Beam Reach

Orca echos and diatom blooms

Thursday 05/22/08
Snug Harbor to Snug Harbor

This morning we got a voice message letting us know that the whales were spotted at Hein Bank at about 8:00 AM. After an invigorating breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, with a dash of onions and peppers, we set off to go south from Snug to catch up with the whales.

While we were busy beginning to deploy the Echosounder to get some bathymetric data around Lime Kiln, the leaders of the pod got to us first, so we began a scramble to deploy our hydrophones. Unfortunately, the CRT gave us some difficulty, so we spent some time cleaning out the phantom box, and testing different flow noise sources of the hydrophone and by going at different speeds. Eventually solving the problem, we were back on track to re-deploy and gather some data! We began to log Echosounder data as we recorded hydrophone data.

We had a very exciting first session right in the main shipping lane, with one whale breaching twice in a row off our portside stern, proceeding later with more breaches and tail slaps. We were quite astonished. After the spectacular show, the whales seemed to mellow out, and began to slowly travel/rest north along the west side.

At about 1:30 in the afternoon we decided we would tilt the Echosounder 90 degrees in order to try to ensonify a whale and see what a 200 kHz whale echo looks like. With much luck and Scott’s excellent angling abilities, we were able to track a group of whales at ranges of up to 170 meters.

Meanwhile, during this macroorganism action we also had some very exciting microorganism action. Robin and Lindsay used two 20-micron plankton tow nets to collect diatoms off of Lime Kiln. They filtered the water they collected in the homemade single-use coffee press and looked at the remaining diatoms left on the filter paper under the microscope. We found that there was a single species bloom, which is unusual because the samples Robin has taken at the labs have contained many species.

Afterwards we began to record some more hydrophone data, following the resting whales until they reached Boundary Pass, where they began to vocalize and regroup from their scattered positions (we estimated about 9 whales in the group). It was a very interesting display of tail slaps and pectoral slaps, with the whales getting silent as a large ship passed through the scene.

To avoid the growing flood, we made our way back to Snug Harbor (while flying a kite along the way), dropping off the lovely Robin. We ended the evening with some sunset dingy lessons from our wind blown Capt’n Mike.

Resting on the west side

Garrison Bay to Snug Harbor

After taking Jason to the dock for some well-deserved shore leave we transited to Snug Harbor and welcomed Dr. Robin Kodner.  Emerging into Haro Strait at a very low tide we headed south on advice from Jeanne and were surprised to find about 8 members of J pod (J2 matriline?) resting in a tight group off of False Bay.  We listened to them as they slowly made their way up the west side of San Juan Island, but hear neither click nor calls for more than two hours.  As we passed Kellett Bluff, J1 separated from the group and headed NW across Haro Strait.  We paralleled him and gathered detailed data about how his clicking related to his surfacing and dive times.  The echosounder was on throughout and showed intermittent targets at mid-depths.

Spreading experiments; Js up at Point Roberts

Mackaye Harbor to Garrison Bay

At noon we pumped out at Friday Harbor, refilled propane, and picked up Scott and Ford’s call catalog. Ivan and Jeanne said hello as they headed up towards Point Roberts where J pod was reported about noon. We went up San Juan Channel and discussed whether we should go north to Sucia or west to the west side. Eventually, we decided on Garrison Bay and set a science goal of measuring spreading somewhere in Haro Strait. After passing through Spieden Channel we deployed the array and high frequency hydrophone and recorded four impulsive sounds at a range of about 25-45m. The we transited to Garrison Bay and set anchor, troubleshooting the port prop where we found the saildrive had disengaged. With a sigh of relief, we dined on cheesy potato patties that called for no cheese. Luckily, Ryan and Dominique added plenty along with a green salad and we all went to bed with bellies full of energy for the chilly night.

J pod in the E Strait of Juan de Fuca

Pelican Beach to Mackaye Harbor

Since we had left the southern residents heading north in Rosario the night before, we headed northwards to seek them out again and maybe visit Sucia Island.  Mike got a friendly call telling us they had somehow doubled back, passed us as we slept (with Jason listening to the hydrophone all night), and were actually down south.  We reversed course, came back down Rosario and encountered J pod off the southern end of San Juan Island.  We paralleled them almost half way to Dungeness Spit before leaving them (heading west towards the open Pacific) and seeking safe harbor at Makaye again.

J pod recording in North Rosario Strait

Friday Harbor Labs to Pelican Beach (Cypress Island)

We departed Friday Harbor at approximately 9:30 in the A.M. and headed south through Cattle Pass. Then, on word that J pod were nearing the north end of Rosario Straight, we headed east in hopes of meeting up with them in the process. As the day progressed, we learned more of J pod’s whereabouts and eventually we were able to catch up with them. We started recording at 17:39:30 and captured lots of clicks, calls, and whistles. During our recording, one whale surprised us by suddenly breaching close by. We captured the breach on film and hopefully in the recordings as well. Our evening data-collecting stroll came to a close amidst a sunset and the sound of distant blows as the whales headed north. In short, the day was a productive one despite only recording for about an hour. Hopefully we get some more tomorrow!

Thresher shark and flow noise

Mackaye Harbor to Friday Harbor Labs

Today the whales were spotted near Val’s house in the morning, but they headed up north faster than we could get up to them, eventually heading east at Point Roberts. We did still have an eventful day – we found a stranded shark around False Bay that we think was thresher shark killed by a Transient. Later in the day as we made our way to Friday Harbor Labs we tested another bursting light bulb to calculate source level and tested the Blue Box hydrophone’s flow noise through the water quality. We now our making great speed as we sail fast with clear skies back to FHL!

Serene sounds over Salmon Bank

Snug Harbor to Mackaye Harbor

Today was a terrific day of clear skies and whale sightings! We encountered two leaders from a further southern scattered part of J-Pod off Eagle point around noon time, starting to record at 13:36. We followed them back North to Lime Kiln, only hearing clicks as they traveled fast and far past our hydrophones. We then made our way slowly back around the Southern side of San Juan, encountering a large, spread-out group of whales, where it was hard to keep track of them or catch up to individuals. But our patience paid off, and after all the whale watch boats left we encountered a group of 4-5 whales and heard loud and clear calls, clicks, and whistles! It was a serene moment as we followed them through Salmon bank. We observed breaching, tail and pectoral slaps, spy hops, foraging, and even some social-play mating-like behavior! Confirmed ID’s we’ve made so far are J27, J17, J28, J19, and possibly J30. We stopped recording at 18:45, leaving the whales at the Salmon bank buoy around 18:45, where we hope to catch up with them again tomorrow. Definitely our best day yet!

Dr. Holt guidance and CT profile

Roche Harbor to Snug Harbor

We didn’t catch up to the whales again today, but there were some conflicting reports, probably because some transients were in the area of Kelp Reef and then moved down past Discovery Island. Under that decoy cover it seems that J-pod headed north past Active Pass, probably heading for the Fraser River again. Although we didn’t see whales we did have a very productive science day. Marla finished off her lecture on masking, critical ratios, critical bandwidths, directional effects on masking, and temporary threshold shifts. It is always good to have her expertise available to the students as they are grappling with these complex issues. During the day we managed to deploy the CTD to measure the sound speed profile at various depths. The sound speed was very close to 1480 meters per second at all but the deepest points we went, where it peaked at 1482 meters per second. We dropped Val and Marla off at Snug in the afternoon and spent the rest of our time analyzing data. The students are making good progress on our data from yesterday which is exciting. Keep tuned in for exciting findings….

First whale recordings

Garrison Bay to Roche Harbor

Today was a good day. We started calling other people in the whale network and found J pod by Lummi Island in Bellingham Channel. We made our way around the south side of San Juan and Lopez islands and finally found them. At 14:20:00 we started recording whale data for the first time in our research trip. The first 45 minutes or so the whales were silent then at the we got great recordings of calls and clicks. We also got to see a lot of behavioral events like breaching and tail-slapping. We stayed with them and continued to record until 17:24:28 with one break inbetween to turn on the generator and catch up to the whales. Once we finished with the whales we motored around to Roche Harbor to spend the evening. Our last report was from Orca Spirit and they said the whales were slowly heading west. And we hope to be able to catch up to them again tomorrow.

Calibration with Marla Holt

Jones Island to Garrison Bay

We left Jones Island this morning and sailed through Speiden channel.  Because it was calm conditions we practiced doing actual jibes. Around one o’clock we picked up Val and Marla Holt at Snug Harbor. Marla will be on until Wednesday teaching us what she knows about sound and masking in the killer whales. We also used Marla’s hydrophone in addition to all of our own to perform another calibration exercise playing pure tones out of the underwater speaker. While we had the hydrophones out Dominique also managed to record a passing ship and Laura managed to record light bulbs breaking underwater. In the evening we started analyzing the calibration data that was collected in the afternoon.