In search of whales and kitkeeper

2020 gave me an adventure in the spirit of the legendary Jacqua-Iva Costo! Being a child, I watched his films and dreamed that someday, too, as a real researcher, I will boil the ocean expanses at the high-speed marine catamaran. And suddenly this summer I fell a chance to go to Kamchatka just in such an expedition – watch whales and killets in their natural habitat. Miss it, of course, I could not.

The expedition started from the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. There our team was waiting for a pre-chartered boat with a beautiful name "Palmyra". Seemingly a ship seemed small, however, inside was quite spacious: two cabins, shower, two toilets, as well as a cozy cabin-company with a kitchen for Coca. We quickly immersed the suitcases on board, waited until the storm calm down a little and the border guards will give "good" to exit the port, and went to the endless expanses of the Pacific.

The first stop is the island of old mans, located at the exit from the Avachin Bay. He received its name thanks to the sea birds – old men who formed their largest colon here. Near the island from the water, two Kekura rises (rocks in the form of cones or pillars in the midst of the ocean), which became a house for several dozen Pacific Choices and Blanks.

And on the coastal reefs Starichkov, you can often see the motley nerve (they are Largy). Seals warm on pebbles, not paying any attention to fearful in the neighboring feathery.

After the island of old mans, the waves have become noticeably stronger. Captain said that we went out into the open ocean. Suddenly, in the radio, the cherished word sounded – "Cozat", and in a couple of minutes our boat was already sent to the specified square. It is impossible to pass on those feelings when you see on the horizon your first black fin. Children’s happiness, delight, excitement? Probably all at once. Sometimes Kosyats were floating right at our boat, allowing him to see themselves to see and even take a picture.

As our ship biologist told, Kosykati – animals very movable. Per day they are able to overcome the distance of more than 100 km, so any oceanarium is prison for them. At the same time, Kosyka – the guys are very compaable and most often float with flocks, or rather, families. We were lucky to see a couple of males and mother with a young.

In nature, there are two varieties of kitkeeper – carnivorous and fishing. The first hunt for seals, and sometimes even can attack the cub. The fishing of the same killeries, as follows from their name, will never be heat-level meat, but will prefer him, for example, salmon or mixtail. It is the second type of kitkeeper most often found at the eastern coast of Kamchatka.

By the way, your frightening English name – Killer Whale (Keet Killer) – Kosyki acquired due to translation errors. Spanish sailors who have witnessed the attacks of carnivorous killers on whales, called these mammals Ballenas Asesinas, which means "killer whales". The British, apparently, incorrectly translated this phrase, as a result of the "killer whales", the killer turned into a "whale killer". Although it is known that these animals never attacked a person in wildlife.

If the grooves we vouted on the fin, then whales – "on the font". Having made his brand "FSHH", Kit could show the back or tail modestly, and could jump out of the water to the joy of the public. They say not everyone is lucky to see this, but Fortune was on our side. By the way, the humpback whales most often jump out of the water. Such jumps can be addressed to other whales of the same type. Sounds from the blow of water are heard on long distances, and animals use them as their own alphabet of Morse. Although there is a simpler explanation of such behavior: jumping out of the water, whales get rid of parasites – whale lice and small racks that cover the head and fins of the animal.

By the way, Whale Watching (watching whales in their natural habitat) as a separate type of ecotourism appeared in Russia quite recently, but already found his devotees fans. There are several places in our country where you can go in search of these marine giants, and Kamchatka is just one of them.

In addition to the kitkeeper and whales in this journey, I met Syvulya – starmy lions with blue, like the ocean, eyes that have arranged a fierce on the Cape Kekurn. On the stones of seals seem to be big and vague, but in the water they grace itself.

By the way, in contrast to modest nervous, Sivuchi easily go to contact. You can even swim in the open ocean, if we grab from suitable wetsuit. Curious Sivuchi themselves swim to tourists, circling around divers and strive to bite some of the last. However, to observe how seals are frolic in water, it is possible from an inflatable boat. "Flavut" are not afraid of people at all and nourish right in the board.

In total, I spent 4 days in the ocean. At night we moored to the old barge in the Russian bay, and in the morning they went back to search for marine mammals. Every day, with the sunrise, I crawled out of my cabins, brewed a strong hot tea and climbed the captain of the captain to overlook the neighborhood (at these moments the vessel, as a rule, was sent to exit from the bay). Day moved to the deck, and in the evening spent in a cozy cabin company with other adventurers.

In the breaks, we organized fishing – right in the ocean or on a river, which flows into the bay Russian, landed ashore near Cape Kekurn and walked on a surprisingly beautiful beach with huge white boulders, looking for bear traces next to our barges and listened to the lectures of the biologist Medvedovded (I used to even suspect that there is such a word).

On the way back, we were waiting for the Vilyuchinskaya Bay (with good weather, a gorgeous view of the Vilyuchin volcano is opening from here) and Cape is green, which really literally immerses in greenery.

By the way, there is also a summer camp of biologists from the Ferop project (Far East Russia Orca Project). For many years, the guys have been studying the kitkeeper in the Far East and can tell a lot of interesting things about these and other marine mammals. And on the Cape Green there is an old lighthouse where you can climb and make a couple of beautiful pictures for memory.

Instead of epiloga. I really like one famous expression: "Travels deprive you of the gift of speech, and then turn into a better story". With Kamchatka came exactly so.