Another Day at Stryker Island

August 2nd (Friday)
We went out for another early morning kayak paddle to take advantage of the low tide for viewing. We headed out to the outer and more open side of the land as we were curious to see what different things we might see, but we found that there was so much kelp that we could not get close enough to shore, and when we could, all we saw was many types of kelp. It was neat to see all the different types and colours, but it was not so good for viewing other things. We headed back around to the more protected side where there was less kelp.
The animal that we have been calling a Marten, we are no longer sure if it is in fact a Marten, it is possible that it is a Mink, or even a Weasel. Either way, we saw a couple of them today. 

Marten, mink, or weasel? 

One of them was coming down the rocks on shore to look for food, and I stopped paddling just as he looked at me. He sniffed the air and stared, and then as I was silently drifting closer he carried on with what he was doing. I watched as he found a nook between some rocks and reached deep inside with one of his paws. It looked like he was lying down as he was reaching so far in. When he came up he had what looked to be an eel, and he went scampering back up the shore to feed.
Back along the inside shore we were seeing lots of sea life, Anemones, Starfish, Snails, Scallops, Sea Cucumbers, and even Abalone!  This was the first time we had seen live Abalone, and the first time we spotted them there were four all in the same area. We saw more Abalone further along the shore of this particular island, but interestingly it was only on this island that we actually saw any. They are very beautiful!!
When we are out in open areas of water we often see a lot of floating garbage. There is always more on the more open water areas, and the bays around these places end up collecting it. At times, when there are big tides of course, there is always even more. This morning we decided to do our best to collect all of the garbage that we found. 

Some of the plastic garbage pulled in from the ocean.

Some of the items were quite big and we towed/ pushed them towards shore with our kayaks where we tied them. Later when the tide was high we came back, and towed them to shore with our tender. All we could do with the big pieces was put them above the high-tide line, but we will dispose of the smaller pieces at some point. 

It is amazing the extent of the plastic that is floating around. Normally we only notice things like a plastic bottle, plastic bag, or a flip-flop, but when we actually started looking there were bits and pieces floating everywhere. We even found a half of a G.I. Joe soldier.
In the afternoon we took Kiki out to a beach area nearby, had a beach fire, crushed our cans, and had some fun doing some target practice.