Rock in the ocean

Today I wanted to tell the story that happened to me during our expedition to the Commander Islands. It largely formed the basis for our entire Far Eastern project.



The group of the Commander Islands consists of four islands: two large islands: Bering and Medniy(translate from Russian - copper island), as well as two small ones: Toporkov and Ari Kamen(translate - stone). Now inhabit only one Bering Island, and it was on it that we lived. To get on the rest you need a boat, or rather a yacht, which is not afraid of severe Commander weather. It was because of the weather that the ship of Bering, and eventually Commander Bering himself, was lost.



So the task of getting to the neighboring islands is not an easy one. And given that all this is a border area and a specially protected part of the reserve, it is almost unreal. According to my feelings, and I was very much in many hard-to-reach places on the planet, the island of Medny and Ari Kamen, if not the most, is very close to this.



We did not get into Medny island as a result. For this I want to tell about the second island. It is called Ari-Kamen and represents a rock protruding from the sea. It is clearly visible in good weather right from the island of Bering, from its only village - Nikolsky. During the expedition we visited the sunsets not once. It was possible to stand next to a steep bank and watch the sun sink in the ocean, near Ari-Kamen and the Toporkov (island of the puffins).



The slopes of the "stone" in places are almost vertical, and so they go under the water for a dozen or so meters. And all this is very densely populated by a variety of animals. The above-water part is so densely populated by birds that sometimes you start to lose where the stones end and somebody's nests begin.



Here you can find a hatchet and guillemot and cormorants and a lot of gulls. The truth to me, not a specialist, it was difficult to understand who is who (not in the sense of cormorant from guillemots, but gulls among themselves).



Near the main rock, a pair of little cones stick out of the water. It is possible that in a strong tide they are completely submerged. Here, except for the birds, you can see the seals. Most often these are anthra, among which are sometimes encountered larghas. But they do not let our big and noisy boat get close, and try to immediately go into the water, then to spy on us from there.



We did not have a chance to swim with them in this place, although we honestly tried. All the same, to find contact with the animal you need a lot of time. At us it as a matter of fact was not. Distance to the island is about 14 km and on the open sea to swim there on a small boat is problematic. Therefore, we often visited the island of Toporkov, which is twice as close. But there a couple of times it was very, very difficult.



Weather even within one day has time to drastically change several times. During the trip to Kamen we saw the sun and rain and a portion of the present Commander's mist. And we still probably have not found everything, since we spent a lot of time under water. All the same, the ground program is not our main one ..



Each piece of the island and any more or less comfortable stone, to which the sea does not reach, is occupied by birds. Cormorants prefer to sit near the water. They combine the useful with the pleasant, alternating observation of the fish floating in the water, with the obligatory drying of the feathers. All that is above is covered with guillemots and gulls. Counting how many of them fit simply unreal. And how to do it, if someone constantly flies in search of food or whirl around the island. Then the birds change places, and so all day from morning till night. Or at the same time is incredible.



It turns out such a multi-storey residential house, all tenants who are constantly with each other are shouting. Because of this, around the island the noise does not subside for a minute. Especially it is felt at the expense of a difference, when you sink under water. There comes silence, and only a soft surf noise and monotonous sounds of inspiration and exhalation.

The structure of the stone seems to have been specially created for such use. Multiple ledges, crevices and irregularities are located everywhere in even rows. Even on the most steep rocks there is a place for a dozen other nests.



And where there is a better place to make a shot so that something superfluous does not hit it. Tails, paws, wings or heads. The top of the island is covered with a surprisingly bright and green grass. Here they found shelter of two spices of puffins (Tufted and Horned). These are funny birds, sometimes jokingly called the northern parrots. Because of the bright colors of the beak and the design of the head. You can distinguish the puffins by the color of the abdomen.



Imagine that on the island for almost a year there once lived a woman a biologist, a bird researcher. Here on such a cliff in the sea ...

If we had the opportunity, we would also return there once. After all, the number of stories that can be removed there is very large. These are birds that hunt in the water, seals, and fish. And a lot of micro-organisms that cover literally every inch of stone formations under water.



But this is a completely different story)

Under the project of the Underwater World of the Far East. Expedition Kamchatka-Commander islands.

[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 55.059888 lat 165.487747 long Rock in the ocean d3scr)