Monthly Archives: November 2001

Eagle

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Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 7.9ºC — Min. 5.0ºC — Reset 6.0ºC — Rain 0.4 mm
MARINE LIFE: 1 Mature bald Eagle arrived north Race Rocks 11:50 perched on the popular log – look out. where it stayed until 13:20, The Eagle then flew off towards Bentinck Island with out visiting any other areas of the M.P.A.
HUMAN INTERACTION: Prince of Whales tour boat 13:00 – 13:20 9 – 10 Passengers.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:14 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky overcast — Vis. 15 miles — Wind north east 5 knots — Sea rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:25 AM

Harbour seal antics

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Monday, November 26, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max 8.1ºC — 5.0ºC — Reset 7.1ºC — Rain 1.2 mm — total so far this month 122.1 mm rain
MARINE LIFE: A great day -a bonus really when you consider it is now the last week of November. The Sea Lions did what they do best on calm days-catch up on their sleep.Most of the Northern S.L’s hauled out on Middle Rock while the Californias preferred to raft about in the kelp beds East and South of Gr. Race. The 5 Harlequins were back in the east bay and spent the afternoon by the boat dock.2 Mature Bald Eagles arrived about 9:30,one took up position on the high point on West Race and the other maintained look-out on the log on North Rocks.They stayed about 45 minutes then flew off towards Whirl Bay. 4 Harbour Seals enjoyed what I can only describe as the quintessential log rolling competition in the kelp,east side of Gr.Race. 3 seals on the log,3 seals off the log! It was the 4th seal wanting on that log that kept me watching for 35 minutes and yes, that 4th seal finally succeeded,unfortunately success was short lived. The log was caught up in the tide between the South East Rks. and Gr. Race and just twirled too much for the seals to stay on it.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:23 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky clouydy — Vis. 15 miles — Wind calm — Sea rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:29 AM

Ocean’s Alive: A Marine Life Weekend

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“OCEAN’S ALIVE: A MARINE LIFE WEEKEND” Webcast Event from Race Rocks 

Originally published in The LINK, the college newspaper on January 10, 2002. number 7.

At the end of November, students gained the experience of live webcasting to contribute to a major marine educational project run by the Royal BC Museum. They were able to apply their own recently acquired technological skills to show in real time the Race Rocks Marine Protected Area.

GARRY FLETCHER GIVES US A REPORT

On the weekend of November 24-25, 8 students and Garry Fletcher participated in ” Ocean’s Alive – A Marine Life Weekend ” at the Royal BC Museum. Pearson College had been invited along with a dozen other marine interest groups to provide on-going displays over the two days of the weekend of projects designed to promote education and research in the local marine environment.

For half of Saturday and all of Sunday, Michael Kiprop and Olend Kondakciu operated the mobile camera 4 at Race Rocks while Garry and the students ran four computers and two projectors with the four live video streams coming from Race Rocks. Thanks to the loan of two Apple computer G4 Powerbook, one from from Soho Computers and from Westworld Computers in Victoria, they were able to present some of the on-line resources of the colleges racerocks.com website to some of the 2300 members of the public who went through the turnstyles of the museum over the weekend. Initial problems of receiving webcasts inside on the museum’s network were solved by bringing in and installing in the rafters our own Apple Airport Base station which allowed wireless transmissions of four video streams to the museum hallways.

Julia Clark and Virginie Lavallee , both second year Environmental Systems helped set up the equipment for the display and answer the public’s questions on Saturday morning while Damien Guihen of the racerocks activity helped Garry on the Saturday afternoon. For the Sunday presentations, Michael Cameron, Jaffar Saleh and Molly McKay, all members of the racerocks.com group each put in half a day for the presentations. It was a great opportunity to get out with the public to help promote the work we do at Race Rocks.

We at the college now almost take for granted the 24 hour live webcasts from Race Rocks and the weekly live webcast of various college presentations such as International Affairs. There was surprise and amazement from many visitors, however, who never realized before that they could get such interesting live images of the sea lions and seabirds right in their own nearby Strait of Juan de Fuca. Two couples touring Victoria from Great Britain were excited to know that from home they could now see the wildlife of the local area live on the internet. For times of webcasts from the campus, see the link to the webcast schedule from the college home page.

students webcast

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Sunday, November 25, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max 8.1ºC — Min. 5.3ºC — Reset 5.4ºC — Rain 9.8 mm
HUMAN INTERACTION:The 2nd Nature in to the dock a little after 9:00 with the students working on the live web presentation at the R.B.C.M.The sea was much calmer than yesterday but the rain was a definite inconvenience. One charter Dive boat in West Race area from 11:00 until just after 14:00. The students departed approximately 15:30 to return to campus.
MARINE LIFE: There was a group of 3 male and 2 female Harlequin Ducks in the East Bay most of the afternoon.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:08 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky overcast — Vis. 15 miles — Wind west 5 knots — Sea rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:18 AM

Webcasting Crew out

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Saturday, November 24, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 8.5ºC — Min. 7.3 — Reset 8.1ºC — Rain 0.2 mm
HUMAN INTERACTION: Not the best weather for live web casting -however the “crew” arrived after a bumpy ride in the 2nd Nature and braved the very cold North Easterly.There were also the hardy divers on the ‘Juan de Fuca Warrior’ diving the West Race Area.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:05 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky overcast — Vis. 15 miles — Wind north east 23 knots — Sea 3 foot moderate
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:27 AM

DND Blasting

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Thursday, November 22, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.5ºC — Min 7.8ºC — Reset 8.7ºC — Rain 12.8 mm
MARINE LIFE: A typical November day weather wise however the Military detonation exercises on Bentinck Island were particularly disturbing for the Harbour Seals and Sea Lions. Once the blasting was done for the day the animals were still quite nervous and in fact when a Cuda Marine Whale Watching boat went by one rock(15:15-15:30) with approximately 120 sea lions hauled out over half of them stampeded into the water!
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:11 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky overcast — Vis. 10 miles — Rain — Wind north 21 knots — Sea 4 foot moderate — Low north east swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:24 AM

swells

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Wednesday, November 21, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 10.0ºC — Min. 8.1ºC — Reset 8.3ºC — Rain 6.4 mm getting close to the 100mm for the month
MARINE LIFE:Although the wind was fairly light most of the day (E 06),there was a low easterly swell until just before dark when the wind picked up to 28-31 knts.Another noisy night as the swells have now also begun to build high enough to roll the logs around on the shore. We counted 87 Northern,and 44 California Sea Lions hauled out on Middle Rock with another 30 Northern on Gr.Race.One of the Northern Sea Lions,a very large fellow hauled out in the small east bay,has an open wound approximately 30cmX40cm on his lower chest.Looks like a raw red patch with the fur completely gone. The edges of the wound are quite smooth. One of the 5 California Sea Lions that spent most of the day on the dock has a yellow tag on his right flipper with the #791.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:15 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky overcast — Vis. 15 mils — Light rain — Wind south 3 knots — Sea rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:21 AM

seagull prey

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Tuesday, November 20, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 11.0ºC — Min. 8.7ºC — Reset 9.3ºC — Rain 5.4 mm
MARINE LIFE:the wind abated somewhat this morning but the 1-2 metre swells were still coming in from the east and the Sea Lions favoured the relative calm of the kelp beds on the south side just below the engine room.Through out the day there were several large groups rafting in that area until approximately 15:30 when the wind increased to 30knts.and the swells to 3-4 metres.5 Bald Eagles(3 mature) visited today but stayed only 21/2 hours.One adult gull was caught and eaten(by one of the mature eagles) just in front of the learning centre.One of the juvenile Eagles looked very thin and shaggy.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:16 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky overcast with occasional brake — Vis. 15 mile — Wind south east 12 knots — Sea 1 foot chop
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:26 AM

Large swells

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Monday, November 19, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max 11.0ºC — Min. 7.1ºC — Reset 10.0ºC — Rain 10.2
MARINE LIFE: Except for a few Sea Lions most of the marine mammals preferred to stay in the water yesterday and today.The familiar growls and barks have been replaced by the roar of the 4-5 metre swells crashing along the shore.Some of the swells bring large logs that make quite a bit of noise as they grind against the rocks and when the tide is high the waves even move boulders around -definitely not boating weather!
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:09 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky overcast — Vis. 10 rain — Wind north 23 G 30 knots — Sea 5 foot moderate – moderate north east swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:28 AM

Rafting sea lions

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Saturday, November 17, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.0ºC — Min 4.7ºC — Reset 7.5ºC — Rain 0.2 mm
MARINE LIFE:Today half the Sea Lion population spent most of the afternoon ‘rafting’ about in the kelp bed on the East side of Gr. Race.What at first glance looks like driftwood and tangles of kelp floating by are actually groups of from three to eight or nine Sea Lions floating just below the surface with their flippers sticking up like little sails.This behavior is evidently associated with heat transfer from their hairless flippers.
HUMAN INTERACTION:1 Dive charter boat with 6 divers -West Race -10:00–14:30
3 Tour boats approx. 39 passengers
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:11 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky clear — Vis. 15 miles — Wind north east 7 knots — Sea rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:28 AM