| Fisheries and Ocean Institute of Ocean Sciences | |||||||
| Daily Seawater Temperature and Density Record Shore Station | |||||||
| Time Zone: PDT | |||||||
| Station Race Rocks Lightstation | |||||||
| Month: August | Year: 2013 | ||||||
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Monthly Archives: August 2013
Photos from the Remote Cameras
I was just looking at the recent postings on the Flickr site of Pam Birley of the UK. Pam does an excellent job of recording the events at Race Rocks on almost a daily basis using our remote controlled cameras.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66339356@N00/sets/72157632533500094/page3/
We now have photographic records of hers dating back to November of 2007
A continuous record such as this of the seasonal changes in wildlife over several years on an Ecological Reserve is a rare and valued asset. Thanks Pam!
Macoma sp. — The Race Rocks Taxonomy
Macoma sp. Photo by Ryan Murphy
We are not sure of this classification of this bivalve but just had to use this image that Ryan took at Race Rocks, as it shows association with two other classes of Molluscs, the chitons and the gastropods.
Here is a possible classification from ITIS Report
Animalia: – animals
Subkingdom: Bilateria
Infrakingdom: Protostomia
Superphylum: Lophozoa
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Subclass: Heterodonta
Order: Veneroida
Superfamily: Tellinoidea
Family: Tellinidae
Genus: Macoma (Leach,) 1819
Species: Macoma brota Dall, 1916 – heavy macoma
 Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomy and Image File |
 The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams. Dec 2005–Ryan Murphy |
Change of Ecoguardian
I’m very grateful to have spent another wonderful summer out here at Race Rocks but today is my last day on the island. Tomorrow, Max will take over for a week and will be training the following person who will be here for the fall.
Collecting salinity and temperature measurements with the new YSI instrument off the jetty
The DFO has sent out a new YSI instrument which means we can take salinity measurements now which will be posted that the end of the month with the temperature and density readings.
Weather has been very calm with low winds with the exception of yesterday when the wind picked up and we got some rain.
Temperature Graph (Environment Canada) for August 2013
In April 2013, Environment Canada started recording temperature again at Race Rocks . This was discontinued with the automation of the station in 1997. Other Archived weather may be found in the “Weather Archive Category”
The links for next month below take you to graphs of the following months.
Weather Data: Daily Wind Speed , from Environment Canada April to August 2013
This data is from the Environment Canada Anemometer at the top of the tower. at Race Rocks. Compare these Wind speeds with that recorded by the Davis Instruments at ground level
Other archived weather data is being made available in the “weather -archive category”
You may copy and paste into an excel spreadsheet in order to do further analysis and graphs.
Weather Data: Temperature (Env. Canada) April-August 2013
Recording of temperature was started by Environment Canada in April, 2013 on this website: Compare this data set with that produced by our Davis Instrument at Ground level.
You may copy and paste into an excel spreadsheet in order to do further analysis and graphs.
Other archived weather data is being made available in the “weather -archive category”
Marine-Mania!
Elephant seal snoozing, #6375 in the background
Another female elephant seal, significantly larger than the tagged #6375, has visited twice this week. It is not tagged. The tagged female has also stayed around. Yesterday, she was resting in the shallow water and blocking the boat ramp as I was returning from the mainland in the Whaler. I left the boat tied up so not to disturb the seal and returned in an hour. The seal had moved to a very crowded area that many of the sea lions use as their water entrance/exit and was snapping and chasing the sea lions. I assume this was playful behaviour although the elephant seal was quite aggressive.
This first image shows the seal waiting at the surface.
Then the seal approaches the sea lions on its back, provoking them.
And with a splash, the chase ensues!
A new project on-the-go is a daily count of the number of fishing boats. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans are wanting to monitor the impact of sport fishing in the area. We survey an area from Beechey Head to Albert Head. On some days, there more than 100 sport fishermen in the area.
Tagged elephant seal #6375
The tagged female has returned, but on the opposite side of the island. Her number is 6375, which means she’s been returning to the island since 2011 or earlier. Pictured below, she is dosing on the south side of the island.
Female seal, August 15
We have had very low winds in the last few days. Even though summer months typically have less wind, it is very rare to see 0.00 knots as the wind metre read yesterday. We also had our first rain of the summer.
A week of visitors!
The group from Discover Channel and Ogden Point Dive Centre
On Thursday we had a visit from Discovery Channel who were working with the Ogden Point Dive Centre (based out of Victoria) to film and document sea lions and seals on the reserve. They asked questions about the sea lions’ migration patterns and the role of Race Rocks as a reserve among others. The footage will be used as part of The Blue Realm series, by Danny Mauro.
Stellar and California sea lions
The California sea lions moved onto the main Rock last week, and the Stellars have joined in the last few days. Currently, approximately 30 are resting on the rock and in the water. Misery, our largest resident male, left last week and has not returned or been spotted on the other rocks. The female in the last post has also left. However, on Saturday, a different young female was resting on the jetty. Unfortunately, I did not notice she had a tag on her back fin until she was swimming away and it was too late to mark down.
Female elephant seal on the jetty