Monthly Archives: January 2003

4 notes on elephant seal males

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Jan 22 , 2003: The big Elephant Seal spends a good deal of the day in the dock area vocalizing often enough to let us know he’s still here,when he really bellows he is loud enough we can hear him over the roar of the wind and the sea!

Jan 23 2003: The large Elephant Seal continues to circle Gr. Race all day and all night. As for the wounded fellow (SLASH) there have not be any sightings today.

Jan 26, 2003: The Elephant Seal hauled out on the boat ramp out of the wind and spent the day,not always quietly soaking up a little sun.

Jan 29 2003: The Elephant Seal continues to divide his time between the boat ramp and the water by the dock.

Slash, the Injured Elephant Seal

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In January 2003, two male elephant seals were hauled up on Great Race island. One was suffering from severe injuries, probably inflicted by someone driving a motor boat at high speed in the area around Race Rocks. This elephant seal we eventually name “Slash” and he becomes ta docile elephant seal that hangs around the main island for many years. Ecoguardian Mike Slater took this video. See other videos of him on this site.

  • See MPA Guardian Carol Slater’s comments on these animals in the Daily log of Jan19, Feb 11, Feb13, Feb 14 and Mar 1, 2003
  • See the recovery a year later below:
  •  Fortunately he has recovered well as can be seen her in two videos taken by Mike Slater in July and August ,2003. later we started vcalling him Slash and have devoted a special page to him on this website

 

First report of Slash being wounded

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Jan 19 2003: We have a very disturbing and sad situation here with one of the Elephant Seals. In the late morning an elephant seal hauled out by the boat house, it was immediately apparent that this poor animal has had a run in with a boat prop. There are several deep gashes in the fore head just above his eyes. One eye is very bloodshot and the other eye seems to be getting red. There are other wounds or slashes from the head down to below the front flippers. The wounds are curved slices like a series of long parallel ‘slashes on both sides.The deepest gashes are on the head and right side cheek area. We checked on him all during the day, just before dark he moved into the water. The other much larger elephant seal is still around and happy to say he has no marks on him. He has hung around by the dock all afternoon and at times quite loud. I do wonder if there is any communication between these two great creatures. They are really quite placid most of the time and we can get as close as a foot if we approach from the front. Hopefully the one fellow’s wounds are not fatal. People must take extra care moving boats through the area to avoid hitting seals and sealions and causing what must be very painful injuries. See http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/archives/vidinjureseal.htm for a video of the elephant seal.
You can also see other  videos taken taken later of Slash and his recovery over the next few years:
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/miroungaa/slash.htm

Three elephant seal notes

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Jan 14, 2003: The large Elephant Seal floated along the south shore of Gr. Race until near noon then hauled out on the rocks just below the fog horn tower where he remained the rest of the day.

Jan 16, 2003: The large Elephant Seal continues to spend the night and early morning floating around Gr. Race then hauling out for the rest of the day, lately on the south side below the engine room.

Jan 18, 2003: The Elephant Seal floated leisurely in the dock area all morning and in fact we had to wait around for nearly half an hour for him to move away so we could launch the boat for a quick trip to Pedder Bay

ELephant seal struck by motorboat

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injureseals

See this video of the injuries of “Slash” by a motorboat

This page is directed to all those marine vessel operators who persist in driving at high speeds in areas frequented by Marine birds and mammals. This is a video of an elephant seal that was struck by a motor boat somewhere around Race Rocks in January of 2003. Fortunately he will probably survive, he was one of the “lucky” ones. This is probably the most northern location for haulout of elephant seals . They are docile creatures, unafraid of boats. We just have to slow down and watch the surface carefully to avoid these animals when we are driving around sensitive ecological areas.

Two male elephant seals this week hauled up on Great Race island. One was suffering from severe injuries, probably inflicted by someone driving a motor boat at high speed in the area around Race Rocks.

injureseal3

cuts on the head and body

This elephant seal we eventually name “Slash” and he becomes ta docile elephant seal that hangs around the main island for many years. See other videos of him on this site.

at night….snorting, bellowing Elephant Seals.

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Jan 13, 2003: The juvenile elephant and the skinny looking Northern Sea Lion have left the haul out on the slope of the southeast rocks. There is a wide range in size in the Northern Sealion population hauled out just now -quite a few in fact in the 300/500 lbs., about 1/4 seem to be the really mature fellows some as big as 2000lbs. Usually there are mostly males but some of the smaller animals look very much like the females which appear more cylindrical in shape and colour more uniformly brown.Very easy to tell the Northern Sea Lions even at night by their growling which they seem to do a lot of as they tend to feed at night.The California Sea Lions sound like a pack of large dogs. Mostly what we hear these nights are the Northern Sea Lions and the snorting, bellowing Elephant Seals.

a dangerous place to stretch out for a nap!

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Jan 2 2003: A large elephant seal came ashore this morning on the boat ramp but did not stay long as the swells were tossing 5-10 lb. rocks almost to the door of the boat house, a dangerous place to stretch out for a nap. The Elephant Seal has been spending part of the night near the dock the past week and vocalizing quite a bit. There is a Northern Sea Lion hauled out about 3 metres from the front porch, he looks a little thin and has several small wounds on his head,he spent the whole day there, hardly moving at all.