We had an extra early morning today for our first island sunrise from Broad Cove. We watched the colors spread across the sky in the company of gulls sitting, flying and calling from the surrounding rocks. We returned to the observatory deck of the central Commons building to pause and re-adjust our senses: shifting from a mainland mentality to an island one. We are still coming to terms with a new place that can seem both big and small at the same time.

After a delicious breakfast, we left dry land to fish for mackerel.

On the way to our fishing spot, the ocean was still and flat on the surface, but there was wildlife everywhere! We passed a grey seal along with plenty of cormorants, gulls and terns. The boat captain anchored us near an area of upwelling, where warm water currents bring nutrients from below up towards the surface. Within 15 minutes, fishing lines were reeled in with 4-5 mackerel per pole (some even had 6 fish at a time!), faster than we could get them off the hooks!

We motored back to the island to squeeze in our next exploration of the area’s tide pools. Intertidal zones are a harsh environment with drastic changes in temperatures and water levels, and we had an opportunity to find and observe the organisms that are adapted to survive in these conditions. Our wading was paused by the excited discoveries of hermit crabs, a Gunnell fish (it looked like a small eel), periwinkles, barnacles, small sea urchins, and a variety of algae (what we might call “seaweed” in the South). There is great joy to be found in taking the time to search for life that is often hidden just beyond our sight.

“Signals for Survival” was our after dinner movie treat. We learned about the behaviors of the herring and Great Black-backed gulls that we have observed while staying on the island. Effective communication between gulls is essential for their survival, and we reflected how true this is for humans too.