So it’s really the first full day on Haida Gwaii. I’m really tired from yesterday, I got up so early in Toronto and stayed up until 11pm in Haida Gwaii. It was grey and drizzly yesterday, but today it got nice and sunny and warm. This morning the people I am staying with took me crabbing. They let me use one of their hip waders too. I have never done such a thing before, crabbing I mean. OR wearing of hip waders either! Anyway, they sent me out into the ocean with a net and some instructions of what to look for. I nearly fell over a couple of times on some seaweedy rocks, so I was trying not to go into the really weedy areas. Anyway finally I see a crab under the water, and it seemed big enough. I got my net and started freaking out because I was trying to scoop it up and it was trying to escape and I didn’t want to fuck up it’s legs… anyway, I got a crab! And I felt really triumphant. It was a male, so we could keep it, and it was big enough too.

I don’t actually know if the crab in the photo above is the one I caught, because there were four of us crabbing so we ended up with a fair number of them. BUT this would be very similar to the one I scooped up.

There were a lot of tinier crabs too, just little babies zooming around and tumbling in the currents. And some flounders or something, there was a flat fish that would zoom around and then bury itself in the sand.

I also saw so many eagles. I’m like “ooooh eagles!” and the people here are just like “yeah yeah” cause they see them all the time.

I’m trying to get some pick up shots for my video I am working on, but so far things here are gorgeous and clean and I don’t know how I’m gonna show how polluted the world was left in my fictional doc. I mean I guess it could be an “AFTER” image when Indigenous people clean up? But also no one from the Northwest Coast is in my video, which is kinda funny. BUT who knows, I could use it for something else. AND there is supposed to be a garbagey beach someone is gonna take me to.

I did a lot of editing on the plane coming here, because the entertainment system went down so the wifi was shitty and spotty. BUT like you can get a lot of editing done in a five hour flight with no internet access. Anyway, I got from 18-19 minutes down to 12 and a half minutes. Which is pretty good. I want to cut down at least another minute or more though. I was supposed to make a ten minute video and I know pushing it can really suck, people get bored, etc. And I’m not sure how my new footage will work. Really I need to get some urban environments, like graffiti and stuff. I need a film buddy who will spot me and look like muscle so no one will jack me for my camera. Ha ha just chicken.

Anyway, it’s beautiful out here. I hope I see some whales! I’ve seen a deer and eagles and crabs and flounders. But no bears or whales yet!