Beam Reach

Life on a re-used plastic isle

scott — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:05:00 +0000

At Beam Reach, we discuss recycling and strive to live more sustainably, both on land and at sea. But this visionary fellow is setting a new pace down in Mexico, living, growing locally, and maybe setting out to sea on an island he built out of plastic bottles.

Grey whale watching on Washington’s coast?

scott — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:44:43 +0000

For a long while I’ve been trying to locate a guy who is trying to use traditional Northwest canoes as a vehicle for watching grey whales as they migrate along the outer coast of Washington. Tonight I finally found news of Fred Woodruff after reading about him years ago in Brenda Peterson’s Sightings.

Plywood replica of a Quileute canoe

Brenda was intrigued with the counterpoint of the Makah’s decision to hunt grey whales and the Quileute’s decision to watch whales (despite their Treaty right to hunt). While I am awed by the Makah’s sea-going prowess, their hunting culture and artifacts, on my visits to maintain the hydrophone in Neah Bay it’s clear that further boosting tourism in Neah Bay would be welcome. I know I’d pay good money to help paddle a canoe out into the Pacific, and I’d pay even more if there was a chance I’d see (or hear) some whales, too. Here’s hoping Fred or similar innovators can give me such opportunities.

From Earth Island: The Quileute Tribe

The Quileute Tribe is a small, federally recognized nation of 800 enrolled members, whose 900 square miles of ancestral lands include the Pacific Slopes of the Olympic Peninsula and the watersheds of the Sol Doc, Bogachiel, Calawah and Dickey rivers.

With the loss of the great natural abundance that once sustained the Quileute, seasonal tourism has come to constitute a significant portion of the tribe’s economy. Unlike the nearby Makah, who are profiting from whale hunting, the Quileute are proponents of whale watching.

In the past 13 years, members of the Quileute’s tribally owned Northwest Native Adventures have paddled more than 4,000 miles by ocean-going cedar canoe. Canoe leader Fred Woodruff’s stories and songs have entranced hundreds of visitors who have ventured into the Pacific to watch the migration of Pacific gray whales. Fred’s tours have hosted youth, the elderly, and on one occasion, a boatload of Tibetan monks.

But the tribe needed a larger canoe capable of carrying 12 to 15 passengers. The Quileute now have their new canoe – Kwa-dee Tabil (”Little Boat”) – a perfect replica of the traditional Quileute cedar dugout. Construction of Kwa-dee Tabil (beautifully handcrafted out of plywood by John McCallum of Applegate Boatworks) was made possible with a $3,800 grant from the International Marine Mammal Project. The grant was given in support of the Quileute’s devotion to whales and Woodruff’s dream of “putting back in place” a little of what humans have taken from the bounty of the Pacific Northwest.

For information on arranging a sea-going canoe excursion, contact the Quileute Tribal Council [PO Box 279, La Push, Washington 98350-0279, (360) 374-6163].

From Applegate Boatworks:

Tabil – A plywood replica of a Quileute canoe.LOA = 18′ 6″ – LWL = 16′ 4″ – Beam = 3′5″ – Hull Depth = 16″ – Wt = 180 lbs

This is the first replica canoe that I made for an Indian tribe. Fred Woodruff and the Quileute Tribal School at La Push Washington asked me to build this canoe in 2000. Tabil is the Quileute word for canoe. ( Pronounced “ta BALE” ) Fred is in command of the big 33 ft. Quileute cedar dugout “Os·Chuck·a·Bic” ( Pronounced “os CHA bic”). This design is a direct adaptation of a 25 ft Quileute canoe carved in 1928 by Conrad Williams at La Push. The lines were taken by Bill Durham in 1965 and printed in Leslie Lincoln’s book Coast Salish Canoes. The canoe was built with the taped-seam plywood method. This is the first time I used an extra thick bottom plank to duplicate the weight distribution of a real cedar dugout. The results are very satisfying. Tabil’s performance is similar to the traditional dugout’s. The resistance to rolling is rather small in the first 5 or 10 degrees and then rises rapidly at larger angles. Paradoxicly this low initial stability is a good thing. A raft has high initial stability but it jerks back and forth with each little wave. A traditional West Coast canoe does not tire out the crew by this kind of snappy response to small waves. The low center of gravity and the wide flaring sides ensure plenty of stability when the canoe rolls way over. They call this “the catch”. Fred told me that this canoe dances on the waves. This canoe is now at the Quileute reservation at La Push.

Seattle Times videos on Puget Sound

scott — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:23:32 +0000

A couple weeks ago, Michelle Ma published a few 1-to-3-minute videos from around Puget Sound that capture voices of folks from Western Washington who are working to restore the ecosystem. The final video featuring Scott Veirs and Dave Dix introduces the possibility that underwater noise pollution may be an important factor for southern resident killer whales. The footage was collected as we took a little whale watching tour with San Juan Outfitters. Ken Balcomb and Will Stelle were the other guests.

Navy recording of transient orcas

scott — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:28:57 +0000

In a recent meeting led by Rear Admiral James Symonds (Commander, Navy Region Northwest), Shaari Unger of Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Division Keyport, kindly handed out a CD with a great recording of transient orcas made in Dabob Bay (Hood Canal, WA) on February 10, 2005. She asked if any and all acoustic afficionados could listen to it and analyze it.

Analysis of the 42 minute recording in Audacity

I’ve converted the 425Mb AIFF file into a 15Mb mp3 archived on the orcasound.net server for easier, broader distribution. Open it in your favorite analysis package or player (like the free, platform-independent Audacity shown at right), add your second-by-second notes to the public Google spreadsheet, and/or comment on it here. Here’s hoping our Northwest Navy neighbors are able to acquire and release additional recordings like this one that help us understand and enjoy the marine environment.

The CD jacket provides the following information:

The point of contact for the recording is NAVSEA, Keyport Public Affairs Officer, (360) 396-2699, kypt_pao@navy.mil
Start time: 10:45 (PST) 10 Feb 2005
End time: 11:27 (PST) 10 Feb 2005
Weather: Sunny and clear, unlimited visibility, light winds
Tide: Outgoing predicted heights: 10:45 – 6′; 11:30 – 5.5′
Animals (data compiled by John Durban and Graeme Ellis): These are six killer whales, known to be part of the ‘west coast transient’ stock that ranges between the coastal waters of SE Alaska and California. These particular animals have been most frequently documented in SE AK and British Columbia. This group is comprised of two adult females [(T71 and T124A, both more than 20 years old), each with two offspring - one older offspring per femaile (T71A -- 10 years, T124A1 -- 9 years) and one younger offspring per female (T71B and T124A2, both around 5 years)]. These two ‘matrilines’ have not always been seen in association with each other.
Visual observation during the recording: The animals were off Bolton Peninsula when first sighted. They were staying in one location moving back and forth over one area, which is considered feeding behavior. They then moved as a group from Whitney Point south, along the west side of Dabob Bay and continued south out of Dabob Bay.
As a standard operating procedure, the NAVSEA Keyport does not conduct active acoustic operations in the presence of whales at any NAVSEA Keyport test range. The Dabob Bay Range Site is staffed during normal working hours by NAVSEA Keyport. Our range operators are trained by NOAA to identify marine mammals.

NUWC maintains and operates the range on Dabob Bay where this recording was made. Their purpose is to test and evaluate undersea systems in support of research and development, and in support of maintenance and upgrade of existing systems. There were no operations scheduled the day this was recorded, and all scheduled testing activities were postponed for several days until the range was clear of the transient Orcas.

Hydrophone listening station at the Seattle Aquarium

scott — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:13:00 +0000

At the bottom of the concrete helix at the Seattle Aquarium is the Family Activity Center (FAC)– a marine mammal hub adjacent to the big underwater dome. While fur seals and sea otters dive past visitors one side of the room, the majority of the space is dedicated to presenting the parallels between our human families and those of our regional icon, the killer whale, or orca.

Just a week ago the FAC received an acoustic enrichment. A listening station that enables visitors to listen live to the ocean or hear recordings from underwater has replaced the writing station and a panel describing orca prey (Chinook salmon). The listening station project was proposed by Brooke Nelson and me, managed by Michael Darling, and implemented by me (web design/html/php); Val Veirs (Java coding); Grant Glover, Jesse, Zach, Gary, and team at Pacific Studio (art and kiosk fabrication); Steve Harvey and Richard Ramsby (demolition, Internet, and installation).

Since the station needed Internet access for the live streams, we decided to host content on-line, primarily for ease of maintenance, trouble-shooting, and future enhancement. If you don’t have a chance to visit the Aquarium and test it out in person, you can view the pages here: http://orcasound.net/sakiosk/

The site delivers sound through a Java-based audio player called jlGui that can handle both recorded mp3 files and Shoutcast streams while embedded and hidden within a browser window. There are also some nice photos and words to go along with the sounds. In the Aquarium, the content is presented on a 22″ monitor (using 1280×768 resolution) by an Eee PC running Firefox with the Open Kiosk plugin over Windows XP Home. A cool thing about this Eee PC is you can set it to keep running when the case is closed; that enabled us to fit it easily in the constrained space behind the mural.

The highlights of watching folks try it out on the first day were hearing a 9 year-old boy walk away saying “That was really cool,” and a mother telling her child as they departed, “How would you feel if you had to listen to that all day?” Google Analytics suggests that thus far, about 20 unique visitors per day are listening to the underwater sounds for an average of about 2 minutes.

Below are links to photos of the installation, as well as notes regarding the hard-/software we considered and used in implementing the project.

Photos of the listening station
Eee PC XP notes:

Install Firefox 3.0.14 (3.5 didn’t work with Open Kiosk — though I didn’t try all version permutations)

Add the Open Kiosk add-on, version = “Firefox 3 Install Here” [July 16, 2009] (follow instructions at https://www.mozdevgroup.com/clients/bm/ — don’t download from the (outdated?) FF add-on site!)

Download JRE ??

Get updates to Java (upon autoprompt) (installed JRE and registered it…)

Disabled login screen; made user1 autologin (no password prompt)

Scheduled FF to run at system re/boot for user1

Used Kiosk admin UI to set FF-Kiosk-fullscreen to be default browser (firefox.exe -kiosk admin)

Had to restart Firefox a few times in safe-mode w/various defaults re-set… (via firefox.exe -safe-mode)

Enable jsLib 0.1.359 and BMA Kiosk 1.65

Change default start page

Under Filters tab click “Enable JavaScript on all pages” (so streams can be played through browser)

Under Sessions tab: set Kiosk to reset session after 5 minutes (max time anyone likely to listen?)

Under Customize tab: Disable tabbed browsing and Hide All UI Widgets

Click OK

Test it out (Launch under Kiosk submenu); first time I clicked on link to page that calls jlgui player, I got auto update of JRE6, then Security query re JavaZoom Team digital signature not being verifiable — clicked Always trust and Run; stream started after about 10s load/lag-time…

Had to de-select location under the View menu in FF to get location bar at bottom of window to be hidden in Kiosk mode

Back in admin, make FF-kiosk the default browser and select full-screen mode

Reboot computer and see if FF-kiosk comes up automatically with start screen

Reboot performance: blue screen at 30s, desktop at 40s; start screen in FF-kiosk mode in 65s, but XP Taskbar locked and visible at bottom of screen (though non-reactive to clicks); select auto-hide in Taskbar properties; reboot…

Reboot performance: blue screen at 30s, chime at 37, desktop at 50, start screen in FF-kiosk mode in 70s

Now has gap at bottom where taskbar is hiding, and location bar is back… (solved by resetting defaults via -safe-mode)

XP takes about 45 seconds to boot up to desktop

Eee PC Xandros 4Gb notes:
– Took WAY too long to get a real desktop environment
++ Wireless connected automagically
– Open Kiosk didn’t seem to want to run on the version of Firefox I initially downloaded (but I didn’t keep good notes on which permutations I tried…)

North array at Lime Kiln

jason — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:50:15 +0000

7/25/09

David Howitt and Jason deployed hydrophone 2 and 1 in the North array today at around 2:00 pm. We moved the last two tires into place and placed another tire at the end of the cable protector to hold it in place. During the dive we resurveyed the original placements so that we had measurements from a single dive. The data collected are as follows:

Each tire is ~ 8 meters apart

Bearing along coast line: 330 degrees

#4 hydrophone 30 feet depth.

Bearing from #4 to #3 is 280 degrees

#3 hydrophone 35 feet depth.

Bearing from #3 to #2 is 250 degrees

#2 hydrophone 44 feet depth.

Bearing from #2 to #1 is 220 degrees.

#1 hydrophone 57 feet depth.

Vemco VR2 at False Bay

jason — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:28:09 +0000

On 6/27/09 Val and Jason deployed another Vemco fish receiver at the mouth of False Bay in a depth of 26 feet at 14:22 (should have been ~ 0.16 tide at the time). The location was 48 degrees 28.748 N and 123 degrees 04.411. This location is just off the small island in the mouth of the bay. The serial number of the unit is 100910.

While we were there, a boat with a banner reading ‘Fish Research’ was also present. In talking to them, they told us they were in the process of removing old derelict fishing gear. The name of the vessel was Bet-Sea and had the numbers 785 and 53661 on it. We also spotted this same vessel off False Bay during the Spring 09 quarter.

More from Beam Reach: home page | eye candy | sea science solutions | give us a hand

Vemco VR2 at False Bay

Sonic Gloom podcast

scott — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:35:51 +0000

I enjoyed this ~20minute documentary by CBC science reporter Monica Kid on noise pollution in the ocean. It provides a synthesis and synopsis of many of the inter-linked issues — from Navy LFA sonar and seismic air guns to boats and ships — with interviews with Arthur Popper, Alexandra Morton, Ken Balcomb, Michael Jasny, and Douglas Wartzoff.

Sonic Gloom podcast (mp3)

I was particularly interested to hear about some of the potential impacts of noise on fish. It was also interesting to hear from Alexandra about the avoidance of seal harassment devices by resident killer whales in the Broughton Archipelago (2/3 drop in sighting rate) and from Ken about the Bahama strandings.

Thanks to Michael Darling of the Seattle Aquarium for letting me know about this nice piece (high-lighted on “and-the-winner-is” show).

More from Beam Reach: home page | eye candy | sea science solutions | give us a hand

Sonic Gloom podcast

Watch spring 2009 talks on-line

scott — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:43:24 +0000

For the first time, the final talks of a Beam Reach program are available for viewing on-line as videos (hosted by Vimeo). Links to the videos, as well as the final PowerPoint presentations and papers can be accessed through the spring 2009 class page.

Here are the (abbreviated) titles of the talks:

Echolocation use while foraging
Call selections in anthropogenic noise
Effect of large vessel noise on acoustic behavior
Does an increase of boats cause lower call rates?
Call duration vs boat noise and vessel presence

Science isn’t just research

erica091 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:43:10 +0000

Over the last ten weeks we have learned a tremendous amount. We learned how to: ask a question, design a research project to possibly answer this question, write a proposal, conduct research, sail, live on a boat with seven other people, analyze data, run statistics on our data, and write a final paper on our findings. Another very important lesson we learned was how to give a presentation. Knowing how to conduct research and write up a paper on it is a pretty important part of science. If you can’t explain your findings to the general public then you can’t share your knowledge with others and no one else can use your findings to ask more questions. On Wednesday, we presented our research to the other students at Friday Harbor Labs as well as other community members. I think this lesson was a great one because it is really important for others to understand what you did and what you learned from your research. Public speaking is a skill that every scientist should develop and presenting our findings on Wednesday was the perfect practice. Developing skills using powerpoint is also a good tool to have.