A Great Time had by All

Courtney and Tristan

Yesterday we finished our 18-hour crossing over from Rose Harbour by finishing up in Quigley Cove. We were greeted by Courtney on the deck of her boat ‘Great Blue Heron’ which was rafted alongside Matt and Joss’s boat ‘Nancy Blackett’. Courtney is a geographer by discipline, but is largely interested in all the marine and animal aspects of this Wilderness. She offered to come with us on a dinghy trip to see if we could find any of the wolves she had heard very early in the morning. However, we were anxious to relax after the long trip and invited all 4 young people aboard Traversay III for dinner once they had finished work. 

Quigley Cove is an offshoot from Laredo Inlet. This is where our friends Matt and Joss and Courtney’s boyfriend Tristan are currently working on a dive Survey of the Sea Cucumber population. The survey is principally sponsored by the Nation here in nearby Clemtu (this is who is paying them) centred in Klemtu but it has the nominal support of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. All these young people have been well-schooled by their studies at the University of Victoria – and this is where we met when Nancy Blackett shared a dock in front of the Empress in Victoria four years ago.

Jocelyn. Matt, Nancy and Larry

The various First Nations in this part of BC (including the Haida over on Haida Gwaii)  had the foresight to undertake these studies more than twenty years ago … and so far Matt and Joss have worked on several species and we heard about this one and one which i geoduck clams (panopea abrupta). The ‘kids’ arrived with some amazing fresh scallops and two varied sauces. Even Larry ate them fresh, sliced and uncooked  – he who normally eschews any raw meat. Our conversation was animated by Joss’s description of their collecting procedure … she has a huge bag into which she stuffs all the sea cucumbers she can find – the mesh bag (weightless underwater) drags her to a stop when it catches on a tiny orange cup coral. By the time she tries to surface it ‘gains weight’ losing the buoyancy of the water and it can be 320 lbs!

 Both sea cucumbers and geoducks are staples of the diet here for West Coast Nations. Her descriptions of trying to cook and enjoy sea cucumbers (which seemed to turn into a sludgy unappetizing mass) and the way they vacuum up the geoduck clams (who have long fleshy siphons with foreskin-like outer coverings) were both graphic and hilarious.

These incredibly well-trained young professionals are even more discouraged about the state of the world than we are. Tristan – an ichthyologist or  ‘fish geek’ as Courtney calls him – described the awful destruction and havoc caused in Chile’s marine environment where Norwegian companies (having been shut down in their own country by increasing public knowledge and concern) emigrated to Chile (and Canada) - buying the cheapest and most dangerous forms of technology and causing further damage.

If you read our blog further back (while we were diving in Patagonia) you would read that the salmon industry in Chile had to be shut down some years ago due to fish disease. You would also have read that all the shellfish populations have been shut to collectors and fishermen by Red Tide.  You will also note that the only coastal fishing industry has switched to collecting the lovely ‘Centolla’ crab and these animals were much smaller than those we saw 10 years ago, and vast numbers seem to be sent off to Europe and North America. There seemed to be no regulation of the crab-pots (were they emptied at the end of the season, was there even a Season?) and there was no attempt to clean up the leftover mess from the Salmoneras. We saw waves of These problems are also besetting Canada’s coastlines. The Haida are among the only public body which are active in trying to stop the destruction. If you read this, look up the *MLSS* and join it – for a small amount you can be part of the attempt by people who really know about what is going on here.

In addition to airing their educated views about the state of the environment, we also managed to have a GREAT load of fun. It all started when – questioned by me about dietary concerns – Matt responded by saying “We are all vegans who drink only pure water!” He knows about my despair trying to entertain people who each have 3 or 4 DIFFERENT food prohibitions. It turned out that they now eat everything – even if at one time they did have vegetarian leanings. Being out in this wilderness with limited opportunities for provisioning - they have been re- converted to conventional eating habits. On the menu were the scallops (with white wine), a warm red cabbage salad with bacon, goat cheese and pine nuts followed by rotini with meat sauce and Larry’s Traversay III dessert (mandarin oranges, frozen blueberries and orange liqueur). We set out the red wine, and it was well-used by all.

This morning we said good-by with sadness (at least on our part). We don’t know when we will see them again.

*MLSS – Marine Life Sanctuary Society*