Visiting Seattle, Field Work

Written By Michelle Amor
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As I began to get deeper into my acoustic ecology project, Ecology of Sound and Sea, I decided to travel to Seattle,WA to the Salish Sea. The Salish Sea is a place teeming with biodiversity and is an Ecological Treasure of Global Significance with 1,000's of natural animal species, many found nowhere else on Earth. As I arrived I realized how important acoustic ecology was particularly to the resident orca population in this area. This unique orca population is under a lot of stress due to the fact that their food supply is running low. They only eat chinook salmon and because of overfishing, overuse of water resources, development, and habitat loss they are on the decline, leaving this orca population scouring for food elsewhere. Because Seattle and Puget Sound is full of constantly moving ferries or industrial sounds, there is a heightened awareness and sensitivity towards acoustic ecology in this area, since certain sounds can also potentially add more stress to this incredible species.

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The San Juan Whale watching company along with Ocean Adventures allowed me to conduct my research on their vessels. It appears that many of the whale watching groups have received negative media due to the sounds that the touring boats produce. What I saw though was that, yes there is always room for improvement with the way sound is produced by these vessels, but on a very positive note these business, which teach environmental stewardship are unique. You could tell how excited people were to connect with nature. I felt that because these companies are smaller, media coverage is able to scrutinize them without discussing other larger entities, such as the constant local ferries or internationally shipping vessels , which traverse through various migratory patterns of whales, along with military sonar and oil exploration, which produce greater issues for marine life. These are far greater hurdles we need to face and in my opinion are more challenging to talk about, hints why they get swept under the rug.

The San Juan Whale watching company along with Ocean Adventures allowed me to conduct my research on their vessels. It appears that many of the whale watching groups have received negative media due to the sounds that the touring boats produce. What I saw though was that, yes there is always room for improvement with the way sound is produced by these vessels, but on a very positive note these business, which teach environmental stewardship are unique. You could tell how excited people were to connect with nature. I felt that because these companies are smaller, media coverage is able to scrutinize them without discussing other larger entities, such as the constant local ferries or internationally shipping vessels , which traverse through various migratory patterns of whales, along with military sonar and oil exploration, which produce greater issues for marine life. These are far greater hurdles we need to face and in my opinion are more challenging to talk about, hints why they get swept under the rug.

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Individuals T90s, T77A and T49A2, transient-resident orcas (orcas which eat meat and not fish, unlike the original resident orcas, but these guys have decided to hang around)

Individuals T90s, T77A and T49A2, transient-resident orcas (orcas which eat meat and not fish, unlike the original resident orcas, but these guys have decided to hang around)

Michelle Amor