When not in College, Craig's son, Lars, runs the R/V Natoa at times.

Salmon are starting to return to the Sound now, but it’s spring-like yet, with cold water temperatures, and leaves just unfurling on the shrubs and trees. The resident killer whales are still traveling in small matrilines. Some of the matrilines, however, are coming together, in contrast to what Craig and field assistant Doug van Patton saw during their wintry April cruise. The bird migrants Craig and Doug spotted then (snow geese, shorebirds, sandhill cranes) have largely moved to their summering areas, but we are still seeing a few phalaropes in the tide rips and the other day, a flock of brandt geese flew over. Several feet of snow have melted in the last month, though we still find plenty to keep our coolers chilled, and Montague Island looks very wintry, with deep snow down to the tree-line on the Montague Strait side. Brown bears are active again, their scat filled with vegetation, and the other night, a set of tracks: a large mother and a tiny cub. They leave trenches in the beach gravel, digging hopefully for something that might have washed up in a storm. The deer also paw at the wrackline in spring, feeding on kelp.

We’ve spent most of this week in Hinchinbrook Entrance, a wide, tumultuous strait through which oil tankers, freighters and cruise ships come and go. The tanker escort tug captains tell us that they often spot killer whales in the tanker lanes, and that’s been the case this month. Gradually, we’re gaining insights into the late winter/early spring habits of the residents. Probably because food is patchy, they appear to travel in much smaller groups, often just a mother and her offspring. They’re also more difficult to work with, diving for long periods of time, spending little time at the surface, appearing to search hard for salmon. During the times it’s been calm enough to drop the hydrophone, the echolocation we’ve heard has been sparse and slow, indicating that they’re searching, not honing in on nearby fish. We’ve seen matrilines of AB, AE, and AJ pods, and all of AI pod, a group of seven – basically, a pod made up of a single matriline.

Hinchinbrook Entrance is challenging in our small boat. Powerful currents and tides create intense rips and steep seas, especially when the tide and wind move in opposite directions. Off Schooner Rock, a place where we often listen and watch for whales, a massive rip of saw-toothed waves often forms, making a loud fizzy, sloshy sound. Humpacks and puffins feed there. Radio weather forecasts are unreliable because the tide, current and wind configurations act to create their own weather at the water’s surface. We timed this trip, unwittingly, during especially big tides, so every day has unfolded differently, and all we can do is head out into the Entrance and see for ourselves what the seas are like.

The following is a log of our days on the Natoa... (this part has been e-mailed to the current guardians, it will be released for all in some time)

Read the past news updates for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.