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| It's quite possible tomorrow will be a busy day being the Friday
heading into the long weekend so we'd like to spend as much time as
possible on scene, this will include lunch time through to dinner
time which we're thinking will be prime time (we're warriors- we need
not eat!). Filled up M3 in Gold River before departing this evening, since drove approx. 13-15 nautical miles to camp. We'll want to keep fairly regular tabs on fuel consumption as well as oil for budgeting purposes. Plans for the first while are to keep regular contact with Veins of Life Watershed Society; this will probably take place around dinnertime nightly depending on how things go. Garth Sinclair, Fisheries Officer, is usually on the water Mon-Thurs. He's reachable on Ch. 16, Critter Cove on 7, Coast Guard on 22, and the weather channel is 72 I believe. 2-August-2002 Crew: Erin Hobbs & Michelle Kehler Weather: Sunny, partly cloudy periods, calm, hot Started at 0800h with the organization of boat materials and figuring out of the digital camera. Also entered all contact information in the logbook including the number where we can be reached. The day was sunny and hot for the most part with the exception of some cloudy bits. There was little to no action on the water until around 0900h. Began by recording boats transiting the area and characterizing their behaviour (i.e. Transiting along shoreline, direction of travel etc.). Having five separate sheets proved to be difficult and it didn't take long for us to realize we had to synthesize them! Hit the water at 1015h and had our first interaction with a boater…… and Luna. Although we were in gear, constantly moving we were caught by the whale - not the best example we would have hoped to set on our first day out. However I do think it proved valuable in demonstrating to us what other boaters are up against and will help us to more effectively guide boaters away from Luna should they find themselves in his presence. It took about 15 stressful miMr.es to finally escape. We started in neutral, afraid of having him so close to our propeller but it soon became clear we weren't going anywhere as Luna had complete control. Even just in gear his power and assertive nature proved extremely challenging. He spun us, moved us up and out of the water by pushing up on the hull and spy hopped directly beside us - one could easily see how people jump on the opportunity to touch him. |
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Note to next crew, Critter Cove clears out by noon so it's not the best time to be there and not on the water - we felt like the cops at the doMr. shop while the bank robbers had free rein on the city. We left the information pamphlets both at the front desk and at the fuel dock. On the way through Hannah Channel we ran into Guy a Fisheries Guardian
who works the area- another powerful ally! Gave him some Luna pamphlets
and headed up towards home. Stopped two more boaters after spotting
them stopped in Luna's zone. |
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| Ended up with Luna twice today after approaching boaters in the
zone who already had him at their boats. We've changed our minds;
we think he likes us now. We took some video of Luna to show the behaviour
he's exhibiting and his current physical condition - few scrapes that
look a little rough. One on his chin, one on his back just behind
his head that looks like a prop Mr., and one on his tummy that looks
a little red. He also had some sort of eye goobers from both eyes-
kind of transparent material that looks like a jelly streamer. Again all boaters were cooperative but we are noticing that most breakdowns seem to occur in Luna's zone- coincidence? We think not! Got back from the dinner/press conference around 2100h, it was brought to our attention that mammal is spelt incorrectly on the HUGE posters at Critter Cove- yeah that's embarrassing. We'll be fixing that up tomorrow. 05-August-2002 Crew: Erin Hobbs & Michelle Kehler Weather: Overcast, cloudy, calm, warm Hit the water this morning around 1030h (did some surveying from the house beginning around 0930h as well). Heard by radio that the large "touring boat" was on it's way into Mooyah Bay so we planned to monitor from the dock until they got here so we could talk with them, however Luna had other plans. One recreational boat had positioned itself with Luna so we zipped over and two more boats saw the action and came in. This was our busiest encounter yet but we managed to get the boaters out of the area and then had to escape ourselves. The Coast Guard ship Tanu offered to make some photocopies of our info sheet since we're down to about five. In all the commotion we missed the large "touring boat" so we caught up with them at the north end of Hanna Channel. A little unsure of what kind of rig the vessel was; we approached while it was lowering kayaks into the water- turns out it's both a freighter and a passenger boat. The guys onboard didn't seem to take us seriously. They were sure to mention that they were the ones who reported all the inappropriate activity last year- funny we've heard more than once that this vessel is one of the worst for stopping in the zone to let it's passengers have a gander. On the way back down from lunch we approached a boat for the third time - yeah we felt like idiots but it is really tough to tell who you've contacted and who you haven't while your ripping through the water (they weren't impressed so we're making an effort to check as much as possible before approaching so as not to annoy/disturb otherwise cooperative boaters). |
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Also we have been told twice now we should have a sign up in Gold River- to our knowledge a big one exists there, evidently it's not in the best place or it is not big enough. When we get more Luna info sheets tomorrow we'll talk to Garth about it. In addition to that, Erin had a great idea to post these sheets at the gas stations in Gold River. So many of the boaters are being told by Gold River residents where Luna is, and that "its okay to go see him - he'll let you know when he wants you to go." |
| Just before dinner TANU stopped by to drop off the photocopies Dave
and Morgan had promised - they also invited us for dinner but unfortunately
we already had plans for prawns and salmon and didn't want to let
Bob down. The Tanu crew generously offered support should we need
anything else they could help with - the local support for this project
is so encouraging. Weather remained pretty cloudy all day, again warm but spurts of rain that felt like needles when you're cruising in the boat, we're still waiting on our order for sunshine…….. Also like to note we saw Luna breach today about four times with no boats in the area, this is new to us, usually we only see him when there is a boat - could this be a good sign? We arrived back at camp by 1900 and decided to survey the scene from Bob's sundeck - it was quiet all evening. 06-August-2002 Crew: Erin Hobbs & Michelle Kehler Weather: Breaking clouds, blue patches of sky, calm, warm On the dock today by 0930, she's going to be a sunny one, which means more boats are apt to stop should nobody be here to intercept them. Seeing as we received more Luna info sheets yesterday courtesy of CCG we have the option to take a drive to Cougar Creek, which seems to be pretty busy. Talking with people before they're even on the water is a bonus and we are keeping track of who we talk to, should we run into them again in the zone. We should be hearing from Garth today for more Luna info sheets, also like to ask him some questions about the closure in Mooyah Bay and if that includes crabbing. Everyone out here thinks we're experts on everything water related so we get all the tough questions like, "Are six-gilled sharks illegal to catch?" Garth showed up in Mooyah Bay today with two RCMP officers - our support system is ever growing. We met for lunch and shared with them some video of Luna's latest behaviour. Asked Garth about the possibility of him doing the tour for the crew heading up this Saturday so they get a chance to meet the support team in place and so we have two boats instead of one slow one with four to five people plus gear! He's looking into it - don't all bosses want to pay overtime to their employees for good causes? Headed back to the dock and remained there, monitoring a relatively dead day for Mooyah Bay. In fact not only did we see zero boats stop in the zone, we only saw Luna himself twice as we zoomed out to lunch and back from dinner- good thing we hope! 07-August-2002 Crew: Erin Hobbs & Michelle Kehler Weather: Overcast, cloudy, windy, reasonably warm Got up at 0830 this morning to try for the call home when the living room isn't packed and the line isn't clogged. The weather isn't what we ordered at all, no sun just overcast and threatening rain. Monitoring from the house works but I've got to say we don't have the entire view we'd like since that big old barge is in the way! The plan is to spend some time updating our log sheets on the laptop and maybe head out to Cougar Creek for more info sheet distribution- all pending the weather. A quick trip down to the dock this morning to get out to a boat stopped in mid Mooyah Bay with Luna yielded unsuccessful results. The boat took off before we could get to them. We've concluded although we may not be able to stop every boater from stopping in the zone, we can certainly minimize the time spent there. Cam stopped us to ask us whether or not the story about Luna taking a chunk out of a kayak was true?!!? We had to laugh, obviously the true account of the concerns about the kayak that had an interaction with Luna the week earlier had been embellished. Lunch went as usual and we headed over to Cougar Creek afterwards to talk with the boaters there. The large sign is still up and most if not all people we talked with were aware of Luna's presence. One of the fishermen corrected us on Mooyah Bay NOT being a closed fishing zone. We were sure that is what Garth told us but according to the signs posted at Cougar Creek, it's a no retention zone, open for fishing- we'll have to clarify that with Garth when he calls to let us know about this coming Saturday and his availability. While at Cougar Creek we unloaded a handful of info sheets to a man running a fishing charter who says his customers frequently ask to be taken by the whale- he seemed intent upon having nothing to do with Luna. Also spoke with a lady who took her grandkids around the zone in a small boston whaler. Sure enough Luna popped up and scared the pants off them. She had read all the newspaper articles appearing in the Campbell River local paper and is sure there should be better coverage of his assertive nature with approaching boaters. We're back in the house taking turns entering data and monitoring the zone. The plan for tonight is to take Bob to dinner at Critter Cove as a token of our appreciation. Bob declined the dinner offer tonight, took a rain check. We pumped up the tubes this morning and were surprised at how flattened they were by the time we got to dinner (especially the port side we've just got fixed the July 31st). We pumped them up again thinking perhaps the valves weren't turned all the way to the black lines within the "navigation" section but they were already deflating again when we were finished fueling. We're not sure what is going on but we'll be monitoring them closely tomorrow morning and calling Veins of Life Watershed Society to let him know. Chatted with the women who run the barge. They actually invited us to lunch tomorrow (should we get in there before the guys) after they heard our yearning for fruits and vegetables over sandwiches and fries! Erin and I spent until 0100h discussing food we'd love to rediscover this coming five days off- yummers! 08-August-2002 Crew: Erin Hobbs & Michelle Kehler Weather: Overcast, cloudy, calm, and reasonably warm At 0906h I spied the first boater to transit the scene. These days there's few to no boats stopping within the zone, which makes for a happy pair of monitors but some uneventful looking log sheets! We're seeing less and less of Luna. Where he used to surface every time we passed through the zone to go to dinner or talk to boaters up Hanna Channel, we rarely see him at all now. |
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After lunch we headed to the dock to check the tubes on the boat. They're no more deflated than they were last night so we think that's a good sign. Things got busy quickly on the water, we headed out twice to talk
to boaters who were stopped with Luna - apparently my reMr. earlier
is false! The reactions of boaters we approached with Luna already
there is different now than before. They seem a little frightened
or concerned and the first thing they ask is, "How do we get away?"
or "Maybe he'll come to you and we can get away." Erin and I both
think his behaviour is more assertive when he's with boats now because
he doesn't have as much contact as he had prior to us being here.
His tail splashing has increased and after the boats leave we have
a really tough time shaking Luna ourselves. He's got some Mr.s
that are new to us that we videotaped today; one posterior to his
blowhole and a new fresh one on his nose, this one was bleeding.
It looked like a scrape with the torn skin still hanging off, probably
1.5 inches long. |
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