Beam Reach

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!!!

CWR!!

I would like to start this entry by stating that I would like to give Ken Balcomb a hug and say *Thank You* for your 30 years of legwork, figuring out all these little details about the whales so that I get to ask a more interesting question for my Beam Reach project (as well as for the rest of what will become my lifelong research).
But before I get too far ahead of myself…
Yesterday, was Packed! Classes involving math, caused a brain shut down in the AM – been a while since that happened. It’s the management math I had to do for wildlife bio, so I know I can do it, it’s just a matter working slowly and practice. Anywhoo, guest that afternoon was Bob Francis. Interesting lecture about Sustainability. Sustainability is one of those fascinating and immensely frustrating topics that get my jaded self all pissed off and disgusted at the egocentricity of Humanity.
Dinner was lovely, we all cooked – Val and Leslie brought salad, Donna made zucchini lasanga, I made garlic bread (cheesy and regular) and Erin made Apple crisp! The chatter round the table fun interesting and thought provoking. It was nice, and made me miss folks…

Today we went to the Center for Whale Research, and that was pretty darn nifty. They have an absolutely superb system for doing thier photo ID on the computers… I need to really start working on learning these whales… Ken Balcomb gave us a bit of the history of it all,and that was really nice, because he filled in the gaps I had in the USA side of my knowledge (since I’ve always focused on the Northern residents). I’d love to sit down and really chat with him at some point, so hopefully we’ll get another chance to hang out over there.

okie dokie, well that’s about it. Night all! pics soon!
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a little update

So I’m new at this blogging thing so bear with me. We’ve been here now for a week and I still like it! We’ve had gorgeous weather, only one cloudy day and no rain. This weekend was our first real chance to have some time to ourselves.

I spent a few hours Saturday wandering around downtown Friday Harbor. It’s a nice little town, similar to Bar Harbor in the types of shops just on a smaller scale. I was good and didn’t spend too much money. I did find a store that could prove dangerous, King’s Marine and Outdoors store, it has everything from crab traps to nautical charts, to nice patagonia long underwear. They had some nice kayaks for sale and all kinds of cool kayak gear. Not to mention all of the neat books about boats and navigating and local wildlife. I limited myself and bought only a crazy creek camp chair which I’ve been wanting for awhile and it was on sale so I figured what the heck it might be nice to have on the boat.

After returning from town I worked a bit on my proposal and then Colleen, Emily and I went out for dinner. We walked into town and ate at Dos Diablos, it wasn’t the best mexican food but it was fun. Sunday was spent working and procrastinating (which I am very good at). I finished a bit after 8pm just in time to join my classmates for a movie over at G cottage. We borrowed the class LCD projector and hooked that up to a computer and projected it onto a sheet on the wall. It worked great and was much better than all trying to crowd around a single computer screen.

Even in just this first week we have had some great speakers. We had Kari Koski who works with a group called Soundwatch. They go out on the water anytime the whales are around and monitor how well boats follow the “Be Whale Wise” guidelines. If they see a boat that is not they will go over and explain the guidelines to them and give them a brochure that outlines them, it is a really neat program and she offered a different perspective on some of the issues.

On Thursday night (I think) we went and heard John Stern speak about his work. He is the minke whale go to guy and since baleen whales are near and dear to my heart I enjoyed his talk. He’s a funny guy and he knows his stuff. The talk was at the house being rented by the Center for Whale Research for their earthwatch volunteers. It is pretty much at the top and maybe even part way down the other side of Dallas Mtn. It had an amazing view and the sunset was spectacular. The house looks out over Haro Straight and Vancouver Island. It was a fun, casual forum and I learned quite a bit about the rather skittish Minke.

We all handed in our rough drafts of our proposals this morning so that feels good. For me that is the hardest part, getting that initial stuff on paper. Well class starts again in about 5 min. so I suppose I better get ready. This afternoon we are having a guest speaker, Bob Francis who is going to talk about marine sustainability and then he will guide our journal club discussion tomorrow.

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Week 1

It is hard to believe that I have already been here at the Friday Harbor Labs for a full week! This is the first entry and a lot has happened so here goes…

Arriving here was crazy! I got up 3 am east coat time on about 4 hours of sleep (my moms 50th birthday surprise party was the day before) hopped on a plane, a shuttle, a ferry, and a taxi. Once I had arrived sweaty, tired and nervous I got to meet the people I would be spending the next 10 weeks with, what a wonderful chance to make a good first impression… everything went fine. The next days were filled with logistics of the program, getting to know one another, introductory lectures, and tours of the Island. We went to Lime Kiln state park on the west side, heard the whales were coming saw them about a mile out and then they turned around. So we saw them but only as small fins through binoculars. We went to meet Val and his wife Leslie where we got a nice intro to some equipment and current research on the orcas as well as a treat of homemade berry muffins. While there Fred Felleman stopped by and talked to us about the political side of the orcas. It was great to have his perspective and learn some about the role of NGO’s, individuals, and policy in conservation efforts. Another speaker we went to go see was John Stern. After driving up a road I thought would never end, we arrived at a beautiful house just in time for sunset. Dr. Stern was giving a talk to an EarthWatch crew and we tagged along. He is ‘the’ minke whale man as well as quite a character so it was a wonderful trip. Kari Koski the director of Soundwatch came and gave a presentation to us which gave me some more insight into the human impact / boat traffic that could be affecting the whales and ultimately influenced me to change my project to focus more on that topic (as of now I am looking at the masking affect of underwater sounds created by vessel traffic on orca communication). On Friday we did our swim test, and while many of us were dreading having to jump into the cold cold water, it was a sunny 78 degrees outside, so it was rather refreshing (but still chilly enough to make sure and stay out of the water while on the boat). Other non-academic events have been going to see a local production of “The Merchant of Venice”, walking to town, visiting the Whale Museum, going out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, and having a group viewing of Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

All and all it has been a very exciting and rewarding week. Being in such a beautiful location with a great opportunity to learn even more than I already have… I cant wait for the next 9 weeks.

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