Spoiled with fresh fruit and marine wildlife stories for breakfast, we face another foggy morning. But we can't be held back from more adventure and off we go in the kayaks once again.
We could not have better guides for a day of paddling through shallows, looking for sea urchins, sea stars (formerly known as star fish), sea cucumbers, and jellies:
The sea stars have had such a rough decade, with a devasting sea star wasting disease (SSWD) causing mass mortality in over 20 species. In the news just this week, UBC researchers have identified the bacteria causing this devastation. Our guides were thrilled when we found some healthy sea stars along the shoreline, including a sunstar, with 12 legs.
And the bull kelp. Oh my, the bull kelp.
Natural to the area, the bull kelp is like a sea forest. In some places the kayaks get stuck, basically on an island of bull kelp. Strong and plentiful it has suffered from an abundance of sea urchins, due to a low otter population, the sea urchins predator. The sea urchins chew the base of the kelp, killing the entire 6 foot+ plant. Good news, otters are back!
Note the deer above. We actually came up on a deer eating kelp on the shoreline, and she was not at all worried about us, she kept chewing and enjoying. A special land mammal treat on our sea adventure.
We kept close to the shoreline to enjoy all the life in the inter-tidal zone.
Pee stops and lunch breaks kept us busy, while our marine biologists continued to impress us with their knowledge and energy and their pure excitement at what we were seeing.
Back to base camp as the sun came out again and we enjoyed another whale show and the beauty of the Johnstone Strait.
And some mighty fine food too.
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