Wolf Hollow
The morning of Wednesday April 15th, Erica, Hilary and I volunteered at Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehab Center. Wolf Hollow is a non-profit organization that spreads awareness of wildlife on San Juan Island and rehabilitate injured animals with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. The majority of our time that morning was spent helping with the completion of the new Eagle Flight Enclosure.  The previous enclosure had been crushed under the weight of a heavy snow in 2006. We spread mulch around the facility and then continued to remove nails from the lumber of the destroyed enclosure. Erica and Hilary continued to help with the enclosure by painting the doors of the building while I moved to the front of the property and mowed the lawn surrounding the office buildings.
   Since it is still early spring, there weren’t many animals to see being rehabilitated, but it was pretty neat to see the infrastructure of organization. The commited people of Wolf Hollow spend a lot of time working to sustain the ecosystem of the island. Most of the animals they deal with obtain their injuries because of humans. This can occur when animals get struck by cars, or due to a loss of habitat with human expansion. Living on an island allows you to see your impact on the environment a lot easier than in ordinary conditions. Wolf Hollow does a great job helping others be aware of their impact on the ecosystem.
Please follow http://www.wolfhollowwildlife.org/Â if you would like to learn more or donate to Wolf Hollow.
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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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April 11, 2009
On this beautiful day, the Beam Pod was taught how to sail in dinghy’s!  One of the dinghy’s was owned by Mr. Val Veirs and it was a nice and new one.  Then the other one was owned by Mr. Jason Wood and his was older and had a classic look.  The afternoon first started off with Val explaining each part of the dinghy, there is the center board, the rudder, the jib, and the sail.  The center board keeps the boat balanced and makes it harder for the dinghy to tip over.  The rudder is at the edge of the boat and it steers the boat in the direction you want it to.  Then the jib hold the sail in front of the dinghy and the sail is self explanatory.  It was very interesting getting into each boat and trying not to fall in before our plunge this week.  I went into Val’s dinghy first and i almost fell in because i was not in the center.  Then Matt got in just fine and then trying to sail the dinghy to the next dock was very difficult.  None of the parts were in the dinghy and i found out that i suck at paddling.  So once matt got us to the dock, Val showed us how to put the sail together and how to sail.  I was first in charge of the rudder and the two terms were tac and jibe.  Tac means to turn into the wind and jibe is to turn away from the wind.  Val said when we are ready to tac scream “Ready to tac” so the rest of the crew can duck!  Then we returned to the dock and Matt came in with Hilary and I.  We all had a great time sailing in Val’s dinghy and i do have to say that Matt is a crazy driver enjoying all the fast turns!
Then things started to change once Hilary and I went into Jason’s dinghy.  First of all, when i entered it almost tipped over and i let some water in!  Once we were situated everything went bad because Jason’s rudder is more sensitive the Val’s and you need to turn it very slightly.  When i was steering Jason’s dinghy it was going all over the place.  We had to stop and paddle because we were going to run into the rocks, but once we got it going it was pretty cool.  After i awhile i got nervous and was scared that we were going to break it, so i got out.  Then Hilary went out by herself and Jason’s dinghy seems more of a one person then a two.  It was a good experience and i hope to ride in Val’s dinghy again and not Jason’s lol.  Sorry Jason but yours is to scary for me, but i had fun!
Sailing is so much fun and i cannot wait until the Beam Squad goes on the Gato Verde! Â
We Are All in This Together,
Peter
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A big part of Beam Reach is learning about sustainabilty. We are learning so much from the resources San Juan Island provides us that it is nice to give back a little. That was the goal on Tuesday April 7th at the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. The Whale Museum, located in Friday Harbor, uses the lighthouse to gather data about killer whales and as an outpost to inform the public.   They are able to learn about the killer whales by submerging a hydrophone and listening for whales calls and any other noises under the water’s surface.
Trying to figure out how to reconstruct a desk.
After a morning of lectures, we spent the rest of the day cleaning. By lunchtime, it looked as if everything in the lighthouse was sprawled outside. After a lot of vacuuming, rebuilding a few desks and moving the audio equipment, we were able to start moving everything back inside. It is nice to know that the few hours we spent will help others learn about killer whales.
- Fun times.
If you would like to learn more about the Whale Museum, you can follow this link: www.whalemuseum.org
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With transient killer whales sighted in the vicinity yesterday and the whereabouts of the endangered southern residents unknown, we were surprised and concerned to hear active mid-frequency sonar and distorted underwater voices this evening in Haro Strait. Thankfully, the broken hydrophone at Lime Kiln State Park had been repaired just hours earlier by Beam Reach students and staff conducting a service project at The Whale Museum‘s acoustic laboratory that is housed within the light house. Eventually, Jeanne Hyde heard from the Coast Guard that we were likely listening to a U.S. Navy submarine. (4/9 update from Christopher Dunagan: the Navy confirms it was the USS San Francisco, a LA-class fast attack submarine which ran into a seamount near Guam in 2006. Since there was clearly damage to the sonar dome and it was replaced with the nose of decommissioned sub, I speculate that it was a higher priority of the Navy to test the sonar while still close to the ship yard than it was to go beyond the call of Naval duty to protect marine mammals.)
An example spectrogram of the voice and a sonar ping
At 18:55 PST, Jeanne first reported someone “talking” into the Lime Kiln hydrophone of the Salish Sea Hydrophone Network. At 19:10, I started recording the Lime Kiln stream, capturing about 6 sequences of 5-10 distorted human words over about 11 minutes. The sequences seem to come every 1-3 minutes and begin with the same first few words and then vary in content and length. Most words had most of their power at 1.5-3.5kHz. About a minute and 15 seconds after the preceding word sequence, there was a 1.7-second tonal sonar ping at 2.9 kHz. At right is a screen grab from Audacity that shows the ping and the preceding word sequence. Here is a concatenation of the sequences and the ping: 090407_1910clips-lk_voice-sonar
Listening to both west side streams at around 19:15 it seemed that the voice and pings were louder at Lime Kiln, though they could be heard after a few second delay at the Orcasound hydrophone. By 21:00 it seemed the signals were louder at Orcasound than at Lime Kiln. This suggests that the Navy submarine was moving northward up Haro Strait. Since we have only a single hydrophone at each node and node-to-node timing isn’t synchronized in the streams, it’s not possible to verify the direction of travel using arrival time differences.
2 pings of a 3.75 kHz sonar
At 21:02 I made another recording from the Lime Kiln stream that contains two of the word sequences.  Then I switched to recording the Orcasound stream. The voice was clearly audible for the next half hour and there were a few sonar pings interspersed. By 21:34 the voice was pretty faint and the last time it’s dectable in the sonogram (and by ear, very faintly) is around 10:05. However, at about 21:59 the final recording caught a couple of unique pings (3.7-3.8kHz, 0.8 second) and their echoes ( 090407_2150_os_375khz-sonar ). The two pings were spaced 16 seconds apart and had a noticable echo at 3.67 seconds, equivalent to about 5.5 km. Assuming the echo was off the eastern wall of Haro Strait bathymetry (about 6km from Orcasound), the two-way travel time suggests the submarine was probably pretty close to the San Juan Island side of Haro Strait.
Longer, unedited recordings are available at http://orcasound.net — including:
A single 3.75 kHz ping
The acoustic experience continued on past midnight. At 00:24:30 on 4/8/09 I heard a series of beeps (back at ~2.9 kHz) and then their echoes at Orcasound. At 00:30-00:32 I again recorded the voice along with tones and their echoes on the Lime Kiln stream. Around 00:40-00:45 I heard and recorded what sounded like a conversation, rather than the separated single words of the previous sequences. At 00:48:30 there was a very loud ping (close to Lime Kiln?) and either an echo or a ping from a separate, more distance location. This was followed by many repeated word sequences.   At 01:00 things got quiet, but then at 01:11:00 there was suddently another impressive single ping (sound clip: 090408_0038_lk_single-375khz-ping ). At 01:13, the slow voice started repeating sequences again. Another single ping came at ~01:22 as two cargo ships came abeam of Lime Kiln and increased the ambient noise levels. Another at 1:31:00 with a nice echo was followed by more conversing at 01:36. Then there was an extended sequence of sonar tones and verbal interjections that grew progressively fainter and then stopped ~01:45.  Around 01:50 things picked up again with more conversation and then — most interestingly — what sounded like an exchange of longer tones, possibly between two sources, one near Lime Kiln and one substantially further away. After about 5 minutes of silence, there were two more loud pings with echoes at 02:00:45.
Recordings made for much of the following hour, but I think I missed two loud pings at ~02:53:00. More pings heard at: 03:11…
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After a fantastic overview of recent research and very current concerns expressed by the commercial whale-watcher industry, Scott and I parted company with the brand new Beam Reach students and their lead instructor, Jason. They took a very rocky ferry ride from Port Townsend across to Whidbey Island. We watched the little white ferry bobbing in the midst of a sea of angry whitecaps and waves.
A few hours later, Scott and I started north on Cat’s Cradle, our 32′ catamaran. With sails reefed and motor running fast and smooth we fought away from Port Townsend with 30 kt winds, 3-6′ waves and an adverse tide. The boat did well and we braved white knuckles and arrived 16 miles north on Lopez Island about an hour after dark. The last miles were done carefully with radar and GPS.
Beam Reach 2009 – Spring Program – BEGINS!
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Standing room only
On Monday and Tuesday this week we attended the Transboundary Naturalists workshop. While we made our way from Seattle’s Aquarium out to Port Townsend in some very densely packed vehicles, Val and Jason sailed down on Val’s boat from the San Juan Islands. Captain Todd drove down to Bellingham and we all got to listen to the latest findings in killer whales science, as well as updates on new regulations and enforcement.
The pace of lectures and networking opportunities was intense and the
final agenda (PDF) read like a who’s-who of southern resident killer whale experts. We were able to meet and ask questions of some of the old guard, like Ken Balcomb and John Ford, as well as a bunch of talented youg researchers. At meals and a Monday night reception, we met many of the naturalists who work aboard whale watch vessels, as well as the vessels’ drivers and owners. With luck, all these contacts will prove useful — either during proposal development in the next few weeks on land, or at sea when we will need help locating the whales and cooperation while studying them.
We are off to a great start of classes for the quarter after a harowing ferry crossing to the islands. This morning we even had snow! We can’t wait for the cold plunge in 3 weeks when we get to feel how cold things can be here.
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Walking to the Port Townsend beach to ask 21 questions. (From the left: Matthew, Erica, Peter, Hilary, and Hannah)
We’ve made it safely from a fun initial meeting at the Seattle Aquarium to Val’s boat at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center dock. Thanks to Leslie and Val for a delicious sesame noodle dinner, supplemented with fresh-baked rolls from Jason, we were re-fueled and ready for a first class exercise.
We walked to the local lighthouse at Point Wilson and sat on the beach for a half hour to think up 21 questions we have about killer whales and their environment. These questions, or other ones inspired by the workshop talks we’ll attend the next two days, may form the basis for student proposals that will develop in the first three weeks of the program.
Despite some big ship wakes, we all got a good night’s sleep. Now we’re off to the Transboundary Naturalists Workshop to hear from local experts about the status of the southern residents and our efforts to recover the population. Here are some more photographs from our first day.
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With about 6 weeks before the spring program begins we have created a home page for the spring 2009 class (091) that includes links to their photo gallery and blog entries. Keep an eye on it to learn more about the incoming students and track their progress.
A most exciting and unique aspect of the spring program is that we have all been invited to participate in the Southern Resident Killer Whale Transboundary Naturalist Workshop (March 30-31 in Port Townsend, WA). It’s looking like quite the tour of the current state of SRKW policy and science, with about 25 20-minute talks from many of the most active managers, enforcement agents, and researchers! See tentative speakers/topics list (PDF) and latest draft agenda below:
Suggested Schedules for SRKW Transboundary Naturalist Workshop
Draft 2/10/09
Monday March 30, 2009
Start    End   Task   Time
9:00   10:00   Coffee/ Pastries   1 hour
10:00   10:15   Welcome Remarks   15 min
Management/Enforcement/Human Dimensions Panel
Management
1Â Â Â Â Â Â 10:15Â Â Â 10:30Â Â Â Lynne Barre – NMFS/NWRÂ Â Â 15 min
2Â Â Â Â Â Â 10:30Â Â Â 10:45Â Â Â Paul Cottrell – DFOÂ Â Â 15 min
Human Dimensions
3Â Â Â Â Â Â 10:45Â Â Â 11:05Â Â Â Suzanne Russell – NMFSÂ Â Â 20 min
11:05   11:15   Questions for above   10 min
Enforcement Panel
4Â Â Â Â Â Â 11:15Â Â Â 12:00Â Â Â Alan Wolf – NOAA LEÂ Â Â 45 min
5Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Larry Paike – DFO
6Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Russ Mullins – WDFW
12:00Â Â Â 1:00Â Â Â LUNCHÂ Â Â 1 Hour
Outreach/Population
7/8      1:15   1:55   Kari Koski-Soundwatch & Nic-Straitwatch   40 min
9      1:55   2:25   Ken Balcomb   30 min
2:25   2:40   Questions   15 min
2:40Â Â Â 3:00Â Â Â AFTERNOON BREAKÂ Â Â 20 min
Vessel Interactions/Sound
10      3:00   3:20   Marla Holt   20 min
11      3:20   3:40   Deborah Giles   20 min
12      3:40   4:00   Dawn Noren   20 min
13      4:00   4:20   Rob Williams   20 min
4:20   4:30   Questions   10 min
4:30   5:00   Keys/Room Check-In   30 min
5:00   6:30   COCKTAIL at Port Townsend Marine Science Center   1 hour 30 min
6:30   8:00   Dinner   1 hour 30 min
8:00   10:00   Salish Sea Member Meeting   2 hour
Tuesday March 31, 2009
Start    End   Task   Time
7:00Â Â Â 8:20Â Â Â BREAKFASTÂ Â Â 1 hour 20 min
8:20   8:30   Gather/Organize   10 min
Prey Relationships
14      8:30   8:50   John Ford   20 min
15      8:50   9:10   Brad Hanson   20 min
16      9:10   9:30   Eric Ward   20 min
9:30   9:50   Questions   20 min
9:50Â Â Â 10:10Â Â Â MORNING BREAKÂ Â Â 20 min
Contaminants
17      10:10   10:30   Sandie O’Neill   20 min
18      10:30   10:50   Peggy Krahn   20 min
19      10:50   11:10   Teresa Mongillo   20 min
16      11:10   11:30   Questions   20 min
Health
20      11:30   11:50   Steve Raverty   20 min
21      11:50   12:10   Pete Schroeder   20 min
12:10   12:20   Questions   10 min
12:20Â Â Â 1:20Â Â Â LUNCHÂ Â Â 1 hour
Health Continued
22      1:20   1:40   Katherine Ayers   20 min
23      1:40   2:00   John Durban   20 min
2:00   2:10   Questions   10 min
Habitat Use
24      2:10   2:30   Brad Hanson/Robin Baird   20 min
2:30Â Â Â 2:50Â Â Â AFTERNOON BREAKÂ Â Â 20 min
25      2:50   3:10   Candice Emmons   20 min
26      3:10   3:30   Val or Scott Veirs, Jason Wood   20 min
3:30   3:50   Questions   20 min
3:50Â Â Â 4:00Â Â Â CONCLUDING REMARKSÂ Â Â 10 min
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