Beam Reach

J's

Monday, October 15, 2007

 

We woke up at Mackaye Harbor and had a quick breakfast before making some phone calls to try to figure out where the whales were.  The morning was spent working on sustainability projects and data analysis.  Wes cooked her special Lebanese surprise soup and toasted cheese sandwiches for lunch.  Independent work continued after lunch until Wildside radioed us to tell us that members of J pod were off the lighthouse.  We finally caught up with the whales around 4:30 in the afternoon.  We spent about two hours recording S1, S7, and S10 calls, as well as whistles and clicks.  Liz and Jason ID’d J1, J8, J26, as well as J11 with her calf.  Kenna took some great photos of cartwheels and breaches.  As the sun was setting, Mike headed us back to Mackaye for the night.  Heather and Elise cooked macaroni & cheese primavera with salad for a late dinner.  After dinner, a few hardworking souls sat in front of computers—going through photos from the day and writing this blog.

Change over at Friday Harbor for a change

Sunday, October 14, 2007

 

Over breakfast, we enjoyed a rare connection to the outside world over the internet.  Afterwards, we cranked up the anchor to head out to meet Western Prince for Tim’s vessel noise recordings.  We began the weekly clean up of the boat—cleaning the oven, bilge pumps, under the sinks…Alex put forth a good effort of using up some of our still-abundant produce by cooking up French-style veggie omelets for lunch as we pumped out our (very full) holding tank and refilled our (quite empty) water tank at Friday Harbor.  Team VATO entered the last of their data on systems and science, backed up the hard drive, weighed the waste (3 kg), recycling (4.6 kg) and compost (6.6 kg), and downloaded the GPS data for the week.  After grabbing some fresh apple cider off the Friday Harbor Lab docks, we met up with Team JAMI and drove to meet Jason’s friends, Noel and Anne Monin.  The Monins are making a concerted effort to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their sustainability.  Over freshly baked pumpkin bread and brewed coffee with raw milk, we discussed some of their choices and efforts, including cooking foods from scratch (chicken broth, mayonnaise, sour cream), gardening, canning, composting, etc.  Afterwards, Team JAMI loaded up the Gato Verde, while Team VATO headed back to the dorms at the labs.  We enjoyed a Lebanese feast prepared by Wes for an early dinner, and then settled into a long evening of data analysis.

Pea Soup (with a few whales thrown in)

Saturday, October 13, 2007

We woke up to news of whales off Val’s house, so enjoyed a quick breakfast of Leslie’s zucchini bread before cranking up the anchor by hand and heading out of Snug Harbor. We encountered whales almost immediately, but the animals were very spread out. We deployed the hydrophones, but the whales seemed to be heading south. We followed the orcas along the coast of San Juan island and had just passed the lighthouse when a thick, pea-soup fog descended. Although we continued to hear the whales intermittently, we could only see about 100 m from the Gato Verde. We made our way through the pea soup, looking and listening for whales and chatting with the other boats in the area. The fog finally lifted and the sun started shining after lunch. We recorded more calls, click, and whistles as we motored along with the whales off the west coast of the island. A group of young whales seemed especially playful as they frolicked, tailslapped, and breached. Regretfully, we had to pull up the hydrophones at around 3 pm to take advantage of the tides through Cattle Pass. Todd gave lectures on Rules of the Road and Sail Theory before pulling into North Bay. After the students took their sailing test, Anne and Ash made a grand attempt to use 2 of the remaining 13 cans of cream of mushroom soup by cooking a Minnesota Hot Dish (casserole to non-Minnesotans).

California sea lions and Stellers and Humpbacks–oh my!

Friday, October 12, 2007

 

After filling up our water tanks and paying our harbor bill, we motored away from civilization at Port Angeles.  The team took turns on the bow searching for whales, while the rest of us listened hopefully to radio chatter and worked on data analysis.  After crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we circled Race Rocks, taking photos and looking through binoculars at Stellers, California sea lions, and harbor seals.  We heard there were humpbacks not too far away so headed southeast to try to catch up with them.  As soon as we were able to spot blows and backs and flukes through our binoculars, we were able to hear the large whales breathing and sighing.  One individual whale had a particularly distinct, loud blow.  The humpbacks were very active at the surface, rolling and fluking before diving.  They were surrounded by a group of playful, porpoising Steller sea lions.  Although we deployed the hydrophones, the humpbacks were quiet.  We watched the whales and sea lions for almost three hours before regretfully, sailing away back towards San Juan Island.  As we headed north up to Snug Harbor for the night, a few Dall’s porpoises joined us for a sunset bowriding session.  Shannon and Alex cooked vegetarian fajitas for dinner and then Shannon gave a post-dinner talk on her thesis research on Australian sea lions.  We looked through Shannon’s photos from Antarctica and watched a short video of the humpback whales there bubble-net feeding before bed.

Killers I Have Known

Thursday, October 11, 2007

 

After waking up at Roche, and having breakfast shortbread freshly baked by Alex, Tim and Anne took a shot at raising the anchor by hand.  With about 15 feet left to go, time had run short and they let the motor take over.  We motored out Mosquito Pass and met Peregrine so Tim could take more high-frequency recordings of vessel noise.  Our daily calls to friends and contacts produced no information on whale whereabouts—it seemed that the whales that had been up north yesterday where most likely transients, and the residents had left the area surrounding the San Juan islands and headed out to sea.  So the group decided to try something different and sail to Port Angeles on the peninsula, in hopes of making it over to Race Rocks early tomorrow.  We arrived in to PA and walked into town to grab coffee and take advantage of the free wireless.  Tragically, the internet crashed shortly after our arrival until our brave leader-of-the-day, Alex climbed a ladder to reset the black box and reconnect us to the world.  Hooray!  After our caffeine and internet fixes, we walked back to the Gato Verde for spaghetti and meatless meatballs with garlic bread.  We ended the day screening Ingrid Visser’s documentary, Killers I Have Known.

Boat recordings, Roche, and water-use

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

 

We started the day making phone calls and connecting with friends to try to figure out where the whales were.  There were rumors that whales had been spotted north off Pender Bluff, in between Pender and Moresby Islands.  As no whales had been found south, we decided to motor north to have a look around.  We made it as far as Turn Point on Stuart Island, and decided to drop the hydrophone and listen.  As we listened, we watched and waited and reconnected with our friends, who had traveled north faster than the Gato Verde, but had not been able to find the whales.  Todd finished up sewing the sail, as we finished up lunch at Turn Point.  Afterwards, Tim took vessel noise recordings of the Gato Verde from Gatito.  The students continued to catch up on data analysis and sustainability reports before heading into Roche in the late afternoon.  We pumped out our holding tank, filled up our water tank, and threw in some laundry before meeting up with the other group at Hotel de Haro.  David gave us an entertaining and informative tour of Roche’s water treatment facility.  We then headed back as a group to the boat for dinner—chicken curry and wild rice from Friday Harbor Labs with tempah and root vegetable stew prepared by Anne.  During dinner, Jason gave us statistics on water use to ponder over—the average American uses 69 gallons/day, while onboard the Gato Verde we only use 2.61.  After finishing up the apple pie from the Friday Harbor Labs, the VATO group grabbed quick showers at Roche before anchoring just outside of the harbor.

Whale soup

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

 

Although we were expecting gale force winds, we woke up to a calm morning and flat seas at Garrison Bay.  After porridge prepared by Ash and Tim, we headed out past Roche so Tim could record vessel noise from the Glacier Spirit.  Tim successfully recorded a number of drive-by’s at different distances and speeds.  We then headed back out and down the west coast of San Juan Island to try to catch up with the whales before the weather caught up with us.  We received reports of members of J and L pods at False Bay and Eagle Point, so we continued to motor along the coast.  We found J1 near Edward Point and deployed the hydrophones, getting some great recordings of calls, whistles, and clicks.  Soon, we were surrounded by the whales.  After a couple of hours recording and a great variety of vocalizations, Tim was able to organize another set of drive-by’s with Ocean Magic II.  Tim altered his methodologies and had the vessel circle the Gato Verde instead of deploying the buoy, which seemed to work much more efficiently.  Afterwards, we headed north along the coast of San Juan Island until we passed the whales, and again deployed both the hydrophone array and the high frequency hydrophone.  We saw a number of very young animals and recorded some great calls for another couple of hours.  Tim tried to organize a third drive-by with Prince of Whales, The Jester, but they were heading out to find humpbacks off Race Rocks, so Tim was only able to make a quick recording as they were departing.  We started to head back to Garrison Bay to prepare for the 25-35 knot winds predicted for the night, but stopped one more time to watch the whales just before heading in.  The whales were spyhopping, tailslapping, and resting at the surface.  Anne finally dropped the hydrophone one more time, while the rest of us took photos and watching through binoculars.  Alex and Shannon started preparing vegetarian moussaka, while Tim lowered the anchor at Garrison.

Back on the Boat

Monday, October 8, 2007

 

We woke up at Roche—Anne and Alex prepared scrambled eggs with real New York bagels sent over by Alex’s mother.  Ash was leader-of-the-day and got the ball rolling, giving us a quick navigation and systems overview.  There were many reports of whales along the west coast of San Juan island, so after breakfast and a few logistical phone calls regarding boat parts, we motored out.  The main sail was taped back together underway, as we continued to listen for updates on whale whereabouts.  The whales were south of Eagle Point.  So, we grabbed lunch on the fly (more NY bagels, ramen, hard boiled eggs) as we approached J1—that guy, the San Juan celebrity.  We caught up with members of J and L pods and deployed both the high frequency hydrophone and the hydrophone array.  After a little troubleshooting with the deployments, we heard a cornucopia of clicks, a cacophony of calls, and a (small) wealth of whistles.  Alex took surveys for SoundWatch, and then Tim recorded drive-by vessel noise with Explorathor.  By this point, the whales had moved west.  We still had to sew our main sail and the winds were predicted to pick up tonight (25-35 knots), so we motored north to Garrison, to meet up with Jason to exchange data backed up the Gato Verde hard drive for a fan belt.  We dropped anchor off British camp and settled in to sew and study our data collected from the afternoon.

L-pod encounter

Friday, October 5, 2007

Left Aleck Bay this morning and heard via VHF that L-pod might be inbound in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Headed up west side and encountered L-pod between Salmon Bank and South Beach at around 11:00. By 1:30 they could be heard on the Lime Kiln hydrophone. Stayed with them while towing our hydrophone array today and got 4Gb of data that should help us figure out the call sequences between a group of females spanning three generations. They were headed north in Swanson Channel (NW corner of San Juan Islands) around 1800PST on 10/5.

Searching the home range

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Searched the southwest side of the San Juan Archipelago from Garrison Bay on San Juan Island to Aleck Bay on Lopez Island…