Lowest Tide
As a follow-up to yesterday’s Seaweed Dawn post showing Fucus glowing in the yellow light, today’s post shows the very lowest intertidal edge, pictures taken at the lowest tide we experienced during the Kilgii Gwaay archaeology project this year. This post features bat stars and turban snails and a lot of other things that I am not familiar with and have not looked up either. Bat stars come in an incredible variety of colours, but I think are all one species. I am pretty sure these are the Red Turban snails (Lithopoma gibberosa). They are said to be good to eat, though I have not tried them. They have large operculum which is an oval-shaped flat shell disc that is used to close the entrance to the main shell. Turban snail opercula are used as an inlay to decorate Northwest Coast boxes and masks and other wood carvings.
Seaweed Dawn
Yesterday’s post Kunghit Dawn generated a comment from Ken (Oneowner) about the colour of the seaweed in the foreground distracting from the reflection of dawn-lit trees. I had to agree, and had not really noticed because I took that picture while also taking a series of the Fucus seaweed (bladderwrack) lit by the early morning sun. That prompted today’s post which shows some of those images taken for their yellow lit seaweed foregrounds, or for strips of yellow seaweed in the middle distance. Some of these look interesting in b&w too, so I might get around to posting other versions at some point.
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Kunghit Dawn
The other day I posted black and white pictures of the dawn light in Gwaii Haanas. The black and white version of this image was the one I led with, and when I posted it I really did like the black and white better than the colour. However, as I have prepared images for Kilgii Gwaay archaeological project posts, I keep on passing this colour version in my folder and it always jumps out at my eye, demanding to be posted as well. So, here it is. I am coming to think that the colour is better than the monochrome.
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Long Exposures from Kilgii Gwaay
I had few opportunities to take long exposures – I never took my tripod to the site so was without it during the day, and too busy in any case to set up a shot like this as they take a bit of time. So, the couple of times I took longer exposures were around sundown, some with the neutral density filter, some without but when light levels were very low. The shot above is from the deck of the cabin showing the moon rising over Rose Harbour. All the other shots are taken from the east side of Ellen Island looking out Houston Stewart Channel to the east, or across it to Moresby Island in the north.
Guudiingaay – Sea Urchin
There is fishing, and there is fishing. Yesterday’s post was about fishing with a jig in deep water. Today’s is about fishing with a shovel by scooping Guudiingaay off the bottom just beyond boot height at lowest tide levels. Guudiingaay is the Haida word for sea urchin, and that is the term used on the project this year. For Goox and Dale especially these were a nice light morning snack, freshly caught and opened by Goox; shared with all that were willing. Some were eaten by the shore, others stored in a bucket by the screens, for higher tidal levels.
If you are going to try this, handle with great care. The barbs on sea urchin spines are perfectly designed to drive them ever deeper into your flesh, if one breaks off in your skin, which they are inclined to do. They fester and often require the application of a knife to remove them. We just kept our screening gloves on for the handling parts.
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Fishing in B&W
Fishing on these projects is not really a recreational activity, but an important source of food. We always plan to catch enough for a few meals since fresh or frozen meat is very hard to come by otherwise. The fridge only holds so much and food deliveries tend to be every two weeks. Our preferred catch is halibut, but as in the case of today’s post, lingcod is a very welcome substitute. While it may be “food fishing” it is also fun and relaxing to get out on the water and just sit around, except for those jigging or steering I suppose. All I did was sit as I had no fishing license.
The picture above is taken near a headland where the tide rips a bit and when pushed against by the wind creates steep waves that come over the deck from time to time. I was lucky to catch a picture of it, because when I set Tansy up to get another one, it did happen again.
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Rose Harbour Sunset
We spent one very pleasant evening in Rose Harbour across the water from our cabin – we were invited for an excellent dinner by Susan, one of the Rose Harbour residents. Rose Harbour is a former whaling station and the only piece of private property in the boundaries of Gwaii Haanas. Three different people live there most of the year (and have done so for years, some since before the park was formed) and each caters to the tourist trade with accommodation and by running people around the local area in their boats if they need it – many of their customers are kayakers.
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