Beam Reach

Science blogbook: Port Angeles – Garrison Bay

Port Angeles – Garrison Bay
The stong ebbing in the Straight of Juan de Fuca kept us anchored at Port Angeles until lunch.  We spent the morning working on our research proposals and calculating the calibration for the array of hydrophones.  As the currents began flooding, we cruised along keeping an eye out for the Southern Residents.  We deployed the listening hydrophone at 15:35 for a period of 15 minutes to try to hear the whales.  After a day of searching, all we were able to find was a couple of harbor porpoises.  Since people have been paying attention in the 1970s,the Southern Residents have always returned to these waters in April.  So we should have a better probability of seeing them with each passing day.

Western patrol and Race Rocks turbine

Snug Harbor – Race Rocks – Port Angeles

Today we had an early start so that we could get out to Port Angeles in hopes of catching whales coming in the straight. We stopped by Race Rocks along the way so that we could deploy a hydrophone and see if the current generator makes any noise.
We made two recordings and watched the stellar sea lions sun bath on the rocks nearby. There were also three bald eagles and a lot of harbor seals sun bathing as well.
After the recordings we milled around the area and deployed a hydrophone every once in a while to see if we could hear any whales in the area but we had no such luck!
Eventually we headed into Port Angeles to anchor for the night and plan our trip back to the islands tomorrow. Our new science goals that we discussed are to calculate the calibration for the hydrophone array, and work on the behavior exercise.
We also plan to read this week’s journal article by wednesday for a discussion on it. The biggest goal that everyone agreed on was to find those whales!

No wind but plenty of science

FHL to Mitchell Bay

We slept in and left FHL at about 10:30 this morning.  We cruised south through cattle pass then headed along the southwest side of the island.  There was no wind for sailing, so after rescuing the sea from a lost red balloon, we calibrated the hydrophones in the array and did a behavioral data exercise involving Jason in the dinghy with uncooperative dry erase markers.  After all that we headed to Mitchell Bay, where we moored for the night, anticipating a long and exciting trip to Port Angeles tommorow.

Following up on the mystery 'clanging' in Haro Strait

Mitchell Bay to Griffin Bay

After a hearty breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes thanks to Hilary we had an early start from Mitchell Bay out into Haro Strait.
As we headed south in Haro Strait we ended up with a decent breeze from the SE which we took advantage of for some nice sailing.
We practiced tacks, chicken jibes and a hove to. The hove to was performed in between Discovery Island and Beaumont Shoals, the area we thought was the potential source of the mysterious clanging on the hydrophones at Lime Kiln and Orca Sound.  Although we listened for 15 minutes we heard no clanging, but did hear the numerous container ships passing by. There was not a lot of wind and we were at slack low tide, so it may not have been the appropriate conditions needed to generate the mysterious clanging.
The breeze died down in the afternoon, but we did manage to ride what wind was available and the currents towards the south end of San Juan Island and into Cattle Pass.
We got to experience Cattle Pass on a raging flood. As we were sucked north by the current we managed to see 16 Stellar sea lions hauled out on Whale Rocks as well as cormorant nests on Goose Island.
Rounding the bend Captain Mike showed us how to anchor off the shore of American Camp in Griffin Bay where we worked on our localization exercise using the software Ishmael.

Altogether a sunny, breezey and pleasant day.
JW

Update on Science blogs from the Gato Verde

During this first week of our time aboard the Gato Verde we have been getting accustomed to life aboard, running the boat systems and working with our research methods and equipment. As part of doing our research we are getting in the habit of taking notes about where we have been and what we have done so that we have a log to go back to in the future as we start analyzing our data. In order to have a backup of that data and to share our daily experiences with you, we have been posting those science logs as blogs. To make it easier I have been uploading them as we have internet connection, but the reality is that we have all been taking turns writing the science log. So although it shows my name on the blog, in reality it is usually one of the students who have written the daily log. So that you know who wrote each log we will put their initials at the end of the blog.

We hope you enjoy following along with the research experience!

North to Stuart Island

Mitchell Bay, SJI to Prevost Harbor, Stuart Island.
After stopping at Roche Harbor for lunch and switching captains, we began sailing towards Stuart Island.  At 14:00 we deployed the CRT hydrophone. The cable for the hydrophone was very sensitive causing interference and picked up a lot of flow noise.  At 14:30, the hydrophone array was deployed.
There was still some flow noise interference, but it was much better than the CRT.  As we reeled in the hydrophone array at 14:50, a group of Dall’s porpoises swam alongside the Gato Verde.  There were 5-6 which included a hybrid with a Harbor porpoise.  They were seen at latitude 48 deg. 43.08 min. N and  longitude 123 deg.14.90 min. W.

students watching Dall's porpoise ride bow wake

While the Dal’s porpoises were riding around our boat, a male elephant seal poked his head above the water for a minute.

Sailing between fog banks

Snug Harbor to Snug Harbor

There was a heavy fog all morning. Students went over data sheets and thought about how easy it would be to run statistical tests on data collected and how easy it would be to turn into an excel spreadsheet.
We also made a list of science goals. Analyzing our data sheets were at the top of the list followed by behavior recognition improvement, ID the whales from yesterday, practice hydrophone deployment, read the journal article for journal club and possibly deploy the Vemco acoustic tag receiver.
At around noon the fog finally cleared out and we had a quick lesson on sailing and how the boat moves using the wind and then we went out to practice.
After sailing in about 20 knot winds for an hour or two we came back to Mitchell Bay. We continued our sailing lesson and went over terminology and ended the day with learning how to tie knots.
In the evening we read the journal article for our journal club discussion and tried to identify the transients we saw yesterday. We positively identified T40 but could only identify one female, T37b.
We need an updated transient ID guide because the guide only has photos of the left side of the saddle patch and most of our pictures were of the right side.
EB

Transient killer whales on our first day

Jones Island to whales to Snug Harbor

Students raised the main sail for the first time on the Green Gato, and we sailed slowly from Jones Island to the beginning of Spieden channel. There the wind died, so we started motoring to Roche Harbor, where Val sped off to shore in the dinghy. We continued motoring towards Mitchell Bay and caught the wind for a while. When Todd noticed a little cluster of whale watching boats in Canada, we motored over to check it out. There they were — orcas — on the first full day at sea! Wahoo!

The whales we encountered were transients (the male T40 with four females) and they were frolicking and porpoising with glee. We stayed with them for about an hour, recording behavior and boat numbers. They started traveling north and we lost ’em. We motored back to Mitchell Bay, deploying the hydrophone as a demo on the way. We moored in the sunshine for an evening of swimming, burritos, and Grimm fairytales. -hmm.

The spring class embarks!

FHL to Jones Island

OK, we didn’t discover giant squid, but the students did get a chance at the helm of the Gato Verde.  The students were very efficient in moving all of the gear and food out of S1 and onto the Gato Verde so that we made a good start from FHL.  We even got a chance to see Anne Harmon one of our students from 2007 on the dock at FHL.  She is now working for Kwiaht, the Center for Historical Ecology of the Salish Sea.  The journey was a smooth one under partly cloudy skies.  Transited under electric power and tied up easily to the mooring bouy on the south end of Jones.

Echosounding the west side with J pod

Snug Harbor to Snug Harbor

This morning we learned one of Newton’s laws of motion, that an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. In this case the object was the wet mooring line and the outside force Lindsay’s face. Still giggling, we headed out of Snug Harbor and surveyed for fish 1/8nm offshore down to Lime Kiln. There we encountered the leader of J pod heading northward. Continuing to collect echosounder data as we began to parallel sub-groups of J pod, we traveled offshore to near Hein Bank before heading back northward to Lime Kiln during a strengthening flood tide. The whales left us around 4pm, so we conducted a bathymetric survey of Lime Kiln. En route to the Sound Watch celebration back at Snug, we collected echosounder data 1/4 mi offshore from Lime Kiln northward and then cooked up rosemary potatoes, steamed broccoli, and a big greek salad.