Beam Reach

Just happened upon this nice plot of the summertime salinity gradient in the Salish Sea.  I was surprised to see the average salinity gradient focused at the sill separating Haro Strait and the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca.  While the variability due to tidal forcing must be dramatic, the steepest gradients are located at [...]

Last Sunday (11/09/2008), Jason Wood and Scott Veirs deployed a receiver that can detect and record the signals emitted by acoustic tags implanted surgically in migratory fish, like the Chinook and chum salmon that southern resident killer whales appear to prefer.  The Vemco “VR2″ receiver, provided by Fred Goetz through a collaboration with UW Fisheries, [...]

A series of talks and discussions hosted by The Whale Museum and coordinated by Cindy Hansen.
10:25 Intros by Jenny Atkinson
10:35 Cindy announces opening of membership for Naturalists Association

conceived at spring Gear Up, 2008
New members get digital version of Naturalist teacher’s guide to SJI from SJI Nature Institute
$25 to join plus $20 annual membership fee
%15 off [...]

Toxics in the Puget Sound Food Web: Understanding the Problem in Order to Move Towards Improvement (Sandra is from WDFW; this was a Monster Jam presentation at NWFSC/NOAA)

11:03 Intro from Tracy in Korea
11:08 Data presented today are mostly collected through the Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program (PSAMP).  Jim West of WDFW and Steve ?? [...]

Happened to hear some of the clearest calls yet on the Port Towsend Marine Science Center hydrophone last night.  It was a treat to listen to the killer whales vocalize at night — and it reminded me of the night-time observations we did during the fall, 2005 program.  The calls I heard initially (as the [...]

On July 2, 2008, Val Veirs presented some of the most exciting research results yet gathered by Beam Reach students and staff.  In a talk entitled “Spatial confirmation of vocal communication between a killer whale calf and its natal family” (Powerpoint link), Val presented an analysis (by Val, Jason, and Scott) of a sequence of [...]