Science narrative A text document for drafting and archiving the science blogbook entries. Please include: Day of week, date; Catchy title Start location to end location; narrative of the day's science deployments/findings. When possible, upload entries as separate (daily) blog posts with tag "Science BlogBook." Sunday 4/17/11 Stellar first passage through Cattle Pass Friday Harbor to Mackaye Harbor After packing up the Gato Verde, we embarked in the late afternoon and headed through Cattle Pass as the flood weakened. En route we observed stellar sea lions, California sea lions and bald eagles at Whale Rock, and variety of sea birds. We entered Mackaye Harbor and anchored at about 6:30 pm for a dinner of gluten-free pasta with red sauce. Monday 4/18/11 Transient tracking in Haro Strait Mackaye Harbor to Snug Harbor After defining and doing our morning chores, we had our first extensive passage-planning session. Near the end we learned from Jeanne that ~30 transients had been heard at OrcaSound and then Lime Kiln around 8:00. We traversed the strong ebb at Cattle Pass, headed over Salmon Bank, and then proceeded up the west side of San Juan Island, scanning all the time. We did not find transients and by the time we heard of some being located east of Hein Bank, we were nearing Lime Kiln. Since they were so far to the south, we elected to drift outside of Snug Harbor to practice deploying science gear. We strung the single lowered hydrophone into the ship's sound system and then conducted a suite of plankton tows ("establishing station Mitch") before heading in to Snug Harbor Resort's mooring ball to a dinner of burritos prepared by Ally and Josh. Tuesday 4/19/11 Plankton transect of Haro and Juan de Fuca Straits Snug Harbor to Port Townsend Marine Science Center We began the day by sampling plankton while riding the ebb tide down the west side of San Juan Island and into the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca. As we entered Admiralty Inlet we prepared the towed array and then towed it in Port Townsend Bay while recording flow noise, the ferry, and an artificial splash. Finally, at the PTMSC dock we tested deployment of the CTD and toured the touch tanks (thanks to Chrissy). Wednesday 4/20/11 Cetacean circumnavigations Port Townsend Marine Science Center Elger Bay, Camano Island Facing an early slack tide threatening to cut off a northward return to the San Juans, we decided to head south to look for transients and grey whales that had been reported in Puget Sound yesterday. Thus began our furthest southern excursion and first circumnavigation of Whidbey Island. On our way into Puget Sound adjacent to Marrowstone Island, we observed Stellar sea lions hauled out and a minke whale breaching as a ship approached it mid-Inlet. Rounding the southern end of Whidbey around noon, we noticed a couple groups of harbor porpoises. Then, thanks to a heads up from Susan of Orca Network, we were able to observe a single gray whale foraging along the west side of Saratoga Passage. Josh sighted two more just outside Egler Bay before we anchored and toasted up individual tortilla pizzas. Thursday 4/21/11 Aleck Bay experiments Camano Island to Aleck Bay Raising anchor early in a hail shower gave us time to pump out at Deception Pass State Park before running under the bridge at slack tide. We emerged into Rosario Strait and crossed back into the San Juans amid choppy seas, harbor porpoises, and a startled seal lion. Finding shelter in Aleck Bay on south Lopez Island we conducted a spreading experiment using synthetic tones watched over by bald eagles. The Gatito lowered the underwater projector at various distances from Gato Verde, and then supported some plankton tows at the mouth and head of the Bay. Depite pressure cooker snafus we supped on lentils and rice as the winds subsided and Leo and the Big Dipper emerged in the clearing night sky. Friday 4/22/11 Salmon Bank survey Aleck Bay to Snug Harbor We awoke to glassy conditions and a great blue heron standing guard. After thinking through the logistics of the next few days, we headed out to Salmon Bank where we occupied 5 stations on both sides and the top of the bank. The CTD was deployed down to 30m, horizontal and vertical plankton tows were conducted, and Secchi depths were ascertained. We then proceeded up Haro Strait stopping off False Bay and Lime Kiln for further plankton sampling before turning into Snug Harbor for prima vera sweet potato pasta, data management, and some intitial ganders through the microscope. Saturday 4/23/11 West side practice and Jessica talk Snug Harbor to Roche Harbor After Jessica Lundin joined us and was introduced to the crew and boat, we steamed south (re-charging batteries) to Lime Kiln. There we conducted a CTD cast and plankton sampling while Kelsey made some calls and learned that J pod had been sighted near Sooke Inlet traveling eastward. Keeping an eye on the southwest horizon, we transited northward and practiced deploying the towed array and making a recording. We dropped Jessica back in Snug Harbor, then made our way to Roche Harbor marina to pump out and refill our water tanks (which were nearly empty after a week on a full boat). Scott and Mandy tested the waters (with a swim) and Josh began his goodbyes with gifts from the Orca College Research Academy (ORCA) and a final reading from Rachel Carson (about the meaning one can find in the simple observation of a shore crab on a wave swept beach). Finally the southern residents gave a Lime Kiln concert in the darkness of the night. Sunday 4/24/11 Re-provisioning after sea week one Roche Harbor to Friday Harbor Labs Sunday 5/8/11 We have been very bad at updating this that past few weeks, so we are just getting back into it. Humpbacks and Salmon Bank survey Snug Harbor to Griffin Bay Today we started off with the intention of heading towards Salmon Bay for some sampling for Kelsey. She wanted to sample on both a flood and an ebb on one day. However, nature had other intentions, and Ally spotted a pair of humpbacks nearly as soon as we got out of the Harbor. They were two adults that were moving slowly north. We stayed with them for approximately two hours. There was a lot of surface behaviors, including a few breaches, a bunch of chin slaps, and a lot of pec slaps. We dropped the hydrophone in but heard nothing but flow noise the whole time as we motored along following them. We left them in company of two whale watch boats and headed south. We did a CTD deployment and horizontal and vertical tows at False Bay, and then continued on to Salmon Bank and did all of Kelsey's samples on an ebb. Rather than sampling on the flood, we decided to head into Griffin Bay to spend the night. Monday 5/9/11 Sand Lance with Russel Griffin Bay back to Griffin Bay Today we left Griffin Bay and headed along the southern end of Lopez Island to Watmough Bay. We passed by Whale Rocks along the way and got a good look at some Stellar sea lions. Along the way, we got calls of a group of transients seen off of south Lopez early in the morning. We saw nothing, and later transients were sighted off of Lime Kiln. We anchored in gorgeous Watmough Bay and Todd took Ally and Mandy for a quick spin around in Gatito. We saw three harbor seals. Then Russel and Gene came aboard and we learned a little about sand lance. We tried to use an underwater video camera to see if there were sand lance under the boat that corresponded with the blobs seen on the fish finder. Val managed to use the flip to document at least two sand lance, although it is hard to be sure of this. We then headed out looking for "bird balls" and seeing if we could see if any of the birds were coming up with fish. Carlos managed to get a great picture that shows a gull with what is clearly a sand lance in its mouth, so today was a success. We then fought the current back to Griffin Bay for the night. While there, we got word that the southern residents were heard off of Neah Bay, so we turned on the hydrophones and tried to listen. We didn't hear anything, but hopefully this bodes well for the future!