MARINE LIFE DISTURBANCE: If you are checking out camera 1 or the remote camera today, you probably noticed that the middle island was full of sea lions this morning and was completely empty by noon. The Department of National Defence is doing their blasting exercises today again over at Bentinck Island . They will be doing the same tomorrow. A rather tragic occurance that happens every fall. Eventually the Northern Sea Lions (endangered species) and the Californian Sea Lions just move out of the Race Rocks area. There is a video on the marine mammals archive page that shows the effect of the Oct 7 blast. We have recorded todays events, (so far seven blasts) and will have it up in the archives also in a few days. In the meantime, look at the before and after pictures taken from the sitezap robotic camera just before and after noon today. This will appear in a file at http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/marmam/sealion/dndblastnov7.htm
Good Evening
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posted by Garry Fletcher at 12:55 PM
Daily Archives: Thursday,November 7, 2002
Sea lion Behaviour after DND Blasting at Bentinck Island
Two videos are presented here showing the effect of DND blasting on Bentinck Island on the sea lions at Race Rocks. The first is from October 7 and the second was done by student s on the project week on November 8, 2002, (not Oct 7 as stated in this draft version of the video) . The students from Lester Pearson College who were out for a project week were able to catch the images of the impact of these blasts on the first day from the science centre window and on the second day from the top of the light tower. In the tower, they interviewed Mike Demarchi of LGL who is currently doing a $50,000 contract for the Department of National Defence to monitor the impact of these blasts and to compare them with other disturbances at Race Rocks.
See also before and after images of effects of blasting on sea lion behaviour
See the index of Human Effects on Animal Behaviour at Race Rocks
The following pictures were taken on November 7,2002 from the site zap camera at Race Rocks. The top set of pictures was taken at 9:30 AM . The DND started blasting at 11:00 . The bottom set of pictures were taken at 12:00 noon, after 5 blasts when most of the sealions had jumped off the rocks, They remained off the rocks mid afternoon.
 Image from before a blast |
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 and then the Image from after the blast |
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DND Blasting disturbs sea lions.
On November 7, 2002, the DND were still doing their demolition blasting exercises at Bentinck Island. (not Oct 7 as stated in this draft version of the video) The students from Lester Pearson College who were out for a project week were able to catch the images of the impact of these blasts on the first day from the science centre window and on the second day from the top of the light tower. In the tower, they interviewed Mike Demarchi of LGL who is currently doing a $50,000 contract for the Department of National Defence to monitor the impact of these blasts and to compare them with other disturbances at Race Rocks. (Click on audio icon below) Click the arrow on the left in the bar below for
THE INTERVIEW WITH MIKE DEMARCHI
by Jeremias Prassl (LBPC yr29)
Before and After images of DND Blasting effects
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| You may see the complete report here. Note in particular, the discussion of the results concerning the effects of blasting on the behaviour of sea lions. |
Before and After DND blasting at Bentinck Island
- The following pictures were taken on November 7,2002 from the site zap camera at Race Rocks. The top picture was taken at 9:30 AM . The DND started blasting at 11:00 .
- The bottom set of pictures were taken at 12:00 noon, after 5 blasts when most of the sealions had jumped off the rocks, They remained off the rocks mid afternoon until evening.
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- 9:30 AM . The DND started blasting at Bentinck Island at 11:00
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- 12:00 noon, after 5 explosions at Bentinck Island