Coastal Foraging and Camping off Nova Scotia - Seals and Scallops!

What's going on, guys? Noah here with Northern Scavenger. It's late summer and I'm out on the ocean to do a 3-day sea kayak trip. I brought the fishing rod. I brought my snorkel gear and I hope to get onto some seafood for dinner. I'm going to an area that is full of gray seals. Nova Scotia has the largest population of gray seals in the world. There's 380,000 of them, and a lot of them are along this specific piece of coast I'm at. Before I get too far, I know about a cabin on one of these islands, and I'm going to go check it out. Okay, this looks to be in pretty rough shape. Going around the back. Ah, I see a dead bird in there. Man, it looks like at one time this place was really beautiful, but it is falling apart and it's locked, too. So, I can't even go really check it out. I would say this place is no longer used and it is just going to fall apart and the sea's going to take it away eventually. That's super sketchy, though. There's seals swimming right around me. Oh. Not the best spot. And it looks like someone pooped up here, man. Damn. We made it. I'm really digging this spot because a it's leeward. Today the wind's coming from the northwest. Tomorrow it's going to be coming really strong from the west. So this is fully protected out there. I'm seeing waves. They almost look surfable. So that shoreline on the other island which I was earlier is going to be exposed. And also I rather camp on a beach that has bigger rocks like this. Sugar sand beaches are great but the sand gets everywhere. And if I can avoid it, I avoid it. First thing I do when I get to a camp is I set up my campsite. There's something about setting up the tent where I just feel like I have safety. You know, if it starts raining, if the bugs get bad, if I just start crying, I have somewhere to escape. I was going to wait to do this for tomorrow, but it's so nice out. I'm going to jump in the water. So, this is also great recon because if they're not here, tomorrow we can uh head out to find other spots. So, the purpose of this dive was to get a little more familiar with the landscape. I wanted to know about the water clarity, temperature, and what the ocean floor was looking like. First thing I noticed, clarity sucks. We had a storm a few days ago and I think it stirred it up because I can't see more than 10 ft away. A little muscle shell. That's not going to do us any good. I come across this lobster. And you'll see later on that I see a lot of these guys in this area. And in Nova Scotia, I can't harvest a lobster. There's only commercial licenses. Lots of eel grass, which is great to see. It's a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem, like holding this little flounder. This is a ground fish, and they get much larger than this. I was cruising around disturbing all the locals, poking hermit crabs, and I take a bit of a break on the ocean floor, just looking around, taking it all in. But I had this weird feeling that something was watching me. scared the crap out of me. It's such a big creature. Cheers to seals. Water clarity wasn't the best out there and there's seals around. As much as I like seeing seals, seals mean sharks and sharks is not something I want to see while I'm in the water. I brought cooked broccoli and sweet potato from home. brought a fork and a plate, but this is it. Haven't had a steak on a trip in a long time. That's good. Well guys, that's a wrap for today. Pretty interesting day. The seal situation is something else. I can't believe how close I got to that while I was sea kayaking in as well as when I was diving. This is not a good scallop spot right in front of me. So, tomorrow I'm going to go on a bit of a mission. The sun's starting to drop a lot earlier these days. And that's why I brought a book. Probably go in the tent pretty soon and read until going to bed super early cuz that's what I do. Anyways guys, see you tomorrow. That sunrise was burn your eyes out blood red and it just lasted maybe like 5 minutes so I really caught it in time. It is um really cold out. I don't know if it's the the actual temperature or just my body has just chilled this morning. I haven't been sick for two years and over the last week and a half I've just had a lowgrade sickness where I just get cold and a bit of a runny nose. In the real world, I don't get as much sleep as I need. Ideally, I get 8 hours of sleep a night, but I'm usually getting around 6:30 to 7. But last night I got 10. At least 10. I was looking at the weather forecast this morning and throughout the day the weather is going to build and by 6:00 p.m. tonight there's going to be 50 km gusts. So at that point I'm going to want to be off the water. So I'm starting my day pretty early this morning and I want to be at a few spots before that wind starts building. Oh, that's a fish. First cast, dude. First cast, man. I could keep this mackerel for dinner, but mackerel. There's another one right there. Mackerel meat spoils really quickly. So, I think I'm going to chop this guy up and use him for bait. Maybe catch a flounder. been drifting for about an hour now. Honestly, right now I'm not too stoked on the prospect of snorkeling with how overcast and windy it is. I might be being a bit of a baby, but I'm a little nervous. For whatever reason, I think calm, sunny weather means less sharks. I don't know. Well, it's a bit leeward here. Super overcast still. It's about noon. I'm just going to jump in. Test it out. See what it's like claritywise. Um, comfortwise as well. I'm not going to be going too deep cuz I'm by myself. All right, first dive of the day. I'm a little nervous, so I take my time and stick to the shallows. But right away, I do notice some scallop shells. I'm too shallow for them to be living here. But this is encouraging that they might be in the area. So, I take a dive into the depths to see what that terrain's looking like. It's not looking too good. It's very dead. Not a lot of life, not a lot of structure, and it's very muddy. Scallops like a hard floor, and this area is not that conducive to scallops. I do a few dives to look around, but overall, I'm thinking that those scallop shells I found in that bay got blown in from a storm. I did come across this new jellyfish. This is a mauve stinger. These stingers pack a punch, so I definitely want to keep my distance. This is a tropical jellyfish, but this time of year, the Gulf Stream can push up tropical fish into our waters. So, it's not unusual to see tropical fish in September. All right, not much going on in that spot, so I'm going to try a few other spots. All right, second dive location. Paddling in. I'm a little discouraged because it seems shallow and the water clarity is just going to be terrible wherever I go. But anyways, I jump in and take a dive. I'm noticing that there's a little more structure. And on my second dive, I get lucky. First scallop. So, it's looking pretty rough, but it is a scallop. It is breathing. So, I'm stoked. Doesn't take long until I find a few more. Start banging them out. This one's got a a sea star beside it, which is one of its main predators. These scallops would be anywhere from 4 to 6 years old. And every year, it grows a new growth ring. And typically, this would be a situation that I would not want to harvest too many because of how shallow I am, how late it is in the year. So, they're living in a pretty warm environment and I would be a little concerned about biotoxins, but not that concerned. I'm going to harvest five today. Got to watch out for these guys, man. There was quite a lot of these guys floating around, but very stoked. Five scallops for the pot tonight. Let's go home. Come here, daddy. >> Well, guys, that feels pretty darn good. Perseverance. So, I got five scallops for dinner. That's more than enough. But I am going to check out one more spot. I was very curious about this one. It is near that seal territory, though. So, hopefully I don't see another seal in there. Or maybe I do. Who knows? on a beach. >> I wanted to dive here because it was really sandy and typically the sand gives better visibility as it reflects the sun. And right away I knew that this is the best viz of the day. And it was nice to see all this eel grass. Eel grass beds are vital for the ecosystem because they work as a nursery for juvenile fish, stabilizes the coastline, and is a significant carbon sink. So, it's great to see such a healthy bed here. Spent about an hour cruising around here just exploring. Of course, we came across a couple lobbies and these guys So this rock right here is about 500 million years old. And this is the Halifax formation. This is a subgroup of the larger Maguma group which makes up pretty much half of Nova Scotia. Back in the day you had the continent which is the land mass of North America that was eroding soil. So you had this accumulation of soil that was coming off the continent down the continental shelf and you'd have regional amounts of sediment pouring off this shelf which is known as a turbidity current. All this is happening in the ocean and it's essentially an oceanic avalanche of sediment. And over time this would all accumulate into these things called submarine fans. You know when you look at a mountain and you see the canyons and at the bottom there's a big accumulation of sediment and soil. Well, that's the same thing, but this is happening in the ocean. Over time, as more sediment accumulated, you'd have a lot of pressure at the bottom and sedimentary rocks would form. Then, as the continent and the ocean crust were colliding, you'd have these arogyny events, mountain building processes, and that sedimentary rock would get compressed and there'd be so much heat and pressure that it would metamorphosize and it would turn into a metaedimentary rock. And that is what the Maguma group is. And this is a great example of that. All right, so we got five scallops for tonight. Looks like a little fish tried to get in here and he got crunched. There's a lot of limpets on these guys, but other than that, kind of beautiful. That one has a bit of a deformationation. Some animals try to eat the scallops when they're alive. Starfish inject their stomach and then eat the scallop from the inside out. It's hard to tell what that is. That might be a little eel I showed you last time, but you just plop off all the guts like a sock. If you guys want the full tutorial, the last coastal foraging video I did, um, I do a full tutorial on how I process these scolops. Dude, another one of these little eels came out of this one. What the heck, guys? This one has a pearl in it. Similar to an oyster, scallops can make pearls, and they're apparently super rare. I've seen this only once before and apparently it's every one in 3 or 4 thousand. Um, but maybe I'll take this home. Jeez. Now, time for the glaze. I pre-made the glaze at home. I used 2 tbsps balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tsps rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp sesame oil, four garlic cloves, half teaspoon of cornstarch, and then a pinch of red pepper flakes at the end. Man, what can I say? This looks so good. Let me get some more sauce for that rice. I would say that was a top five meal for me. Lately, I've been making some of the best meals I've ever made on trips, and it's thanks to you guys. Making these trips, it's forcing me to get a little more creative in the kitchen, and I'm definitely benefiting from this. Was it worth snorkeling and fishing all day for it? Absolutely. That's why I come out here. I love the adventure, and the food tastes that much better when you're out there looking for it all day in the water, fishing, hiking through the woods. And I know you guys can relate. It's probably why you watch this channel. The adventure is what brings me out here and I am super grateful for that meal tonight. It's about 7:00 now. The sun's set. Tomorrow we'll wake up and see what's happening. Look at those teeth. This is a seal skull. Those front canines are like an inch long. Its head is elongated. Relatively small brain for the size of the animal. Male gray seals can grow to be 2.3 m. Females to grow to be about 2 m. Aging a lifespan of about 40 years. In Nova Scotia, we have about 380,000 gray seals. This is about 90% of the gray seal population in Canada. I read an interesting article on cod and gray seal populations. They live in the same waters and they eat the same sort of prey. When the cod population was booming, they were eating all the fish and the gray seals couldn't really populate. But with the collapse of the cod industry, the gray seals have boomed and now it's hard for those cod to come back because the gray seals are eating all these small fatty fish that the cod would be eating. All right, guys. Just packing up camp, getting ready to head out of here. Awesome. 3 days out on the water. I can't believe all those seal interactions I had. I've never seen such curious seals before, and that was pretty scary when I was in the water. It was more so just startling. I just wasn't expecting to see such a big creature beside me. I'm very happy I found those scolops. It was a lot of fun exploring around the ocean. If you guys love the content, please consider subscribing. It helps the channel grow. But guys, thank you so much. We'll see you next time.