Whales

October 13th (Sunday)

Last time, when we were here in mid August with my parents, we didn't see any crabs. We are currently not allowed to crab in Discovery Bay, as it is requested by the Coastal Guardian Watchmen that people voluntarily not crab in the area. Apparently the Watchmen monitor crab numbers in certain areas, and request closures when numbers are low. 

This time we have been seeing Dungeness crabs in the shallows at low tide. It is interesting because all summer we were seeing and catching very few crabs everywhere we went, and we began to wonder if they perhaps migrated into deeper water during the warmer months. Of course, we had no reference for particular locations because we had not been to them in the winter, but it was a theory. Now, seeing crabs here when there was no sign of them before, we are curious to see if the crab will be more numerous at other locations.
We had rain showers on and off all day, but the sun also broke through at times, and the winds were calm. We headed out in Kiki to do some exploring and fishing. The water was glassy, and we planed our way into Seaforth Channel, where we saw three whales. We turned off the motor and floated on the calm water. There were two whales together, and one not far from them. 

This was almost the same area where we had seen three whales while motoring to Discovery Bay a few days ago. As we drifted, the whales surfaced and dove, and surfaced. 

Sometimes they came up quite close to us, and we watched and listened in awe at their immense size and the sound of their breathing. Their exhale and inhale sounds were like listening to air being rapidly evacuated, and then drawn into a large pipe. It was such a dramatic and awe-inspiring sound while floating peacefully on the calm sea. 

The whales were so long and they were surprisingly wide when seen from straight on. The single one surfaced and was traveling straight toward us at one point, so we got a good front view, which was very neat and unusual.
We then headed out to Regatta Rocks to try some fishing. There was no shortage of fish, and there was a good variety of different Rockfish, Kelp Greenling, and Lingcod. We only kept one nice-sized Kelp Greenling, but there were many more to be had. We also tried fishing a bit over at the Dall Rocks before heading home just as the sun was beginning to go down. 

It was a beautiful evening, and we were seeing some Pigeon Gullimonts in their winter plumage. It is amazing how many of the sea birds up here change their plumage from summer to winter.