draggonlaady (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
draggonlaady) wrote2011-06-11 02:23 pm
draggonlaady) wrote2011-06-11 02:23 pm
Alaska; Day 3
First, something I forgot on Day 2 - One of the otter crew (Z) is a grad student, writing up this project for his thesis. Z was therefore particularly stressed by the lack of otter catching prior to my arrival. At the end of yesterday, happy and tired and playing around after catching 4 otters, Z decided to cut across the edge of the bay on the way back to Northern Song. In doing so, he managed to rip the lower unit off the skiff's motor on a submerged rock chain. Oops.
Otter project had 2 skiffs, (Sea Weasel and La Tourista) so at bedtime on Sunday, they were half down on transport ability for setting nets and hauling otters to the hospital boat. Plan was to call repair shops first thing Monday morning and have a lower unit sent out via Doug, the still patient private pilot who transported me and then my luggage.
On waking on Day 3, however, things get even less smooth. It seems that overnight, the La Tourista snagged and was rolled under the Jerry O, flooding the motor and dumping a bunch of equipment into the water. J and T (2 other observers like me; not officially on the project) were up early to go fishing, so they took one of the Northern Song's rubber skiffs over to the Jerry O to help retrieve the float-away otter boxes, stuff sack, life vests, etc. and bring Dave (Jerry O's captain) back to Northern Song for breakfast. So now the otter project has no skiffs. The Northern Song has 2 rubber skiffs, but those aren't good choices for pulling otters out of nets; otters bite and holding boxes are sharp edged, and rubber, it doesn't do so well at staying inflated after puncture. So we have a slow/lazy morning of waiting for parts for 2 motors to be located and flown out.
Combined with continued beautiful weather (and they say it's cold in Alaska!), this provided a great time for some kayaking.
Leanna and I headed out along the same island that we'd played around on yesterday, paddling up to the point of the island and letting the tide and wind drift us back along the shore.
This time, we found a couple Sunflower stars where we could reach them, and really appreciate how freaky HUGE they are compared to other stars. There were dozens of common stars arrayed along the intertidal areas, and lions mane jellies in the water. Also saw a couple mink on shore--and I'm beginning to sound like a broken record or something, but those buggers are BIG. I was expecting something about the size of a domestic ferret, but these kids were 2 or 3 times that size. And much quicker than I am; I failed entirely to get a decent picture.
We drifted through a school of about a million humpy fry; seriously, it took several minutes to float from one end to the other of this school.
We saw bald eagles (go ahead and assume that I say this every day, okay?), ravens, and gulls.
At one point as we floated along, several fish flung themselves repeatedly from the water to our side, skidded along and dropped back in. We didn't see what was chasing them, but suspect it was harbor seals.
On shore for an hour or so in the afternoon with Ocean, there were drifts of muscle and clam shells, some nearly knee deep (yes, I'm short, I have short legs. So? it's still a lot of shells!). Leanna reports that there are also river otters here, that pull muscles and clams up to the tide line where there's better cover to eat them. There were miniscule barnacles on everything along this beach; even growing on other barnacles.
My new camera has an impressive macro function, so you can enjoy pictures of these tiny, tiny red spiders (mites?) that look like strawberries with legs.
Black bears supposedly come down these beaches and graze and eat muscles, but we didn't see any of either. We blame the bear hunters who were also in the area. Apparently this particular bay is commonly used by one particular group of bear "guides" who basically run the Alaska version of road-hunting. They bring people out on a boat, float along and shoot bears on shore without ever getting out of the boat. If the bear falls over, they beach and "collect" it. This particular group has been using this bay constantly for a few years now, and as a result, there are very few bears in the area currently. I gather that they are a very unpopular group with the locals; they are actually based somewhere in the lower 48, and unlike other guides, don't seem to see the point in rotating areas. They also had the attitude of owning the bay, and wanted use to leave so as not to interrupt their very important hunt.
We have no proof that the garbage we kept scooping up and hauling back to ship came from them, as we didn't see it being tossed, but since there was only us and them in the bay, and there was still mayonnaise in the jar.... well. We drew conclusions.
Evening brought a stream of moon jellies gliding past under the boat; I took a few crappy pictures that don't do them justice at all, but they are small (about 1 1/2" across, though they apparently get much larger later in the summer), nearly transparent, it was getting dark out, and the flash doesn't help when taking pictures through the surface of the water, so... just trust me, they're prettier than the picture shows. You can go here for much better pictures than I took.
Dinner was sea bass (rockfish) with diced veggies (piccole verdure), and was quite yummy. Thanks, J and T, for catching it!
Otter project had 2 skiffs, (Sea Weasel and La Tourista) so at bedtime on Sunday, they were half down on transport ability for setting nets and hauling otters to the hospital boat. Plan was to call repair shops first thing Monday morning and have a lower unit sent out via Doug, the still patient private pilot who transported me and then my luggage.
On waking on Day 3, however, things get even less smooth. It seems that overnight, the La Tourista snagged and was rolled under the Jerry O, flooding the motor and dumping a bunch of equipment into the water. J and T (2 other observers like me; not officially on the project) were up early to go fishing, so they took one of the Northern Song's rubber skiffs over to the Jerry O to help retrieve the float-away otter boxes, stuff sack, life vests, etc. and bring Dave (Jerry O's captain) back to Northern Song for breakfast. So now the otter project has no skiffs. The Northern Song has 2 rubber skiffs, but those aren't good choices for pulling otters out of nets; otters bite and holding boxes are sharp edged, and rubber, it doesn't do so well at staying inflated after puncture. So we have a slow/lazy morning of waiting for parts for 2 motors to be located and flown out.
Combined with continued beautiful weather (and they say it's cold in Alaska!), this provided a great time for some kayaking.
Leanna and I headed out along the same island that we'd played around on yesterday, paddling up to the point of the island and letting the tide and wind drift us back along the shore.
This time, we found a couple Sunflower stars where we could reach them, and really appreciate how freaky HUGE they are compared to other stars. There were dozens of common stars arrayed along the intertidal areas, and lions mane jellies in the water. Also saw a couple mink on shore--and I'm beginning to sound like a broken record or something, but those buggers are BIG. I was expecting something about the size of a domestic ferret, but these kids were 2 or 3 times that size. And much quicker than I am; I failed entirely to get a decent picture.
We drifted through a school of about a million humpy fry; seriously, it took several minutes to float from one end to the other of this school.
We saw bald eagles (go ahead and assume that I say this every day, okay?), ravens, and gulls.
At one point as we floated along, several fish flung themselves repeatedly from the water to our side, skidded along and dropped back in. We didn't see what was chasing them, but suspect it was harbor seals.
On shore for an hour or so in the afternoon with Ocean, there were drifts of muscle and clam shells, some nearly knee deep (yes, I'm short, I have short legs. So? it's still a lot of shells!). Leanna reports that there are also river otters here, that pull muscles and clams up to the tide line where there's better cover to eat them. There were miniscule barnacles on everything along this beach; even growing on other barnacles.
My new camera has an impressive macro function, so you can enjoy pictures of these tiny, tiny red spiders (mites?) that look like strawberries with legs.
Black bears supposedly come down these beaches and graze and eat muscles, but we didn't see any of either. We blame the bear hunters who were also in the area. Apparently this particular bay is commonly used by one particular group of bear "guides" who basically run the Alaska version of road-hunting. They bring people out on a boat, float along and shoot bears on shore without ever getting out of the boat. If the bear falls over, they beach and "collect" it. This particular group has been using this bay constantly for a few years now, and as a result, there are very few bears in the area currently. I gather that they are a very unpopular group with the locals; they are actually based somewhere in the lower 48, and unlike other guides, don't seem to see the point in rotating areas. They also had the attitude of owning the bay, and wanted use to leave so as not to interrupt their very important hunt.
We have no proof that the garbage we kept scooping up and hauling back to ship came from them, as we didn't see it being tossed, but since there was only us and them in the bay, and there was still mayonnaise in the jar.... well. We drew conclusions.
Evening brought a stream of moon jellies gliding past under the boat; I took a few crappy pictures that don't do them justice at all, but they are small (about 1 1/2" across, though they apparently get much larger later in the summer), nearly transparent, it was getting dark out, and the flash doesn't help when taking pictures through the surface of the water, so... just trust me, they're prettier than the picture shows. You can go here for much better pictures than I took.
Dinner was sea bass (rockfish) with diced veggies (piccole verdure), and was quite yummy. Thanks, J and T, for catching it!
AK
(Anonymous) 2011-06-12 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)