The lowest tide of the day was in the morning so our morning
kayaks revealed an underwater wonderland. I had this belief
that Haida Gwaii is a pristine time capsule of BC from the
past. Sadly, the truth is far from it. For example,
deer were introduced between 1878 and 1925 and have been eating
the under story of all of the islands ever since. Cedar
trees are common in older trees, but there are almost no saplings
to be found because the deer eat them all. Similarly, at the
end of the 1800's the Sea Otters had been extirpated from Haida
Gwaii and with them went the main predator for sea urchins.
The results have been catastrophic.
At the highest part of the rocks, you do see kelp - see kelp on
the rocks. Sea Eurchins don't normally come out of the ocean
to feed so the intertidal area are more safe for kelp.
This high kelp area does have snail and some sea stars, but it's a
hard zone to live in.
If you look under your kayak, you see Sea Urchins everywhere and
the rocks are almost devoid of kelp. Kelp here might look
like a forest with habitat for small animals and sea otters.
With the kelp constantly mowed down, there is much less going on
here.
In the rocks, there is lots of life that isn't threatened by the
sea urchin. Sea stars are common and scallops can be spotted
without much effort. Abalone move around both above and
below the water.
We had a fantastic time on the water. In many ways, this
was actually a better spot that Burnaby Narrows.
The Water Dock
The Island Solitude doesn't go back to a
town every week to reprovision - it stops at Moresby Camp where
food and zodiak fuel is brought out, but water is actually
provided by a water dock deep in Haida Gwaii. The dock is
close to a stream and a water line has been brought from a deeper
pool on the island down to dock to refill boats. The process
of loading ten thousand liters of water does take an hour so we
have some time to explore the dock.
Docks provide a unique habitat. Depending on how the dock in
anchored, generally sea stars are sea urchins can't get onto the
dock so shellfish can get large. Generally the dock rides up
and down with the tides so the fouling isn't exposed to drying our
hot sunlight. This dock is near the open ocean so there is
lots of nutrition in the water. We were lucky to see lots of
tube worms and a few nudibranchs.
While the boat filled up with water we went for a brief walk on
shore. After the boat was full we drove to the Tanu watchman
site. Like all sites, the watchmen try to finish with one
boat before the next boat comes on shore. Maple Leaf arrived
before we did so we had a bit of time to kill.
Titul is close by and has cliffs on one
side that are known good habitat for Peregrine Falcons. Sure
enough, we spotted two birds flying over the cliff.
The cliffs had other habitats. We spotted Pigeon Guillemot
nesting in the cliff faces and seals resting on the rocks.
Seals aren't actually that common in the Haida Gwaii (But Biggs
Orca) so I was surprised to see a few on the rocks. By
comparison, every shallow rock in the Gulf Islands near Vancouver
is a haul out for Harbour Seals and every time you look at the
ocean you have a decent chance of seeing a seal looking back at
you.
Tanu
Each of the watchmen sights has their own
features and moments. Tanu has a large number of long house
pits has beautiful trails. The trail wraps around the front and
back of the houses, showing where gardens were kept when this
village site was occupied.
Several of the corner posts with the huge
Mortis and Tennon joints are still visible, as are a few roof
truss poles.
What is powerful here is the grave sites. There is a mass
grave on this site where the bodies of the small pox outbreak were
burried. The Haida didn't bury bodies - they would normally
be kept above ground in a mortuary hose (or a mortuary pole for
leaders). Small Pox came through so quickly here that the
bodies couldn't be taken care of and outsiders burried the
bodies. It's a sad story.
The more positive story is the head stone for Bill Reid.
This village site is where Bill Reid's family came from and when
he died this is where he wanted his body to go. He traveled
here by Canoe and although he had a western style burial, he is at
least land that is meaningful to him. The watchmen asked us
not to take photos of the grave sites.
After that sombre walk, we got back on the sailboat and headed to
closer to the end of our trip. As we drove up Cumsjewa Inlet
we spotted a small Orca Pod (Male, Female and young whale) and
almost at the same time spotted a bear on the beach. It was
a nice way to finish the day.
Our last
watchmen site
