Category: Opitsat

SLIM TO NONE

Eagles, Opitsat, Tofino Birds, Tofino Eagles, Tofino Wildlife

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I have mixed feelings about this time of the year. The salmon begin to return to their natal streams but my eagle friends always disappear.

Eagles take care of their eaglet/s all summer.Come August the eaglets are big enough to become fully fledged.They literally fly the coup leaving mum & dad.  So Mum & Dad go on a salmon vacation. They fly further north to their favourite salmon streams for some well deserved R&R. They leave for about a month.I haven’t a clue where they go but suspect further north as those streams are already spawning.The further north you go the sooner the spawning happens.Alaska started a month ago & Washington State (south of us) will start 2 or 3 weeks after us.

So I’m very happy to see the salmon returning but always sad to find my fine feathered friends are gone.The Daredevil & Delilah are gone. Maggie & Moe have already been gone for over a month.(I suspect they are too old to have anymore eaglets & so left sooner than most?) Juliette is gone,leaving only my buddy Romeo.I suspect he’ll be leaving any day now.

So I say goodbye to some but hello to others.I will be checking several streams tomorrow to see If the salmon have started to arrive? Always exciting to go upstream looking for bears cruising for salmon!

OPITSAT’S SEA CATTLE

Opitsat

20150130-IMG_848420150130-IMG_8487Opitsat is a Native village on Meares island. It has been occupied for several thousand years.
I noticed some Bovine down on the sand eating the Ell grass. I’ve heard these cattle are semi Feral. They basically go & do whatever they want? I’ve also heard that their meat tastes badly because they eat the Ell grass,so nobody wants to eat them I guess?

Pacific Spray

Opitsat

The Pacific Spray is owned by Mainstream. A local fish farm company. They raise Atlantic Salmon. This boat is their harvest boat and was heading out at sunset to do a harvest at one of their farms. They load up with a ice/water mixture in their holds.
After arriving at the farm to be harvested,they pull up the net up to corral the fish into a tighter area. They than suck the salmon out with a Venture system. Basically it’s a very large vacuum.
Once up on the boat,they go into a water bath that has CO2 in it. It reduces the oxygen content and makes the fish docile to handle. One of the gills is cut and then it is slid down a trough into one of those holds with slushy ice in it. The fish bleed out in the hold. It’s important to get the blood out of the fish to keep the meat from going bad.

Sunset Boat Ride

Boat, Clouds, Opitsat, Sunset

These are either “Swelling Cumulus or Congestus Cumulus “clouds.They were were rising high above the mountains. The heat of the day was evaporating all the moisture from the forests. The heat produces convective heat currents which rise with lots of moisture from the forests.
I liked the pink coming off of the tops.The last bit of the suns rays were hitting the cloud tops ,which probably were around 10 thousand feet or so.
You can see the village of Opitsat in the background. It’s on Meares Island.

Opitsat Village on Meares Island

Aerial Photography, Atleo Air, Opitsat, Sunset


This shot is looking roughly NW with the village of Opitsat in the foreground and the Cats Face mountains in the background.
The bottom slope of Lone Cone Mountain(Meares Island) can be seen at the right hand side of the shot.