Beam Reach

Almost there

As the hours until our departure dwindle, we are all both excited and nervous. What will the boat look like? Where will we sleep? What will we eat? How will we collect data? And, how is this all going to work!?! The past few days and the upcoming hours until we push off have been about answering those questions. We have now bought all our supplies and food, tested the hydrophone array in the water and tested out a few computers. As far as science goes, we’re right on track. For the sustainability side of Beam Reach, we toured Jason’s house on Friday afternoon. He has built his own house with a number of environmentally conscious decisions in mind. From the type of structure to the orientation of the house, he has tried to keep waste and unnecessary use of valued resources at a minimum. Not only is the process admirable, but the house was gorgeous! Following the tour we headed down to Smuggler’s Cove for a beach pot luck. Both Jason’s and Scott’s kids and parents were in attendance making for quite a homey and familial atmosphere-all of us students living on our own loved it!! Today was devoted to food organization and shopping, as well as equipment de-bugging, and tomorrow we’ll put the finishing touched on our group science plan and equipment list. Monday midday we set sail. As for now…I’m just about spent and ready for bed!! Stay tuned for updates on our first trial run at sea!

End of Week 3

Mon 9/4 Rena and I came back up from a lovely weekend in Seattle. We stopped at Deception Pass first, even though it looked like it was socked in. However, it was absolutley lovely and kind of a little taste of what it will be like on the water. On the Ferry we ran into Scott and Liam; we were still working on our proposals (materials and methods) and they were off exploring.
Tue 9/5:
Scott gave a talk on Physical Oceanography and introduced us to the CT device that we will use on one of our service projects. Then Dr. David Bain shared a powerpoint about his cooperative research project called “Landbase Study: Effects of vessel traffic on behaviors of N. and S. resident killer whales. He was also very helpful in explaining hydrophone arrays and different configurations.

After lunch, we went down to the dock to see how David and Val calibrated their hydrophones. We also redid an experiment where a common J-pod call (Call S-1)was played in the water. Then we recorded the call at four different distances to measure the attenuation.

We all went into town for dinner and met a friend of mine who works for Save our Wild Salmon. We all had the opportunity to share our research projects and learn more about Columbia and Snake River salmon. Quite fun!

Wed 9/6

Jeff Nystuen, applied physics professor form U.W. came up to give on a talk on PALS, passive aquatic listening devices. It was pretty cool to see him get so excited about what he does. He deploys these hydrophone/computers around the world, some attached to buoys, and others sunk below the surface of the water. It randomly records sound bites and he is able to detect wind, rain, anthropogenic sounds like vessel traffic, and biological sounds possibly whales or dolphins.

Peer Review from 2:00-5:30
It was good to hear everyone’s projects and list the different types of equipment that we will need on the boat. We are preparing for our group science plan that will come later this week. I’m glad to know that many of our observations and data collection procedures are very similar. I am getting excited to be on the water with them.

Thur 9/7
Our two guest speakers today were Lynne Barre and Brad Hanson. It was great to see both of them and hear more about the ESA listing process, conservation plan, and next steps. Brad walked in with a pool net and shared that they are going to attempt to collect whale scat. Great stories of whale poo though which was a nice change of pace. Our afternoon went by so fast; advisor meetings and then we started the conversation about sustainability on the boat (fuel, water, waste, etc.) We realized that we only have 54hr before we go on the boat. Yippee!
Fri 9/8
It was a delight to have Peter Westley, UW grad student, share with us some general salmon life histories and the work he has been doing up in Alaska. His enthusiasm was quite contagious and you could definitely tell he loves what he does. That was followed by Robyn Baird and his work with TDR’s (time depth recorders) with transients and residents. I was totally fascinated with the dive information and day/night patterns. I think I’m going to his article for my journal club next week. Lastly, we ended tonight with a lovely potluck over at Jason’s new house. We learned more about sustainable living on an island, but it was quite cool to get the tour. He and his family have built this house from the ground up and it is gorgeous! We took our goodies down to the beach and met both Jason and Scott’s families.

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Quickie

So as of today my extent of wildlife has been Fred, our resident field mice, Bambi outside our cottage, crows, turkey vultures, one bald eagle, one osprey, commorants, unknown passeriformes and harbor seals. I will add more later.

A New Kind of Diet

Last Monday, Val and I, plus guests Bob and Kathy Francis, were graciously treated to dinner with Beam Reach students and instructors cooking at S1 at the Friday Harbor Labs. I’d been requested to bring a salad to complement the delicious veggie lasagna, garlic and cheese bread, and apple crisp. No problem – I’ve been living on salads for years. I love the fresh ingredients and creativity options a salad provides. Salads can often be low-calorie, too, which is great for one who has had to diet for years. Val says that I’m a recipient of the “thrifty gene” which supposedly was devised for early (wo)man to eat when food was plentiful and store extra food as fat reserves to be used when times became lean. Unfortunately, most of us no longer live in lean food times, but we thrifty-geners still have to carefully monitor what foods we eat and how much of it we consume. So salads have become my potluck saving grace…….

At dinner that night I had an interesting conversation with a Beam Reach student named Emily. She’s from Philadelphia, and comes from an area familiar to me because of some of my relatives hailing from the same region. Emily and I became engaged in a sustainability conversation, with the basic question being “How can we live more sustainably on a daily basis?” Our talk centered on transportation, fossil fuels, hybrid automobiles, flex cars, and even becoming “carless” (a move our daughter Laura has recently made) instead of “careless” with our precious energy options. I left the dinner that night convinced that I needed to do more than things like driving my Prius, urging guests to conserve water when they visit, buying organic foods and using eco-cleaning products.

That night, after my low-water bath, I picked up the Sept./Oct. issue of “Sierra”, a publication of the Sierra Club. An article by Seth Zuckerman titled “My Low-Carbon Diet” caught my eye because it related directly to my discussion with Emily on the issues of living in a sustainable way. With the subtitle of “From gas gluttony to fuel fitness in three weeks”, I read quickly to see how Seth had learned how to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide he contributed to the earth’s atmosphere.

With the help of a California-based climatologist and energy expert, Seth sampled three carbon dioxide “diets”, and aimed at: the daily average of 122 pounds/American carbon dioxide emissions; the 24 pounds of the average worldwide carbon dioxide emissions; and the 9 pounds that would not raise carbon dioxide levels in the earth’s atmosphere. Doing things like driving a gas-guzzling <span class=”caps”>SUV </span>for a week and giving up on riding his bike or taking the bus didn’t even get the energy-conscious Seth near the American excess average. It’s well worth reading the article to see how he amusingly tried a high-carbon diet. During the second week, Seth tried to get his carbon dioxide emissions to the average of the world. He changed his lightbulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescents, among other things, and he came out well below the worldwide average. Finally, he visited a friend who managed to live off the grid with the help of solar photovoltaic cells and hydroelectric help. Unfortunately his friend Michael couldn’t get his carbon emissions down to what the earth can absorb, regardless of his simple lifestyle.

I, like Michael, am trying to stay on a sensible low-carbon diet, one planned step at a time. Those apples in the tasty dessert Monday night were hand-picked by Jason’s wife Wendy at a Beaverton Valley farm. Using local produce is a small step, but such steps minimize dependence on fossil fuels and help in living a bit more sustainably. It’s a diet worth trying!

*Note: interested in trying this new diet? Check out sierraclub.org/sierra/diet.

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Week Three

On Friday we had learned to sail and had a chance to kayak out of Jackson Beach. Let me just say I am not good at sailing. I thought I was going to tip us for sure. The commodore teaching us didn’t seem to be as scared and told us we just weren’t used to the angle of sailing. Darn right I’m not. I like boats to stay pretty even on the water, but hey that’s just me. Kayaking was lots of fun and I could see myself doing that again and again and again, you get the picture. It took me awhile to get used to the oar and rudder situation, but worked out for the best in the end. So we had weekend number two which was the holiday weekend. Peggy invited me to accompany her to Seattle. We stayed there for the weekend and shopped. I went to the big REI and bought Keen’s for $30, Yeah!!!! Cute light blue color. Had part two of my proposal due on Tuesday, so the weekend was not all fun and games. Arrived back in the island on the Monday ferry. I finally got to meet Scott and his son Liam. Liam is so cute and just a bit shy. David Bain was also on our ferry and he gave us his time on Monday and Tuesday to talk about our projects. I was very intrigued on his PowerPoint presentation because it was very similar to what I was doing, except I only have 10 weeks to put it all together. We’ll see how that goes. I packed all my stuff today for the boat on Sunday. I wanted to see how much I could pack in a small duffle. I did well put need to still pack boots and heavy jacket. If you know me, then you know I love to over pack but I am getting so much better. You would be so proud.
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rebutal to earlier observations on swim test

To whom it may concern,

I had noticed that in one of the student’s blogs (who won’t be named) that I had been accused of not hiding the fact that the water was cold during the swim test. I just felt that I needed to set the record straight. I was the first staff member to commit to participating in the swim test (which is not a requirement for staff). I was the second person to jump into the water (after Val) and the first to jump back into the water. I actually quite enjoyed the swim test and must insist that any odd facial expression has been misinterpreted.

The student who won’t be named also took another stab at me today by saying that I hadn’t blogged yet. Well, now that is no longer true.

Sincerely,

Jason

PS For those of you who can’t tell, this is really just for a little humor, but I hope that you get the idea that I am being endlessly harangued by the students (and even by some of the other staff as well). Woe is me….

End of Week 2

This last week was our second week on land where we were introduced to a plethora of topics and a great wealth of information about bioaccoustics and the statistical analysis of scientific methods. We had a journal club on Sustainability with Bob Francis, a retired UW professor. I really enjoyed his way of engaging us in conversation and provoking our thoughts about the subject. We started out with a quick write on what we thought sustainability was. He then related ecosystems, economy, and management as three circles (great visual) that need to be addressed in order to attain sustainability on a larger scale. We also had a U.W. grad student, Shannon McCluskey, give a talk on prey in relation to the southern resident killer whales. Finally, we had the opportunity to test/play with the hydrophones and different programs that will help us decipher some parameters of killer whale calls. We ended the week with a quick sail in a 20′ sailboat with Commander Lloyd. The wind nearly thrashed up on the dock while we were taking off and Lloyd was a pro at bringing us safely back to the dock too. I have to admit that I was a little freaked out at the speed in which we came into the dock, but we made it safe and sound! After that we kayaked for about an hour in Griffin Bay. We hit the 5:00 ferry, Seattle bound for the weekend.
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week 2

The first part of this one is taken from my "oldschool" paper and pencil journal.

It’s 8:12am on a Saturday morning and I’m sitting at the bus stop waiting for Joe to pick me up.  He’ll bring me to Snug Harbor where I will meet the Soundwatch crew.  Colleen went out with them yesterday and had a great time.  There were lots of whales yesterday.  The first page of the day came just before I left the cabin this morning and it was 900 or no whales but its still early, they might show up. 

Yesterday was a great day! It started with us meeting Val on the dock to do some hydrophone work.  We put a speaker that played an Orca call every 30 seconds in at one end of the dock and then we spread out along the dock with hydrophones and our computers to try and record the call.  After some initial technical difficulties we were all able to record the call.  There was a lot of background noise, mostly boats so that added to the challenge.  Then we went back to S1 (our classroom) to try and figure out some of the analysis.  I’m starting to get the hang of it.  This practical exercise really helped make sense of some of the stuff that had only been theoretical to that point.  Then we took a quick break for lunch before heading out to play on the water.

At that point I was interrupted by Joe arriving.  Joe is really Jo or Joanna, so I’ll just fill in now the rest of that day. 

We went over to this beach that is covered in drift wood and not just tiny pieces but whole tree trunks.  Around the other side of the point there was a nice dock and small rocky beach.  We went down on the dock and met the Commodore and his Cal20 sailboat built I believe in 1961.  The deck was painted two shades of bright green, it was a neat little boat, I liked it.  We divided into two groups; Rena, Peggy and Juliette went out with the Commodore first and Emily, Jason, Donna and I went kayaking.  We helped them get off the dock, it was a rather interesting departure because the wind was pushing the boat down on the dock so we had to push them off.  It felt good to get in a kayak again.  We paddled around for about 45 min before heading back in to switch groups.  The redocking was rather impressive since it was done entirely under sail.  It’s hard to describe in words but it was basically pulling a Uey by the dock and tossing our lines to people on the dock and them pulling the boat to a stop.  It was fun and we had a perfect warm sunny day!

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Week TWO

Well it’s week two being in Beam Reach and I have had one weekend to my leisure, so I thought. On Friday night we saw the Merchant of Venice play by Shakesphere at Roche Harbor. The play was very well done and the weather was just perfect for it being outdoors. They even serve tea and cookies at intermission. On Saturday Donna took Juliette and myself into town for the Farmers Market and to go grocery shopping at the locals market. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before in my other blogs but it’s the “local’s” grocery store and it has no sign on it to let anyone know it is a market. There is NO sign at all, a bit strange to me, oh well. Donna was kind enough to drop us off at the Whale Museum since we were given free entrance tickets. I learned a bit more about the orcas and alot about one in particular, Luna. If you don’t know the story about Luna, here is the website http://www.reuniteluna.com/. Also follow the link that shows the sea lion comparison. That young whale really touched me and made me very emotional. If you don’t know me then you wouldn’t know that is no surprise. I am extremely emotional with animals when compared to humans. However, I am still not sure how I will feel when I see one from a boat out in the wild for the first time. Anyways, back to the museum, it was nice and very educational for everyone who would visit it. I stopped next at the wildlife care center store just next to the museum and talked a bit about the animals they see come in to the center. I had to ask about owls and any other birds. I then went into town to have some lunch and a bit of vino. I love the Seattle area because it’s the only place I can find Moscato d’Asti. Mom, do you remember that bottle we brought back from Seattle, Heavenly. Stayed in on Saturday night to try to just catch up on myself and the week. It was nice to just feel normal again and get the sense of there are other people on this island. Sunday was spent doing my proposal for the majority of the day and ended with all the Beam Reachers watching Charlie & the Chocolate Family. It was nice with the popcorn and everything. Bob Francis & his wife got here on Monday and we had a great talk about sustainability yesterday and today. Really got me searching to what I really felt on the subject. We visited the Center for Whale Research today. They are the people who ID all the whales and have a pretty extensive catalog of all the whales. I must say this probably would have been good to see on Day 1 or Day 2. Also, I have still not seen this thing we are studying….what-cha-ma-call-it….orca? I here they look like a police car in the water and something about some alphabet letters, A,B,C or J,K,L or something like that. Just kidding we see them all over the island like the islands personal mascot. We do have the pager that sits in our cottage to alert us where they are. We get a bit giddy when we are able to track them. It’s just a shame that there are so many boats. Well you are probably sick of reading or your eyes are hurting by now. So if I can remember I will talk about my thoughts about policy next time.
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other:

I’d forgotten a couple other fun things:

When we first hung out at Val’s house, (week 1) Fred Felleman dropped by and gave a really interesting talk on the politics of whale research and legislation. Definately someone to keep in touch with, as legislation has always been on great interest to me, despite it’s frustrations and heartbreak.

Also, Sunday evening, we had ourselves a movie night in G-cottage! We snagged the projector from Donna and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (TB version!) Johnny Depp, is brilliant, but sometimes creepy. Very fun evening had by all, and a very welcome end to a long day of finishing the rough draft of my research proposal!

This morning I got my first 6:45am phone call! It was from Cynthia, who’d just gotten home from Portugal! She didn’t realize I was out here and there was a 3hr difference.. hehe. Luckily, shes one of my best buddies, so I’ll forgive her :).
I also got mail from Allie!! That made the day even better – and Allie, if you read this – your card certainly did serve it’s porpoise! Thank you!!!