Beam Reach

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 [...]

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 [...]

One of the Beam Reach students, Ryan Spragg, captured this double breach on video today:

It’s a notable clip in part because we were towing 4 hydrophones at the time, one of which is calibrated and sensitive up to about 50kHz. Another student, Lindsay Delp, will use the recorded underwater sounds of the breaches to [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

what a day for whale watching it was this last thursday!
off the southern end of San Juan around noon time we found two leading whales from J pod, with the rest of the group scattered widely further south amongst the many whale watch boats. while we did manage to get some good click data, the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]