Beam Reach

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!

whales, sharks, and good times

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 whales were generally quiet and it was hard to find or get to them considering how spread out they were.

But finally after all the whale watch boats left Salmon Bank our patience paid off and we found a group of 5-6 whales and recorded many clear calls, clicks, and whistles in very serene calm water and clear sunny skies – we saw a lot of action too – pectoral and tail slaps, breaches, and yes, even some dork!!!!! (all within 100-200m!) we think these two lovebirds were just playing- we did make a few matches, and with further analyzing we’re going to try to ID those two as well. Hands down we all agreed it was our best day yet.

We tried again yesterday to catch up to the whales, but they moved too quickly north for us to catch up. The day was still exciting- we encountered a headless shark around False bay, which we believe is a thresher shark- and it looks like there are teeth mark where the head was taken- suggesting perhaps some Orcas got to it! We brought it aboard (and it sure was soupy) and passed it along to FHL for them to necropsy- and I spent the rest of my day getting some echosounder data from False bay to Lime Kiln, and then burst another light bulb at a deeper depth- I think I really got some good sound on this one!

so it looks like our work it cut out for us these next 3 weeks- i can’t believe we only have 3 weeks left- I’m going to try and make the most of it while I can

i’m off to try and make my own anemone for my service project…

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!

bloggin from Snug

the whales are back!

 yesterday after making a few phone calls in the morning we found J-pod off the southern tip of San Juan! We got some wonderful recordings along Salmon Bank – and even though it was cold, raining, and miserable, I don’t think any one of the beam reacher’s noticed – in fact I think I can say for everyone it was our best day yet – I’ve never seen so many breaches and tail slaps in my life!!

 The coolest part was when J27 was following directly behind us for about 20 minutes (he seemed to like us) not only did he completely jump out of the water (which we could pick up on the radar!) but he clicked away loud and clear staight towards our hydrophones – and we’re pretty sure we got some foraging actions with all his deep dives and clear clicks with no calls for the duration. It was very cool and I can’t wait to look at the data!

 My other task, (which of course is more reliant on finding time now in between our hopefully now frequent sightings) is to start deploying my light bulb clicks and test for some masking effects. I was a bit daughted for a while about getting it all done, mostly because I hadn’t actually found a good enough mechanism for making a click – but my most recent recordings show that my light bulb bursts aren’t so bad after all- so now I feel like I’m going somewhere.

 It should only get better (and busy busy busier) from now on – and it should be sunny and warm by the end of this week!!

~Laura~

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.