Monthly Archives: October 2013

October month end

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Cloudy. Ligh winds. Calm seas. Fog over US mainland.
Final day of counting recreational fishing boats for DFO.
First day that I didn’t see any eco-tour boats

Mammal Count
Stellar Sea lions: 244
California Sea lions: 378
Harbour Seals: 15
Elephant Seals: 4

-Did Month-end paperwork
-Submitted last of the boat count data to DFO
-Entered seawater data
-Tidied boat shed loft

back on the rock

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Cloudy, light winds. Scattered showers in the evening.
Tour boats: 3

Back on station around 1500 hrs.
The zodiac is headed in for servicing so Erik brought me out in the Whaler. I am without a boat until the Zodiac motor gets serviced or the cradle for the Whaler gets built and brought out to the reserve.
Maciek is still out here.

Interested in whale facts and help with identification? Check out the Wild Whales site from the BC Cetacean Sightings Network. Here at Race Rocks the challenge is often to properly tell the difference between a Grey whale and a Humpback whale. I find the easiest thing to look for is the dorsal fin (or lack thereof). On a Grey whale the back is relatively smooth without an obvious fin, whereas a Humpback (as the name suggests) has a stubby dorsal fin about 2/3 of the way back on the animal.

 

great day for a sail

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Strong NNE winds this morning. Eased in the afternoon. Clear skies.
Low East wind wave and a low West swell.

The Cackling goose and White fronted goose are still here. 18 Canada Geese spent the day on Greater Race Rock.

Two sailboats from the college headed out this morning towards Victoria, and I know it was an awesome day for a sail.

Today’s amazing ocean conservation link:
3-dimensional, panning images of coral reefs [link] with fish and sharks and corals!
The project is being done by the Catlin Seaview Survey, whose mission is “to scientifically record the world’s coral reefs and reveal them to all in high-resolution, 360-degree panoramic vision.” The results are amazing!

Maciek was out here today and did some training on the Race Rocks systems and helped out with some projects.
-Swept lighthouse staircase
-Set out new CO detectors
-Cleared Marigolds on path to tower
-Worked on plumbing issues in keeper’s house
-Inventoried solar panel tilt hardware
-Made a soundings table for the water tank

low west swell

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Overcast in the morning, sunny in the evening. The gale and small craft advisory never arrived, light winds all day.
2 ft West swell running this morning. The water still has great visibility.
Tour boats: 7
Dive boats: 1

A float plane flew over this morning.
Grey whale spouts in the mouth of Pedder Bay this morning. Spouts to the South-West at sunset.
Maciek was dropped of by Chris early this evening. He’ll be here for project week.

Another organization now using remote (and remotely operated) cameras is Pacific Wild. After you’ve looked at what’s going on here at Race Rocks, maybe spend a few minutes up the coast in the Great Bear Rainforest and see what the wolves and bears are up to [click here to go see].

 

-Ran desalinator
-Sorted recycling
-Completed WHMIS ticket

Bertha

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'Cranky Pants' (aka scabby molt) resting next to the desalinator shed. Her skin is healing and she is less cranky.

‘Cranky Pants’ (aka scabby molt) resting next to the desalinator shed. Her skin is healing and she is less cranky.

-Issues with underwater camera. Checked junction boxes and lines from jetty to tank house.
-Pressure washed South side of keepers house. Waiting for rain to fill water tank to continue.

propaganda and fog

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~10 kts West wind all day. The fog continues.

Tour boats: 3
With this fog, it is impossible to know how many tour boats have actually come through the reserve this past week. Visibility is usually about 50m and not more than 250m (I checked using Google earth). All day I can hear the low boom of the ships fog horns as they move up and down the strait.

There are still lots of sea lions in the reserve. They are mostly on the North-East flats and South of the student house.
The elephant seal with the scabby molt is camped out on the grass next to the desalinator bunker, the rest are in the shallows next to the boat ramp.

[ Nature doesn’t need to be maintained; it only needs a little breathing room ]
This week, the 3rd International Marine Protected Areas Congress is happening in France. Their goal is to support the realization of having 20% of the worlds oceans under some form of protection by 2020. IMPAC provides a framework to evaluate the progress made towards this goal and to work on new solutions. Check out this Nat Geo blog for a brief summary of why marine protected areas are important: 3 lessons from MPAs around the world

The background noise generated by shipping vessels can have detrimental impacts on marine mammals. This brief media release (with a video) introduces some of the issues regarding noise from shipping traffic and its effect on marine mammals: ship noise impacts on whales. Original Article: Williams, R., et al. (2013) Acoustic quality of critical habitats for three threatened whale populations. Animal Conservation

 

-desalinator maintenance (changed cartridge filters, backflushed media filter)
-made a new lid for the water tank

fogscapes

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Juvenile male elephant seal

Juvenile male elephant seal

There was a dead California sea lion floating by the boat ramp this morning.
Brand: U_95 (the first number couldn’t be read due to damage)
-ran fire pump, washed walkways around tank shed and boat shed
-ran desalinator
-organized first aid supplies