This pool is above the highest tidal level. It only gets replenished with sea water during a storm event with a high west wind and a relatively high tide.
Images Garry Fletcher
Some ideas to consider:
Go to the Environmental Data page and using the data from the weather pages there, predict when such events may occur.
n the first week of June 2004, four students and two researchers stayed at Race Rocks for an intensive week. Sponsorship for this week comes from the Johan Ashuvud memorial fund. Webcasts of the day’s events took place every night and on two days, school groups came out to help produce a program for live webcasting.
(https://www.racerocks.ca/johan-ashuvud-project-at-race-rocks-2004/)
During the Johan Ashuvud project 2004, students explored the intertidal with Garry Fletcher. They examined various organisms as well as the artificial tidepool. In this video, we also get a chance to meet all the students taking part in the project.
n the high intertidal areas of Race Rocks, there are tidepools with wide fluctuations of abiotic factors. The organisms inhabiting these pools are well adapted to these extremes. Garry talks to a biology class about some of the variables influencing these high tide pools, and the flagellated green algae living within them.
In May 2004, the biology class measures the abiotic factors in Pool 7.
Jen with the salinity probe.
The most striking feature about this tidepool is that since it is at such a high level on the intertidal, in the heat of summer, there is evaporation which concentrates the salinity into a saturated solution even beyond the range of measurement on the salinometer. Even in that high concentration as can be seen in the following picture, a green algae lives among the salt crystals
Salt Crystals with algal growth form in Pool7 in the summer
Some ideas to consider:
Tidepools 7and 8 are situated very close together, differing only in a few centimeters in elevation. The salinity and temperatures of the pools may vary however. It might be worthwhile to document these variations and propose some explanations for the variation.
At Race Rocks we have a tidal range of about 3 metres.
For tidal Level predictions , from the closest station at Pedder Bay see this link
https://tides.gc.ca/en/stations/07080/predictions
The link below is for the Race Passage Current tables. .. See this file for the result of original work done by Pearson College Divers assisting the Institute of Ocean Sciences in the deployment of the current meter to gather a year’s worth of data from which these tables are constructed.
Marine Science teacher at Pearson College Laura Verhegge was interviewed on CBC radio about what was a “Negative tide”. Listen below.
The role of the moon is a major factor in determining the rise and fall of the tides.The view of it from Race Rocks in a full sky is often stunning.
And of course the other component causing tides is the sun. See this file for Solar energy records for Race Rocks .
See this file for the Abiotic Effect of Solar energy on Organisms at Race Rocks
THE ABIOTIC EFFECTS OF TIDAL LEVEL CHANGES:
The rich variety of life in the intertidal zones of Race Rocks provide habitat for many animals which have adapted to living part of their life exposed . “ANITA’S ISLAND” on the West side of Great Race Rocks provides an excellent example, in the month of June when the tidal level often drops below zero datum so one can really appreciate the effects of the daily changing tidal levels on intertidal life. This island is actually a peninsula which you can walk out onto when the tides drop to -0.0m, but is totally submerged at high tide, (around 2.6 meters). You can often see the top of it from remote camera1 ( It looks black because it is covered with mussels.)
For several years in the 1990s we did research with Dr. Anita Brinckmann-Voss on these low tides in June. We only had a half hour or so until the isthmus joining the island to Great Race Island was flooded however. Each year that we went out, Anita found a great many of the hydroid samples from which she identified for the Ecological Reserve.
 Other tidal heights from along the coast of Vancouver Island and British Columbia An interesting exercise is to compare the tidal heights at several locations around Vancouver Island. There is a significant difference, with times as well as tidal ranges varying depending where the station is located. There are many factors which determine tide levels, the most obvious being the stages of the moon and the position of the sun, but here you can see that geography has a major role to play as well. |
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ARCHIVE: It is important to recognize that the early innovations in internet technology at Race Rocks were made possible by the cooperation of a number of partners and sponsors . Apple was one of the important partners in collaboration for this educational application of the internet for the conservation of a sensitive ecosystem by promoting the availability of its unique ecological features to the world.
In June 2000, Apple first became a sponsor when APPLE CANADA recognized the significance of our project and loaned us a new Powerbook G3 500 for the two weeks of mobile webcasts in June 2000.
As a result of that initial support, Apple Canada sent us the same computer for our project in July 2000. At the New York MacWorld Conference in July, our presentation of a live underwater webcast from Race Rocks prompted an offer from The APPLE LEARNING INTERCHANGE for a partnership. The result was that the QuickTime live video streams were hosted by the Apple Learning Interchange over the Akamai Internet distribution network. We are extremely grateful to APPLE for this generous support. Live video streams have now been operating since the summer of 2000 thanks to tis initial support.
In March of 2001, APPLE Canada came to our assistance again with the generous
donation of a G4 Titanium PowerBook. We used this for our mobile webcasts and
for the creation of new archived video clips using the iMovie software.
We must also acknowledge the commitment of the Apple representative Keith Mitchell who worked out of the offices in Texas and was also able to visit us to see the operation of our system at Race Rocks.
In June of 2002, The APPLE LEARNING INTERCHANGE opened its new gallery of featured exhibits and racerocks.com was included on the ALI website as one of their exhibits.
In January of 2004, The Apple Learning Interchange upgraded the three computers and the Wireless Airports and they also assisted us with the purchase of a new Remote Control camera. We now have the equipment installed and providing improved Live Streaming Images as of the spring of 2004.
In 2004, three APPLE eMacs were supplied to webcast from cameras 1, 2 and 5. Webcasting from these cameras used QuickTime Broadcaster.
This PDF is of a presentation by the staff of Clean Current Power Systems Incorporated that was given to the BC Ministry of Land water and Air Protection and Fisheries and Oceans Canada in May of 2004 to give a background to the Tidal Current Energy proposal and to answer the question ” Does Tidal Turbine Technology fit the Management Plans for Race Rocks Ecological reserve? ”
See the PDF
:Race Rocks Tidal Generator
From a teacher in the United States:
Garry! Well, you made history today. Our school had never had a live webcast. You were the first! We got online at about 10:40 and stayed on through the end.
The students were mesmerized. The evidence that it made a huge impression was seen back in class when I asked them to write about what they learned. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such long essays and such focused work!
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this for us.
Here are some quotes from their essays. I will send their
questions tomorrow.
“I wish I could be like Pablo, your student.”
“I learned that some species of plants grow together.”
“I liked it when you showed the tissue of the plant where the water goes.”
“They were doing what we are doing.”
“I learned that we could use green seaweed in a salad.”
“It helped me understand how scientists work.
“I liked that they talked very nicely and clear.”
“We are thinking we could be like you, Mr. Fletcher.”
“They know all about species of plants.”
“”I think Mr. Fletcher, Pablo, and Carolina work so hard.”
“I learned that some plants don’t need water.”
“We learned that weeds stick together. Oscar wanted to know why.”
“I learned that a plant inside the leaf is like a tissue all wet.”
I think I’ll have to get a brochure from Pearson College so I can send them to you in the future.
Thanks again, Maria
From a teacher in Toronto, Canada:
“Thank you for adding me to your notification list as the location and subject
matter of your website are as interesting to me as the technology. I was very excited the first time I saw an elephant seal through the Racerock ‘eyes’ and it’s quite a treat to see the baby seagulls that are the focus now.
Regards from Toronto!”
Carolyn
From a parent Victoria, Canada:
“Thank you for providing such an interesting and amazing site!! My son
and I spent more than an hour viewing the information provided, and he ran off to do more research after! Race Rocks may only be a short distance from where we live, but we had never had the opportunity to see below the surface and learn so much about the creatures that live there.”
Thanks again,
Jackson
From an instructional designer in Chignecto, Canada:
“I am a teacher and an instructional designer with the Chignecto Central Regional School Board located in Nova Scotia, Canada. I am currently designing courses for an online school for high school students in our Board (and perhaps beyond). I would like permission to link to your site:
http://www.racerocks.com
so that our students can explore biodiversity and the classification of living things through the video and information found on your website. I was very excited about the possibilities for students to explore “real life biology” after viewing your site!
