Monthly Archives: August 2002

Coast Guard chopper landed :young were scattered about and subsequently attacked

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Thursday, August 15, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 16.0 C Min. 9.9 C  Reset 11.0 C
MARINE LIFE: A few more sea lions arrived during the night, total count approx. 70 California and 11 Northern. The Californian branded # 62 spent most of the day hauled out on the end of the dock, a bit of a loner. At 09:20 a Coast Guard chopper landed on the grass next to the south side of the tower, the adult gulls flew off but the young were scattered about and subsequently attacked by some adults. A call to Coast Guard has remedied the problem- in future we will give them a reminder heads-up at the start and end of nesting season. Thank you Marc and Phil.The 7 geese made a short- about 1 hour – visit just after 6 this morning.
HUMAN INTERACTION:There were 24 Ecotour boats, 3 pleasure craft and 2 Zodiac Military Police boats through the reserve today. Unfortuately the 2 military and 1 ecotour boat the ‘Tsunami’ breached the ‘no wake’ policy, passed this info on to D.F.O.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:45 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear  Vis. 10 Miles Wind Calm Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:01 AM

 

problems with safe landings

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Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 20.0 C  Min. 11.1 C  Reset 14.5 C
MARINE LIFE: Most of the young gulls are flying now but still hesitant about landing in the water.They continue to have problems with safe landings but getting better, not so many fights today.
HUMAN INTERACTION: There were 27 Ecotour boats, 8 pleasure craft and Second Nature through the reserve today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:05 PM

Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear  Vis 15 Miles  Wind West 15 Knots  Sea 1 Foot Chop
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:19 AM

practicing the art of landing

Posted on by
Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 24.9 C  Min. 11.5 C  Reset 19.0 C
MARINE LIFE: The number of sea lions continues to increase,most seem to arrive in little groups during the night.This morning counted over 50 hauled out and several small groups floating about in the kelp. There were 6 Northern sea lions swimming along the south shore when the Orcas passed by just after 20:00.The whales were headed east after feeding near Beechey Head and surfaced only twice as they went through the reserve.The geese did not visit today, guess that is it for this year,miss them in a way but there are better places for geese! The young gulls are still spending a lot of time practicing the art of landing and there were a lot of close calls with several chicks getting quite a ‘roughing-up’ from some of the more aggressive adults.Saw 4 young with pecks on their heads that drew blood and some tail feathers pulled out. The adults fly out just off shore and call to the young but they are very reluctant to follow , so it gets quite noisy at times.One California sea lion hauled out for a couple of hours on the end of the dock, he had # 62 branded on his back.
HUMAN INTERACTION: There were 33 Ecotour boats and 9 pleasure craft through today, Hyaku did a tour through in the evening.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:33 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear �� Vis 15 Miles �� Wind East 7 Knots �� Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:15 AM

51 ecotour boats, 13 pleasure craft,

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Monday, August 12, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 21.5 C  Min. 10.1 C  Reset 20.0 C
MARINE LIFE: Happy to report, missing adult goose back with the group today, no signs of trauma and no clue to explain it’s absence.The geese arrived mid-morning and flew off again late safternoon. Saw a group of about 16 Canada Geese in the familiar V formation fly over William Head this evening so I guess it’s that time of year already! Another sign of the coming fall season is the nightly arrival of small groups of sea lions. This morning there were 8 Northern and over 30 California sea lions hauled out, mostly on the rocks just northeast of Middle rock. By noon some Californians were scattered along the ridge of North rocks and several small groups just floating about in the kelp beds. 1 California sea lion has the # 1233 branded on it’s back and saw another with yellow tags on it’s flippers but could not read the number although this evening we tried to get close enough in the boat. Many of the young gulls are finally in the water, the sea conditions were perfect today with barely a ripple, the usual afternoon westerlies did not materialize and it was one of those rare warm evenings on Race Rocks.There were quite a few gulls in the kelp just to the east of Gr. Race, some were Heerman’s gulls with their unmistakable plumage, black feet and red bills.I expect it was much cooler than sitting here on the hot rocks -the young gulls were all panting in the heat.
HUMAN INTERACTION: There were 51 ecotour boats, 13 pleasure craft, the Hyaku in from P.C. with Garry and guests about 13:30 and again about 18:30 -Ryan at the wheel- with a group tour of the M.P.A.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:37 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear  Vis. 15 Wind North East 5 Knots Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:15 AM

a group taking fish just off shore on the west side of Gr. Race

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Sunday, August 11, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 19.1 C  Min. 7.3 C  Reset 12.5 C
MARINE LIFE: The geese, 1 adult and the 5 young, flew in late this morning and stayed around until about 16:00, then headed over towards Pedder Bay.They still come every day but there is really not much for them to eat, I expect they will eventually stop coming altogether any day now.We are used to the ‘barking’ sea lions all night, but the 30+ gulls landing and taking off from the roof still wake us often, why they fly at night I don’t know but they are noisy.
HUMAN INTERACTION: There was one dive boat, 6 Ecotour boats and 9 pleasure craft in the reserve today. Unfortunately there are still sports fishers who have either not familiarized themselves with the fishing regulations or are just ignoring them but today, because the tide was too low to launch the station boat we had to call Chris to come out in the Hyaku from the campus to speak with a group taking fish just off shore on the west side of Gr. Race. It is the responsibility of people to be informed of the current regulations as stated in the Tidal Waters Sports Fishing Guide issued by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.Race Rocks is a Marine Protected Area and is a no take Zone.The monitoring policy is that if you are seen fishing we will ask that you move out of the area and any fish caught be thrown back, your boat registration and/or operator’s name recorded and submitted to Fisheries. The boat in Question today is 14K 29105.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:14 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Part Cloudy �� Vis 15 Miles �� Wind West 5 Knots �� Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:43 AM

Blasting continues on Bentinck Island

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’18:13:00′, ‘The storm has not yet materialised, but the blasting continues. Today the blasting is louder, and the seals and sea lions have already deserted their islet. If you want to see the blasting, you can track it on the remote control camera at racerocks.com. The first blast occurred at around 9.30 am and sent all the animals stampeding off their respective islets. We had a visit from some scientists who were studying the impact of the blasts. We conducted an interview which should hopefully be available with the rest of the footage on this website.We finished two of our video projects today, which only leaves one to complete.’, ‘RR Relief-students from PC’,

the sea lion shakes the fish back and forth at the water surface and the gulls rush over to pick up any bits that break awa

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Saturday, August 10, 2002

Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 19.0 C  Min. 9.9 C  Reset 11.5 C
MARINE LIFE: Middle rock is the favoured haul out spot for the 20 or so California sea lions now in the reserve, the fishing is good and have seen several good sized salmon caught. There is great activity as the sea lion shakes the fish back and forth at the water surface and the gulls rush over to pick up any bits that break away.Many of the gull chicks are able to fly but are still not following the adults out to sea to feed, they peck persistently at the adult’s bill hoping for food and do eventually get some but the push is on for them to learn how to feed themselves.There are fewer Pigeon Guillemots coming ashore everyday now and the Black Oyster Catchers are away for long periods of time.
HUMAN INTERACTION:There were 25 Ecotour boats, 1 pleasure craft and the Marine Mammal Monitor boat in the reserve today. The station boat made a return trip to Pedder Bay and a trip to the Campus in the afternoon to return Ryan back to civilization – Thank you Ryan!
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:31 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Partial Clouds  Vis. 10 Miles – North East To South 5 Miles Fog  Wind West 16 Knots  Sea 1 Foot Chop
posted by Ryan Murphy at 5:33 AM

Race Rocks Update Report August 2002

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Race Rocks Report:The following is a report on the Race Rocks Marine Protected Area prepared by Lester B. Pearson College, 9 August, 2002. It contains a summary of special events, user counts, natural occurrences of note, and a list of infractions that have been observed and recorded for the period of 1 January to 9 August, 2002. The raw information for this report was obtained from the Log Archives of Mike and Carol Slater, the Guardians of the MPA.

Race Rocks receives many visitors each month. All guests that land on Great Race are asked to sign our guest book, while the majority of visitors to the Ecological Reserve/MPA do not land, and their vessels are dutifully recorded by the Guardians. The number of whales through or past the Ecological Reserve/MPA is also noted by Mike or Carol, as well as infractions incurred in the Ecological Reserve/MPA.

Table 1: Approximate User Counts with Whale sightings and infractions

Tour boats Pleasure craft College visits Dive charters Whales in Ecological Reserve/MPA Infractions
January
7
8
5
3
0
0
February
30
10
10
1
6
3
March
27
16
5
2
0
0
April
71
64
18
2
0
3
May
160
120
11
4
0
2
June
72
31
9
2
20
2
July
242
99
7
6
25
10
August
129
34
3
0
0
4
The summer months are obviously much more busy in the Ecological Reserve/MPA, while at the same time Mike and Carol, with the support of Pearson College, limit the number of visitors and students landing on the island during these ecologically sensitive months. Summer time also sees a great increase in whale visits in the Ecological Reserve/MPA, and with them the whale watching tour boats. For the most part, the whale-watchers have observed the regulations of the MPA: creating no wake, staying 100m from the islets, staying out of the Ecological Reserve/MPA when whales are near, etc. And while the various tour companies have become self-regulating, unfortunate breaches occur. Today for instance, several boats came to close to the rocks for a better view, as well as two tour boats speeding through the channel, disregarding the no-wake policy. On 3 July, there were 6 separate infractions incurred by eco-tour boats, including harvesting of kelp (for demonstration). Considering the over 600 tour visits in the past 4 months alone, keep in mind only about 10 of the infractions were committed by these tours. Local sports fishers and pleasure craft owners commit the largest number of infractions (11 in the past 7 months). Whether it be disregard to the no-fishing agreement, landing uninvited on the islands, harassing marine mammals, or joy-riding through tide-rips; the opportunistic and uneducated alike continue to cause concern for us as managers of the Ecological Reserve/MPA. The AuxiliaryCoast Guard have also been a problem. They unfortunately disregarded the no-wake policy and the 100m distance regulation, as well ignoring the international dive-flag on one of their joy rides in the Ecological Reserve/MPA. Diving charters pose new challenges as well, many companies are unfamiliar with or chose to disregard the regulations of the Ecological Reserve/MPA and 2 incidents have been recorded thus far. To conclude this section, no user group has entirely committed itself to the enforcement and adherence to the regulations set at Race Rocks, though with a continued manned-presence and constant reminders to these user-groups, we see an improving future.
In the past 7 months there have been several visits worth noting:

10 February: Taco Niet and Ged McLean of ISEVIC (University of Victoria) with 8 of the members of the alternate energy company “Clean Energy” from Vancouver.

22 February: A television crew from The New VI joined us for Rick Searle, the host of environmental on tthe New VI.

10 May: Don McClaren from B.C. Parks came with Garry to the island.

18 May: Three visitors from Washington State, David,Tim and Mike for the day long task of gathering the annual International Boundary Survey Measurements.

13 June: Sean LeRoy, Graduate Researcher, Georgia Basin Futures Project

Sustainable Development Research Institute, University of British Columbia and Dr.James Tansey also of UBC participated in a webcast with Tim Langois, Leigh Marine Laboratory University of Auckland, and Anne Saloman, University of Washington, Zoology Department.

28 July: Dr. Anita Voss and Alberto Lindner, a Ph.D.student from Brazil who is currently at Duke University.
The Coast Guard has made 4 visits to Great Race this year, for various reasons. The Department of National Defense have detonated weapons on Bentinck island, disrupting wildlife within the Ecological Reserve/MPA 7 times since the beginning of this year.

Species sightings this year: (Orcas) Orcinus orca, (Northern sea lions) Eumetopias jubatus, (California sea lions) Zalophus californianus, (Northern Elephant seals) Mirounga angustirostris, (Harbour seals) Phoca vitulina, Glaucous-winged gulls, Thayer’s Gulls, Mew Gulls, Herring gulls, Heermann’s gulls, Arctic terns, Black Oystercatchers, Pigeon guillemots, Brandt’s Cormorants, Harlequin ducks, Northwestern/American crows, Canadian geese, Bald eagles, Black Turnstones,Surfbirds,Turkey vultures, and Barn swallows.

here’s an idea: don’t give a tour in thick fog.

Posted on by
Friday, August 09, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 20.0 C Min. 10.5 C  Reset 16.2 C
MARINE LIFE: The Canadian Geese returned again today, still without the one adult. I first heard the one adult honking and then looked up to see the 6 geese near Mike and Carol’s home. Orcas may very well have gone by the reserve today, but with the fog followed by glare on the waves throughout the day, I could only see a lot of boat traffic.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 34 tour boats through the reserve today, many boats toured the reserve early today in the thick fog. With visibility severely limited, many pushed too close to the islands under current regulations. As well, with so many boats and so little visibility, some tight maneuvering on the part of some parties to get out of the way of others was needed… here’s an idea: don’t give a tour in thick fog. At a quarter to 4 one tour zodiac decided to disregard the no-wake regulation and sped past Great Race, an unfortunate incident not repeated by other tour boats today.
posted by Ryan Murphy at 7:19 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Partly Obscured Vis. 10 Miles – South East To West 1/2 Mile Fog  Wind West 23 Knots  Sea 3 Foot Moderate
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:29 AM

Gull behaviour

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‘The gull chicks are growing rapidly, a lot of wing flapping, unfortunately getting airborn has it’s risks.Several chicks have been blown into unfriendly territory ie- a neighbouring nest, been attacked and have died. Most of the wounds were around the head and neck. The chicks still unable to fly in any organized way, run but in a panic just get farther from the safety of their nesting area. The adults treat a chick from a neighbouring nest as they would any other threat to the safety of their own young, they chase and peck at it and of course the squawking attracks other gulls and so there is the helpless chick set upon by 20 or so adult gulls. Fortunately most of the time the chick is able to get to neutral territory and by trial and error make it”s way back to the relative safety of it”s own nesting area.Six of the geese were back this morning, one of the adults was missing – we know the missing one is an adult because the five young are still making the ”peeping” sounds and do not show the ”threat” behavior of neck waving and hissing. Just before 20:00 they flew off towards Pedder Bay, wonder what happened to the ”missing” goose? There was another group of California sealions in the area last night just after 2 a.m. – sounded like a larger group, maybe 15 or so judging from the barking\nwhich woke me up but this morning counted only 6 floating about in the kelp.’, ‘Carol or Mike’, ’16:06:22 ,