In a related piece, Cathy Britt created an educational slideshow called “Into the Waves with Orcas.” It has a bunch of great graphics and photographs which convey some basic acoustics, the sounds commonly made by killer whales, and the main risks they face.
Ethan, Cathy, and his crew from QUEST Northwest did a fantastic job of documenting the plight of the endangered southern resident killer whales. They also produced the most amazing photographic thank you book ever seen (they *really* got Leslie’s number!).
QUEST is an award-winning multimedia science and environment series created by KQED, San Francisco. We applaud their efforts to raise public awareness and science literacy.
For those listeners, readers, and lookers who are inspired by these QUEST features: consider becoming a citizen scientist who helps us Listen for Whales using the live hydrophone streams at orcasound.net … One way to get started is by following Beam Reach’s step-by-step guide to listening for and recording orcas.
A panel by Odin Lonning
Ethan also took the time to showcase the artwork of Odin Lonning which graces Val and Leslie’s guest house. He wrote down the Tlingit story of Natsilane that Odin depicted in wood and paint in a piece called Why Killer Whales Don’t Eat People: Where Science and Legend Meet”. The piece parlays the artwork and legend into a discussion of orca-human interactions and relationships.
During the spring 2011 program Carlos Javier Sanchez chose to make Beam Reach a focal point of his final project as a Master of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington (UW). Carlos spent many weeks documenting our 10-week program — both on land at the UW Friday Harbor Labs and at sea on our sailing research vessel, the Gato Verde.
Embedded below are the fruits of his labor — a highlight video and some shorts. We look forward to continuing to work with Carlos as a Digital Content Producer and thank him here for all of the amazing footage, still imagery, and in-air recordings he captured for us.
Beam Reach overview video
Beam Reach is an off-campus adventure that lets advanced undergrads and recent graduates live the life a marine biologist. It’s a 10-week taste of what it’s like to be a graduate student or a professional field scientist.
Knotcraft: the sheetbend, bowline, and clove hitch
Gato Verde Adventure Sailing captain, Todd Shuster, teaches Beam Reach Students how to get knotty.
Beam Reach is an off-campus adventure that lets advanced undergrads and recent graduates live the life a marine biologist. It’s a 10-week taste of what it’s like to be a graduate student or a professional field scientist.
Captain Todd Shuster has been involved in sailing education for over 20 years. Todd is a US Coast Guard licensed Captain, a USSAILING instructor and instructor trainer. He has taught wilderness sailing courses in Baja, Mexico for The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), and has run several sailing programs for universities, yacht clubs, and summer camps.
Learning to sail a 42′ catamaran
Gato Verde’s captain, Todd Shuster, teaches Beam Reach students how to sail on the Salish Sea.
This looks like a fun (and free!?) opportunity for Beam Reach alumni or prospective students to a week of field research experience in Scotland this fall. There’s only 10 days before the application deadline, so hurry if want to learn about cetacean (mainly bottlenose dolphin) census, behavioral observation, marine mammal rescue techniques.
Four new student papers and presentations are now posted on the spring 2011 class home page as PDFs and on-line videos. The titles of the student projects are listed below, along with the embedded video of their 10-15-minute talks.
Introduction by Scott Veirs and Robin Kodner
Introduction by Scott Veirs and Robin Kodner to final presentations of the spring 2011 program at the Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School, including first showing of a highlight video by Carlos Javier Sanchez (streamed and recorded on 6/3/11 at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories)
Variation in Southern Resident Killer Whale Acoustic Signals in Relation to Environmental Factors (Mandy Bailey, University of Maine)
Final presentation by Mandy Bailey of the spring 2011 program at the Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School (6/3/11 at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories)
Bottom-up Analysis of Lower Trophic Levels within Foraging Areas of the Southern Resident Killer Whales (Kelsey Donahue, Western Washington University)
Final presentation by Kelsey Donahue of the spring 2011 program at the Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School (6/3/11 at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories)
Variation in the S1 Call Type of Southern Resident Killer Whales (Emalie Garcia, Texas A&M University)
Final presentation by Emalie Garcia of the spring 2011 program at the Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School (6/3/11 at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories)
Determining the correlation between call frequency and matriline density in Southern Resident killer whales (Ally Meyer, University of Washington)
Final presentation by Ally Meyer of the spring 2011 program at the Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School (6/3/11 at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories)
Today was the day of our final presentations. After a solid week of limited sleep (one night I went to bed at 3:30 AM, and I was the first one) and lots of work, it’s a relief to finally have all that stress lifted off our shoulders. It’s given me a chance to really think about our time here. It’s had its ups and downs. When you’re living in a confined space for an extended period of time with the same people, morale can quickly spiral downwards. The final deadline looming over our heads definitely made for some stress. However, most of our boat life was extremely enjoyable. It won’t be the stressful times that we’ll remember when looking back on this trip, it will be all the times that we really enjoyed. There are a lot of things that I will really miss:
1)     Rough seas. The was nothing quite like sitting on the trampoline, rising up on the crest of a large wave only to watch with mild horror as the water simply disappeared underneath you for a minute before rushing up to soak you before you had a chance to even comprehend what’s going on. Rough seas were also fun in the cabin. Whenever Captain Todd yelled in, “You might want to hold on and secure loose items,†a frantic response was initiated as everyone rushed to grab onto their possessions. Then the boat pitched and wreaked more havoc on the galley than a small earthquake. Sure, it could be nauseating. But as long as your computer didn’t crash to the ground (which did happen on more than one occasion), you couldn’t help but laugh.
2)     Sitting out on the trampoline. It was definitely my favorite place on the boat. It was also a great place to nap. It was so relaxing sitting out there, scanning the water for whatever might be out there.
3)     How sweet chocolate tasted on the boat. I swear, chocolate never tasted so good. Especially those NOLS malt balls.
4)     Finding shrimp swimming around in the toilet. I kid you not, it happened. Then you’d have to scoop him out because you didn’t want to condemn him to a miserable death in the sewage tank.
5)Â Â Â Â Â Stirring up the water out the escape hatch at night and watching the Noctiluca produce bioluminescence.
6)Â Â Â Â Â How gorgeous the stars were every night.
7)     Calling every whale watch operator we could think of in the morning in a desperate attempt to find the whales. These calls would sometimes turn into very pleasant chats, and we all made friends with the operators.
8)     Being able to plot our own course every day. If we wanted to go around Whidbey Island, we could. And did.
9)Â Â Â Â Â How good a hot shower felt after a week of feeling cold and dirty all the time.
10)Â Sea hair.
11)Â Discovering new plankton names that sound like dinosaurs.
12) How cold it was every night… oh wait, no I won’t miss that.
13)Â The Aladdin lamp.
14) How beautiful everything out here is. We had the opportunity to visit so many awesome places, from Deception Pass to Active Pass way up in Canada. Each adventure was more exciting and beautiful than the last.
15) Home-cooked popcorn. Who knew it was so much better than microwave popcorn?
16) The whales, of course. Let me tell you, there is nothing more exciting than seeing that first blow and then getting to spend hours with these amazing animals. To make it even better, we got to listen to them underwater as we were observing them above water as well. Every day that we spent with the whales became my “best day ever.â€
17) All the amazing people that I met. I’d like to give a special thanks to all of the guest speakers that took time out of their busy schedules to meet with us. It’s been amazing. Also, to Ally, Emalie and Kelsey for helping to make this experience fun. I’ll miss them all terribly, and hope that I’ll get to see everyone again sometime in the future.
This program has been a really great opportunity. It has given us an intimate taste of what field research is like, and has definitely helped me to shape my future path. We’ve all learned so much, and I’m excited to be able to share this newly acquired knowledge with others. For a really great video on Beam Reach made by our fantastic videographer, Carlos, check this out. It’s a good summary of our experience.
I’ve wanted to study whales ever since I was three years old and first watched the movie ‘Free Willy’. I was extremely lucky to get the opportunity to actually do this. If you ever get such an opportunity to follow your dream, go for it. You never know what you might find.
Today was the last day of Beam Reach! We have all worked so hard to get to this point and I think our efforts have paid off. Our presentations went smoothly and we immediately dispersed to our families and homes that are all across the country.  I decided that my last blog should be a summary of my independent project of the course because I have failed to mention it so far. My project looked at the ecological significance of the Southern Resident killer whales. When looking at the trophic interactions that are involved in their food chain it is apparent that bottom up analyses is understudied. Most people seem to look at top down control of the Southern Residents such as what negative impacts are directly affecting the whales. Not many studies seem to focus on how primary productivity affects their population. Here is a graph I used in my presentation that illustrates the trophic interactions that are involved in the Southern Resident killer whale food chain. The Southern Residents are known to primarily eat chinook salmon. Chinook salmon eat forage fish. The forage fish eat zooplankton and the zooplankton eat phytoplankton. These interactions led to my hypothesis trying to find a linear relationship between primary productive ‘hotspots’ or areas of high amount of phytoplankton and presence of fish. My sample sites were on the west side of San Juan Island and over Salmon Bank. I concluded my project and presentation with insignificant differences between phytoplankton abundance between sites and the absence of large targets. This does not mean that there isn’t a linear relationship between the two. It implies that environmental factors that can drive variation in phytoplankton abundance within our transect of study was insignificantly different between sites. Therefore future methods were suggested to contain another transect with different tidal patterns so  primary productive hotspots or significant differences in abundance of phytoplankton could be found. If anyone wants to look at each of our presentations you can go to the beam reach website at http://www.beamreach.org/class/2011-spring and our talks should be up there soon! Well this is it…have a great summer everyone!
I’m sure you all are wondering if we’ve seen any whales these past few weeks. At this point I’m thrilled to say we have seen them more than a few times! Initially, it seemed that the whales were avoiding us or at least choosing the exact opposite direction and side of the San Juan Islands in relation to wherever we were. Days past with this sense of disappointment but determination kept us going. Our lingering hope led us to venture far into northern and southern parts of the Salish Sea. One day, we travelled up to my favorite island so far; Patos Island, in hopes the reported killer whale’s up in Pt. Roberts, Canada would continue on one of their annual routes down south between Patos Island and Eagle Point. After taking night shifts listening to underwater hydrophones that are located throughout the islands we woke up the next morning knowing that they whales hadn’t passed our location. The day ended with news the whales were transients and going at a slower pace then expected. We were unable to see any whales that day, but our efforts continued nonetheless.
Another day we travelled an even farther distance south around Whidbey Island. Supposedly we were the first Beam Reach course to go this far south! We had heard that J pod was seen down in that area so we spent the day looking and found gray whales and a breaching Minke instead! This is very rare to see a Minke breach so our long trip down ended up being worth the time and fuel used.
I feel like I haven’t explained how exactly we go about finding the whales. I make it sound  as if we use underwater hydrophones as our main locating source, but this only half of our method! One part is to check to see if killer whale call spectrograms were picked up from the Lime Kiln underwater hydrophone if necessary, or listen to the hydrophones that stream live on orca sound at http://www.orcasound.net/ to see if we can locate the direction the whales are travelling. Our other main locating source is communicating with people. We keep in contact with land based observers, Vancouver, Victoria and San Juan Island whale watching boats, along with other companies such as the Whale Museum, the Whale Research Center, Sound Watch and Strait Watch. Each contacts purpose is either to educate boaters on vessel noise and how it can negatively impact whale communication, educate and entertain the public about their general biology or to continue research on the Southern Resident killer whale’s.  All of these contacts serve as vital source for our knowledge of the southern resident and transient killer whale location. In order for us to create an equal sharing of information relationship with these contacts we try and relay any information of what marine mammals we see on our daily routes. There are exceptions when there is the concern of overcrowding the whales, so we make it a point to be very careful about who we relay the information to.
For the past 4 weeks the information we have been able to provide for others is actually not about finding the Southern Resident killer whales.  When pulling out of Snug Harbor along the west side of San Juan Island on May 8th. Ally  spotted a humpback whale! Not only did we see a humpack whale but we caught them in a playful state allowing us to see the giant mammal breach multiple times! The amazing photo below was taken by our photographer/video-augrapher Carlos Sanchez.
There was also pectoral and chin slapping that occurred. After our initial shock of observing a humpback breach not too far from our catamaran we called all of our contacts so that they could share in the enjoyment. That was the first moment we felt so good about giving information to our contacts instead of only receiving what they had to tell us.
We have also seen the Southern Resident killer whales for 5 days total so far, and it was all possible because of this connection with other whale observers and researchers!
Beam Reach is coming to an end. Before I got here, I never imagined how much would be packed into ten weeks. We have learned so much in science, sailing, and life.  I will most treasure all the people we have met. From experts in the field like David Bain to experts in the kitchen like the talented Leslie Veirs, we have met so many new faces.
The last two weeks on the boat we had two guests. Andrea Buckman came on board to tell us about her work with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in both salmon and killer whales. Living in Canada, she focuses on the Northern Residents, but has been able to use her work to make predictions on effects of POPs on the Southern Residents.  We got to give a little back by showing her J-pod! Always a treat.
Ally, Val, Mandy, Andrea, and Carlos watching J-pod
Unfortunately for our second guest, Julie Woodruff, we could not deliver the whales, despite all the positive energy we tried to send out. We still had a fantastic time. We were however able to have a discussion on communication on the bow of Gato Verde traveling through Haro Strait. We tried speculate why matriline group structure would be beneficial to the Southern Residents. Classes on the water don’t get much better than that! Julie is finishing her PhD at Berkley and has been coming to the islands to enjoy the whales and water for many years. She studies tuco-tucos, patagonian rodents, to understand stress in group-living and lone females.
Our group with Julie
Our guests have shared their work and wisdom. We have been able to tie together many aspects of these whales lives. Thank you to all those who came to share their knowledge with us in these ten weeks. We couldn’t have done it without all of you.
ORCAS!
On the glorious day of May 10, 2010 we found the long awaited J-Pod and it was wonderful. We got to spend 4 hours with them and got some great recordings. Check them out Orca Recordings. The whole time we were surrounded by orcas, it was surreal.  I can’t even begin to explain the level of excitement on the boat when we first spotted the whales. Whenever we spot the whales, we yell out their bearings with respect to the boat so we can better keep track of where the whales are. There were so many whales, we  had one on nearly every hour of the clock!  I never realized how big a creature can be until you see it in real life. Orcas are huge, not as big as a humpback, but when that black dorsal fin cut through the water, it rose to a stunning 5ft. It was amazing.
We stayed with them till dusk and eventually when all the whale watching boats were gone, it was just us and J-Pod. It was a beautiful clear sunny day and our recordings, as well as the photos, were fantastic. Â These photos were taken by our videographer, Carlos Sanchez
Erica Beneze talks about clicks. (Note the reflection of co-author Jason, as well as session Chair David Mellinger.)
Beam Reach staff and alumni presented no less than six talks at the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) meeting held this week in Seattle. Setting a record that will be hard to beat, in one session on killer whale acoustics a full third of the 12 presentations involved Beam Reach! The talks ranged widely in their topics and methodologies (abstracts below). Bravo to the whole crew!
Three Beam Reach alumni were involved in this ASA meeting, up from one (Kenna Lehmann, fall 2007) at the 2008 ASA meeting in Paris. Alumnus Erica Beneze (spring 2009) spoke about the relationship between the behavioral state of killer whales and their echolocation click rates and how it changes in versus out of areas proposed for marine protection. Alumnus Laura Madden (fall 2005) spoke first in a fisheries workshop session, comparing two ways to assess fish habitat restoration structures: non-invasive hydroacoustic methods versus the traditional electrofishing technique. Jason Wood and Peggy Foreman (fall 2006) asked whether the southern residents compensate vocally when ship noise increases using new recordings and ship track data from the Lime Kiln acoustic observatory maintained by The Whale Museum.
Val Veirs discussed ship noise signatures from a long-term study in killer whale habitat on Monday, and then introduced the concept of new underwater noise metric — the orca-weighted decibel — on Thursday. Scott Veirs presented a model of killer whale signal masking by commercial ship noise (Prezi embedded below).
4pAB5. Masking of southern resident killer whale signals by commercial ship noise. Scott R. Veirs and Val R. Veirs
The endangered southern resident killer whales (SRKWs) emit sound to communicate with each other and to hunt fish. Communication or fishing are possible only within a distance R at which a signal can be detected.We determine detection distance by comparing the power spectra of the ambient noise and the received signal, with attention to the auditory response curve of the receiver. In Haro Strait, the center of the SRKW critical habitat, about 21 commercial ships per day, increases the ambient noise level by about 20 dB. To assess how ship noise may affect the SRKW communication and hunting, we define the fractional reduction in the zone of audibility at any location and time as the ratio of the area where signal detection is expected to occur in the increased noise regime to the maxi- mum detection area expected under ideal conditions R^2/Rmax^2. We map the decreased zones of audibility in Haro Strait during average and extreme ship noise by combining field measurements of spreading rates with source power spectra 1–100 kHz of common SRKW signals and typical ships.
1aABa8. Shipping noise signatures. Val Veirs, Scott Veirs, and Jason Wood
Throughout 2010, underwater recordings have been made of each ship passing two separate Haro Strait nodes of the orcasound.net hydrophone network. About 20 ships pass each day. Each ship has been identified in real time [automatic identification system (AIS)]. Measurements of received underwater noise levels and AIS variables are recorded as each ship passes the listening stations. Individual ships are observed multiple times moving in either northerly or southerly directions at times separated by a day or two and also by intervals of months. A database has been developed that contains the spectrum level of each ship ô°ƒbandwidth 96 kHz at one location and 22 kHz at the other and the source level both in terms of intensity and angular distribution. Ship signatures in terms of frequency quantiles and angular distributions of emissions are quite reproducible. This database can be used to predict limitations on echolocating and vocalizing marine mammals’ active space due to specific ship noise emissions. In particular, predictions of marine mammal noise exposures in specific frequency bands can be made prior to specific vessels’ entry into an area opening the possibility of planning field observations to investigate correlations between behaviors and specific predicted noise exposures.
4pAB9. Are click rates in killer whales an indicator of group behavior and foraging hotspots? Erica L. Beneze, Jason Wood, Scott Veirs , and Val Veirs
Killer whales use sound to communicate, find food, and navigate through the ocean. Southern Resident killer whales are specialized hunters and predominantly target Chinook salmon. It is presumed that these whales use echolocation clicks to distinguish between different species of salmon and to navigate. If this is the case, then click rates should vary by group behavior as the need for locating prey and navigating change. It has also been suggested that certain areas are utilized heavily by this population for foraging (hotspots) and some of these areas have been included in NOAA’s proposed “no-go†zone. If click rates during foraging are distinct, then hotspots should be identifiable by click rates. This study tested if click rates varied by behavior state and geographic area. Group behavior was categorized into five states: foraging, traveling, milling, resting, and socializing. Click rate varied significantly by behavior state and by area. Socializing had the highest click rate followed by foraging, traveling, milling, and then resting. The Southern Residents had higher click rates in foraging hotspots.
4pAB6. Shipping noise and vocal compensation by Southern Resident killer whales: Haro Strait as a study case. Jason D. Wood (SMRU Ltd.), Peggy Foreman (Univ. of Washington), Val Veirs, and Scott Veirs
Southern resident killer whales (SRKWs) use acoustic signals to navigate, forage, and facilitate social dynamics. Researchers have published evidence that suggests SRKW compensate for increased background noise by increasing the source level and duration of their signals. Unpublished reports have also suggested that SRKW may compensate for background noise by repeating their signals and by preferentially using certain signal types. Most of this work has focused on noise from whale watching vessels or general background noise. Haro Strait is both the center of the summertime home range of the SRKW and an important shipping channel. From September 2009 to December 2010 almost 10 000 ships transited through Haro Strait with an average of 21 ships passing per day. Ship transits in Haro Strait can increase background noise by up to 20 dB and are detectable above back- ground noise for up to 30 min. This may be impacting the ability of SRKW to detect and utilize their acoustic signals. A five hydrophone array and Automatic Identification System receiver located at the Lime Kiln Lighthouse were used to record passing ships and SRKW in Haro Strait. This project investigates signal compensation strategies in SRKW in correlation with increased noise from passing ships.
4pAB7. Orca hearing weighted decibels: Underwater sound measurements appropriate to studies of Orcinus (killer whales). Val Veirs, David Bain, and Scott Veirs
In community noise studies, sound levels are usually measured under the dB-A weighting scheme, which was introduced 50 years ago in an effort to match noise measurements to the response of human listeners. Here we pro- pose an underwater noise decibel weighting scheme matched to the hearing sensitivity of killer whales (dB-O). This scheme is based on a convolution of the spectral energy of sound with the frequency-specific hearing detection thresholds of killer whales. The biological significance of noise sources may be more readily discerned if underwater sounds are quantified dB-O weighted. Further, use of this measure would emphasize the importance of broad-band measurement of noise rather than characterizing noise sources by the frequency with the peak power-spectral density and the source level of low frequency components. We compare the measures of representative noise sources, which have been recorded within the range of Southern Resi- dent Killer Whales, including small boats, ships, airguns, and mid-frequency sonar, using both flat and db-O weighted levels. While dB-O provides a more relevant characterization of noise than flat measurements e.g., for predicting noise-induced stress, more detailed measurements will be required to address masking of biological signals, whose frequency structure varies with type of phonation and direction.
4pFWa1. Evaluating freshwater habitat restoration with active acoustics. Laura E. Madden (School of Forest Resources and Appl. Res. Lab., The Penn State Univ.) and Jennifer L. Miksis-Olds (The Penn State Univ.)
The effectiveness of adding a submerged physical structure in order to increase fishery production is uncertain. Measuring fishery response to these alterations with conventional techniques is difficult. Electrofishing is a typical assessment method in freshwater fishery management and is often limited in sample size and sampling frequency. This study used active acoustic technology to evaluate the distribution and behavior of fish assemblages associated with added submerged rock structures in a reservoir currently undergoing habitat improvement. An acoustic water column profiler was deployed for three 1-week intervals at each of three replicate sites consisting of adjacent treatment areas with added rock structures and control areas without added structures. Electrofishing was conducted during each sam- pling interval. Fish abundance and behavior at each site were assessed from the volume backscatter time series and electrofishing data. Differences between areas with and without structures were compared. Combining acoustic technology with conventional assessment methods has enabled a more thorough evaluation of habitat restoration projects and helps guide the development of future conservation efforts.
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