More sea lions

Winds between 5-15 knots for most of the day. Barometric pressure peaking midday. A few showers forecasted for tomorrow and risk of thunderstorms tonight.

18 whale watching boats

3 recreational fishing boats

A float plane did laps around the island this morning around 0900h taking counts on some marine mammals. Another one passed through the reserve this afternoon.

More than two hundred sea lions on the main island now and more on Middle Rock. I noticed today that although the population on the main island is mixed Stellar and California, there is a higher density of Californias on the main island and a higher density of Stellars on Middle Rock. A tagged elephant seal arrived today but I could not get close enough to its tags without frightening it.

The PSYL coordinators arrived around 1900h this evening and will be here two nights.

Branded sea lion 183R shows up at Race Rocks

Our viewer from England, Pam Birley,  sent us this image image of a branded Northern Sea lion (Steller’s) that she had taken with the remote control camera 5  today. She noted that this is the first time this particular one has shown up in her records which she has been keeping for several years now.

For other posts on branded sea-lions, see this link: https://www.racerocks.ca/tag/branded/

For our taxonomy file and gallery of images on this sealion see our archived file: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/nufar.htm

Also for an explanation of why the tagging program goes on see this link also on our website: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/marmam/sealion/tracking/tracking.ht

Branded Northen sea lion # 183R

Branded Northern sealion # 183R