Strawberry Isle ScuttleButt Winter/Spring 1999

I know, I know, this is a little late. The thing got lost in my massive pile of ‘to-do-today stuff'. I plead forgiveness and hope you find it interesting none the less.

The Continental Shelf

Well, I think we're all happy to get this last winter behind us. There wasn't a day in February or March that weather conditions allowed us to get out to the open ocean to do our monthly bird and marine mammal count over the continental shelf. We did get out in April but it was disappointing to see only 68 birds along the entire 34.5 nautical mile transect out to the abyss. This is less than half the typical 153 we saw in April of ‘98. We were however treated to the first few Fork-tailed Storm Petrels. These birds will likely be nesting on the Provincial Ecological Reserve at Cleland Island. We must thank Parks Canada for funding this years monitoring and Jamie's Whaling station for supplying the "Hot Springs Eagle" for the runs.

Life in the inlet

Even though it was very quiet on the open ocean, the inlets came awash with life in February when a river of Herring flowed into Sidney Inlet. Hot in the Herring's wake were hundreds of Steller and California Sea Lions and seals who celebrated their orgy of the year on these silvery fishes. The party time Sea Lions were soon brought back to reality with the inevitable appearance of Killer Whales steaming into the inlet. It is the Kawkawin's turn, they're not here for the Herring but rather for the fattened pinnipeds.

Come March, the Gray Whales are next on the scene. Herring roe set on sea weeds is ‘le plat resistant.' The Grays tear off whole sheets of roe laden algae from the rocky shores. At any given time in Sidney Inlet there could be 20 whales gorging themselves. Even a small bay like Houtla-coutla had as many as five whales rolling around in the shallows squeeging roe off the Eel Grass on the sandy bottom.

During this time, a Humpback whale and her calf showed up in the Inlet. These whales aren't so much interested in the roe as they are the Herring themselves. They position themselves under the fish then, with a turn of speed and open mouths they charge up through the school. This is quite a spectacle. On breaking the surface, the whale's head bursts into the air with mouth still agape spilling water and frantic fishes. On a more tragic note, the young Humpie found it's self fouled in the web of a Herring roe net pond. The owners of the net fought desperately to free the animal but were unsuccessful and the whale drowned. Fearing reprisal, the dead whale was towed out to sea.

With this incident still on our minds, I would like to explain to any fishers who may be reading this article that there are no fines or reprimands associated with an accidental entanglement. If this misadventure should happen to you, call us or Fisheries right away. We have some experience in dealing with these situations and may be able to free the animal with minimal damage to your net. There is no charge for this service. At the very least, if the animal does die, we may be able to gain some knowledge from the subsequent necropsy.

On the Killer Whale front

Back in December we had T68's and her brood of four pass right through the harbour with two unknown whales. These Kawkawin sat in our grey box until this week when we received, hot off the press, John Ford and Graeme Ellis' new book, "Transients, Mammal-Hunting Killer Whales." This book covers all the transient Killer Whales who have been photographed between Puget Sound and Alaska. Anyway, there they were, the big bull T103 and the female T104. The relationship, if any, is unknown. In gangs of this configuration it is usual for the female to be the mother of the bull but in this case the bull is believed to be older than the female. These whales have only been spotted on a few occasions in Alaska and the Queen Charlotte Islands. Our visit was the furthest south that they have been recorded.

Action at Deadman Islets

On May 5, long time Strawberry Isle volunteer ‘Pipot' was underway on a whale watch trip when he thought he saw one of the adult eagles place some food into the nest at Deadman Islets. Staying on site a while longer than usual, his patience was rewarded when the first little eaglet head was seen to poke out of the nest.

This breeding pair first built the nest about seven years ago. They didn't successfully hatch out any chicks the first year even though the mom was seen to be sitting on eggs. Since then they have fledged out one or two chicks every year. With Bald Eagles, generally two chicks are hatched out but usually only one survives because the stronger of the chicks beats the other out of food to the point where it starves to death and then he eats him too. We often see two eaglets fledge out here in Clayoquot, this is likely due to the abundant food supply in our waters. Eighty percent of the Bald Eagles diet is fish and the other twenty percent is water birds such as ducks and sea gulls. It is also their responsibility to clean up any dead carcasses that may wash up on the shore.

Another bit of trivia on these birds is that the nests they build are the largest true nests made by any bird in the world. Every year fresh twigs are added so eventually the nests may reach a size of almost three metres across, six metres high and weigh in access of two tonnes.

Thanks go out this month to: Bill McIntyre who's tremendous effort made our annual general meeting a great success. Will tell you more about it next time. Parks Canada for the loan of a sorely needed second computer.

Right now we're on the scrounge for: A letter size filing cabinet and ‘steamer' trunks (for storing the Killer Whale bones during our ‘build a whale' program.