|
Sunday morning dawned bright and clear and the
day looked like the weather was going to be promising so that we could
get some rock pooling in later that day. After doing so much traveling
the past few days I wanted to spend a day relaxing in the comfort of
our new apartment and enjoy the beach for at least one day. We
agreed that we wouldn't use the car at all for one full day. One
of the first things that we tried to do was figure out when the tide
would be heading out so that we could get as much rock pooling time in
as possible. We figured that the tide was going to be out in the
early afternoon. This gave us some time to kill in the morning.
After figuring out the basic tide schedule I
decided it was time to cook my traditional Sunday morning brunch,
homemade pancakes. One of the main advantages of early spring in
Canada is that the maple sap runs and it's easy to get some nice fresh
maple syrup so I brought a good supply with me. Meanwhile Andy
decided to use his traditional pancake topping of lemon juice and
sugar. It was nice to sit down together and enjoy a simple
relaxing home cooked breakfast.
After breakfast we started gathering together
some of the gear that we would need for our first trip down to the
beach. We decided that this was going to be a basic scouting
trip to see what kind of fish we could find and start taking some
initial water test results. Thankfully the cottage was close to
the beach so we would be able to simply run up and grab something if
we forgot it.
Finally it was time to go down to the beach as
the tide would be out far enough for us to start exploring the upper
rock pools to see what we could find. One of the things we really
weren't prepared for was the amount of seaweed that was washed up on
the beach. Apparently the week before we went down there was a
huge storm that created a lot of havoc on the beach. The
last time we went there was barely any seaweed around at all.
However this time the entire slipway that we normally used was covered
with the stuff. To make matters worse, there was a wall of
seaweed about 2 feet thick right at the top of the slipway that we had
to climb over before getting to the thinner layers. After that
experience it's much easier to understand why it was called a
slip-way! Unfortunately once we made it to the bottom of the slipway
we still had a lot of seaweed to contend with, but it seemed to taper
out by the time we got to our usual seating area at the bottom of the
middle slipway.
Lucky for us the weather seemed to be holding and
the day was turning nice and warm so we dropped some of our gear off
and then started to try and find some fish. We went to a little
stream area with a lot of bigger rocks in that was usually an easy
place to find fish and started flipping the rocks over. Much to
our dismay we didn't find any fish whatsoever. The only thing we
found was a lot of amphipods under the rocks which we never saw during
our previous visit. While this result was a little disappointing we
figured that we would just move on a little ways and find more fish in
some of the deeper pools or even in amongst the bladder wrack that was
just starting to be uncovered as the tide continued to move out.
In the meanwhile we decided to start doing some
basic water tests to see what type of changes fish that lived at the
edges of the sea cope with on a daily basis. Using a
refractometer we carefully tested the salinity in various rock pools,
we also measured the temperature in each of the pools and made notes
of the different creatures we found living in the pools. As the
tide continued to go out we were able to search for fish further
field. Much to our disappointment we weren't able to find very
many fish, even in the deeper pools and were beginning to get worried
about the lack of fish. We weren't even able to find any
shannies on this first trip which was completely amazing as in the
past we couldn't go more then one or two rock pools without catching
one or two.
After a lot of searching, I finally found a
couple of sand gobies hidden in the bladder wrack. This was a
welcome sight as it meant that our trip wasn't going to be a complete
loss for photos. We quickly found a small rock pool to put the
fish into so that we could start taking some photos of the fish.
After a while I went looking for more fish while Andy continued
photographing the fish and getting a couple more water test results.
Eventually I found bullrout as well and brought the prize back so we
could get some good photos of it as well. Even though we didn't
find many fish during that first trip down to the beach, we did find a
lot of different types of crabs. It seemed that there were crabs
in every rock pool.
While we were a little disappointed with the lack
of fish we saw down at the beach, we did enjoy the nice weather and
just sitting together chatting about our plans for the next couple of
weeks. We also speculated on why we weren't able to find many
fish in the rock pools. We couldn't decide if the lack of fish
was due to the time of the year or if the bad storms from the previous
week drove the fish deeper into to the sea for a bit of extra shelter.
In either case, we hoped that we would have much better luck finding
more fish later on in the week and more importantly that the a lot of
the dead seaweed that was choking the shoreline would get washed out
to sea or move further on down the beach so that it wouldn't stink
nearly as bad while rock pooling! I really don't understand how
people can enjoy that "fresh ocean breeze" I hear so much about.
While we were talking together, we were also
watching for other life around us. While it may be shocking to
some people, both Andy and I are interested in other things besides
fish as well. We were both very interested in the different
kinds of birds found in the area. I found out that while I
was looking around for some fish, Andy saw a Pied Wagtail that
he was really excited about because as he was taking the photos the
bird was coming closer to him all the time. It allowed him to
get a couple great photos of this tiny interesting bird. Of
course I was a little jealous because I didn't get to see the bird so
I was keeping my eyes open for any other interesting birdlife.
Much to our surprise, a short while later we spotted a bat flying
around the slipway during broad daylight. While it was fairly common
to see Pipistrelle bats in the area, it isn't common to see them
around in the middle of a nice bright and sunny day. We figured
that it must have been grabbing an easy meal out of all the bugs found
in and around the rotting seaweed at the time. I attempted to
take a photo of it but unfortunately this proved to be extremely
difficult.
Sometime during our talking and rock pooling the
tide had turned and we decided that it was nearly time to head back to
the cottage. However we still needed to do the simple tests on
full sea water. So I grabbed the thermometer and a pipette to
get a water sample to test with the refractometer and headed out as
far out on the rocks as I could to ensure that I got a sample of full
seawater. I carefully made my way out to the edge of the rocks and
carefully placed the thermometer in our large net which would allow me
to put the thermometer out as far as possible without having to worry
about the thermometer banging against the rocks by the waves or
anything like that. I noticed that the waves were still fairly
large so I would need to be careful to watch how quickly the tide was
coming in so that I wouldn't get trapped without a way back to the
safety of land. While I was making this assessment, I reached
out with the net to place the thermometer in the water when suddenly a
big rouge wave came along and nearly knocked me off the rock I was
standing on due to my surprise at being splashed. The next thing
I noticed was that the glass thermometer was no longer in the net
where it should have been! I spent the next couple minutes
searching for any hint of the thermometer but alas spotting a glass
thermometer with a white suction cup on the end in amongst crashing
waves, dark rocks and a rapidly incoming tide was a hopeless endeavor!
Finally I decided that it wouldn't be safe to stay out any longer and
that it was time to get a water sample so we could at least get the
salinity reading we wanted.
On my way back to where Andy was sitting I had
visions of the last item I lost in the sea and the only thing I could
think of is was "thank goodness thermometers aren't nearly as
expensive or important as car keys!" When I finally made my way
safely back to Andy, I informed him of the unexpected problem with our
plan on taking the temperature of the ocean, but at least I had a
better idea of it's temperament. We would simply have to go back
to the LFS and pick up a few more thermometers just to be on the safe
side.
Shortly after that we decided it was time to head
back to the cottage and have our supper. While we didn't get
everything we wanted to get, I think we still had a nice enjoyable
quiet day.
|
