Randall explains the census process. Two boats will set off in parallel both one-third the width of the bay from the shore. In one boat there will be two observers on one side scanning the water from boat to shore. On the other boat there are two observers on each side scanning the water, so that the whole bay is covered. Each observer calls each otter they see, and the numbers are recorded by people with notebooks and pens at the ready. We are to count single otters and otters with pups separately, so that Randall can compute the number of animals at the end of the day.
I'm in the skiff with Laura-Lee, Bruce, and Fred. Everyone else is on the other boat with Randall. For the first time on this trip I get to see the right arm of Simpson Bay. Here we make our first census pass, from the head of the bay out to open water. We loop out at into open water and head back into the left arm. Randall and Fred are in radio contact to try and stop us double-counting otters in `disputed' waters between the two boats. I personally count about fifty animals.
We head back to the cabin for lunch, which for me consists of Friday's left-over pasta. Randall tots up the census forms and declares a grand total of 224 otters. The figure has increased with each team during the summer.
After lunch we're on the photo-id boat with Randall, and we also have Sonya and Rebecca on board, so its a bit more crowded than usual. Randall takes us back to the right arm of the bay and up to the lagoon at the far end. Here we spot an otter diving and crunching mussels in his powerful jaws. We watch him feed for over an hour, timing his dives and noting his food - mussels, mussels, and more mussels.
Happy that this fellow is now well documented we cross the bay so Randall can show us a place called `Hole-In-The-Wall'. Its a narrow channel that leads to what seems like an enclosed lake. This is where Randall claims to have seen wolverines - something Fred doubts and attributes to alcohol or wishful thinking on Randall's part. We see exactly no wolverines. I'm not even sure what they look like.
There are no otters in Hole In The Wall, only jumping salmon, so we head back to base and help out with the sample sieving that the others are getting on with. There's a lot of interesting life coming up from the bottom, including a sea cucumber, worms, and a brachiopod that intrigues Randall. He tells us all about this primitive shell and how it feeds, standing on the bottom on a stalk and filter feeding.
Sonya is interviewing people and so she gets my life story - or at least the parts that relate to otters. I tell her how I first saw them in California and knew that I wanted to work with them at some point.
The cloud has now cleared and its a beautiful sunny evening. Some stir-fried vegetables are produced for dinner and its still early evening, so the instruments come out again and Fred and I play for the captive audience until 10pm. We set our alarms for 7.15 to catch the low tide tomorrow for the shoreline survey.
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