 students. It was fantastic.

I spend the majority of my working time telling students about this program and helping them through the application process. So I “get to know” most of our students before they arrive. Mostly via email and phone conversations. It was really great to meet everyone at the beginning of the program and put faces and names together. (Yes, I’m a bit of a mother hen, so it did me good to see that they’d all arrived safely with my own two eyes. And it took some restraint not to slip into full mother hen mode!)

San Juan Island is an amazing place. Even though it’s the busy time in the islands right now, it was so peaceful and quite. While I was checking in with my family via cell phone in the morning I watched three sea otters rolling and playing in the water at my feet. You just don’t see that often in Seattle.

Instructor Jason Wood and his family fed me a great meal with all locally grown food. We talked a lot about sustainability and eating and what role it plays in our lives. They’ve made a real commitment to eating healthy and locally. They inspired me to join a local CSA (community supported agriculture). Jubilee Farm is just outside Seattle and they have a local drop right in my Ballard neighborhood. I’ve thought about doing it for a while and I’m really excited to give it a try. Thanks Wendy, Jason, Tristan, and Echo for the inspiration.
The students jump right in (literally) see the photos: https://beamreach.org/gallery/v/071/

I think it will be really exciting to see how they pursue their research and the questions the program will force them to think about. (You get really intimate with your impact on the environment when you live on a boat- where does the sewage go anyway? You see what I mean.) I am looking forward to watching their progress (even though I’ll have to do most of my watching from afar).

I hope they’ll all join me in blogging so we can all see what they are up to and how they are doing.

Good luck everyone!

Tracy

The Open Boat

I think a tradition was born last Friday, July 28. Sailing, learning, and fun were had by all at our “open boat” event. Captain Todd Shuster gave tours and sails on his recently re-powered catamaran. Now the west coast’s only biodiesel-electric charter sailing vessel. We listened to an underwater hydrophone (wow, it can be loud under water!), watched video footage from the Beam Reach program last fall, heard recorded killer whale sounds, and we all met interesting people. Here are some photos from the event.

Everyone marveled at the near silence of the Gato Verde’s electric motors. In fact, the only real reason you knew the motors were on was because we were moving, but the sails were down. There was wind so we were also treated to sailing under wind power alone.

Beam Reach alums Celia Barrosso and Laura Christoferson were on hand to tell people what it was like for them to study killer whales for ten weeks — five of which were at sea aboard the Gato Verde. For both it remains a highlight of their lives and continues to provide inspiration and guidance to their careers.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the day. Post a comment to this article so everyone can learn from you and hopefully be inspired to attend next year’s event.

Open Boat 2006