Green tags 5086/4665

For the past few days there have been 2 female elephant seals moulting around Great Race.  The first picture was taken on Thursday in the channel between the main island and South Seal Rocks.  At the time I was only able to see her one green tag # 5086.  I have also noticed one of them hauling out in the East Bay.

This morning when I went to launch the whaler she was on the boat ramp and was pretty stubborn about moving out of the way.

I was able to get a closer look at her tail and see a second green tag # 4665.

Visible in these last two photos, one of the tags has become a substrate for gooseneck barnacles.  I appreciate that someone is working to tag and track these animals but I have a hard time believing that these tags aren’t a nuisance to the animals and that over the long distances they travel and hunt these wouldn’t create a noticeable amount of drag and encumbrance.

On Friday afternoon Erik and Laura came out to Race Rocks in second nature with a group of student divers as well as 6 visitors who toured around the island.  Erik cleaned and moved the underwater camera, Pam got a good image capture. There was a dive boat in the reserve this morning.

Artist on the Rock

On Wednesday I picked up Martin Machacek and his wife Dana of Martycultural Art at Pearson College and brought them to Race Rocks for an overnight stay. Since 1993 Marty has focussed his artistic talent on architecture and has developed a unique style that is part of an  “architectural etherealism movement”.  He has been commissioned to do a second painting of Race Rocks, a print of his first Race Rocks painting is pictured here.  Marty and Dana spent a lot of their time here outside taking photographs and appreciating the island’s very dynamic quality of light. You can find Marty and Dana in the inner harbour of Victoria throughout the “harbour season” and can order prints and cards online.  It was a pleasure to host them, looking forward to seeing the new painting!