Monthly Archives: January 2016

e-seal pup born

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Ecological 

  • Wind 10-15 knots East picking up to 20 and returning to NE. Atmospheric pressure peaked in the morning at 1015 hPa
  • Elephant seals: Last night around 20:00 hrs there was some commotion right outside the main house. I shone the torch out and could see that Chunk was on top of Chuckles and had him cornered right up against the basement door of my house.  Eventually they got disentangled. In the morning, Chuckles was at base of tower, bloodied with a few new gashes.  Also in the morning, the female elephant seal was hauled out at centre of island between flag and desalinator room.  She wasn’t moving around much and Chunk was not bothering her. Around noon she started having waves of contractions.  The pups nose then head became visible and after a few minutes the pup was out, around 13:30 hrs, steaming and wide eyed.  She started vocalizing to the pup right away so Chunk woke up from his slumber to see what was going on.  He climbed over the centre path and came over to the pup, the mother seemed to protest but Chunk was persistent. He was fairly careful not to harm the pup though he put his mouth over its head and was close to steam rolling the pup a few times while chasing after her.  By nightfall the pup had not started nursing though had been trying to find something to latch on to. Chunk left after dark, presumably down the ramp. Mother and pup were sleeping soundly around 21:30hrs when I went up the tower to reboot UPS to restore phone and internet connection.

Maintenance

  • Installed replacement plumbing parts for overflow pipe of rainwater tank
  • cleared ramp
  • got together materials needed to repair NW gutter on main house
  • Rebooted UPS in tower

West wind

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Ecological

  • Wind finally shifted to west, 25-30 knots becoming 15-20 after noon.
  • 9 Canada Geese on Great Race in the morning
  • Saw the large female elephant seal and Chunk on Middle rock in the morning and throughout the day
  • One of the heavy blasts in the morning disturbed about 100 cormorants on the NE side of Great Race.

Vessels

  • I went off island before noon and returned before dusk

Maintenance

  • Rebooted UPS in tower to restore communications in the morning
  • Brought 2 empty diesel drums to campus and three old and worn gas cans for disposal
  • Picked up plumbing parts to finish repairing rain water tank and picked up food supplies.

Other

  • DND blasting continued, less frequent but a couple very heavy blasts this morning

NE swell

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Ecological 

  • Wind NE 15 knots becoming SE up to 30 knots at night.  Stronger winds down the the straight produced large swells that battered the NE side of race rocks and broke over jetty throughout the day.
  • 2 Canada Geese landed briefly on great race
  • Still no more sighting of female elephant seal

Maintenance

  • Stocked up firewood supply in main house
  • cleared ramp
  • cut wood
  • communications from tower went offline in the evening

Other

  • DND blasting continued however there were less blasts and they were much less loud.  Smoke trails were coming out of the forest following the blasts instead of right on the coast as usual.  This seemed to make a big difference in buffering the sound, it didnt feel like a car crashing into the house as it usually does.

DND Blasting

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Ecological

  • Wind NE 20-25 becoming North
  • No sight of large female elephant seal since yesterday.

Vessels

  • 1 ecotour

Maintenance

  • Battery trouble with derrick, tried charging but no start, swapped for a spare battery and it started up.  Pulled 2 logs out with derrick for firewood.
  • Cleared ramp of debris
  • Ran desalinator

Other

  • DND blasting at Christopher Point started around 11 am with heavy blasts less than 30 seconds apart and continued throughout the day

Humpback and Orca Sightings from Race Rocks in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

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In preparing for the oral presentation that the Friends of Ecological Reserves  will give on January 28 in Burnaby, as an intervenor for the National Energy board Hearings, I have recently updated or graphs on Humpback and Orca sightings by the Ecoguardians at Race Rocks: The posts done by our Ecoguardians tagged for orcas or  humpback whales assisted in this tabulation.

image003 orcadays

North East forecast to break

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Ecological

  • Wind NE 20 knots becoming 10-15 before noon then increasing to 20 again in the evening.  Atmospheric pressure has continued to trend upwards since the 5th and appears to have peaked today around mid day at just over 1020 hPA.  For the first time in 2 weeks of steady NE wind with little precipitation the forecast is calling for a shift tomorrow towards SE wind followed by Westerly along with rain.
  • The large female e-seal went into the water via boat ramp before I launched.  On my way across I passed by Middle rock to check but there were no e-seals present there.  I assume she is taking advantage of her last chances to feed and build up her reserves before giving birth.

Vessels

  • I went off island before noon and returned before dusk. One eco tour vessel was leaving from the direction of Race Rocks when I was returning.

Maintenance

  • Brought one empty diesel drum to campus. Picked up food supplies.

Chunk and female e-seal interact

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Ecological

  • Wind NE 15-20 knots, sky mostly clear.
  • The large female elephant seal was at the centre of the Great Race in the morning, sleeping quite soundly. Chunk hauled out mid morning and made his way towards her.   The interaction seemed normal for pre-birth as compared with previous years: he was agressive but restrained, not really bitting her, no intercourse observed.  He got on top of her so that her mobility was limited, she wriggled and vocalized.  Eventually she got free of him and moved about 20 ft and he followed repeating their interactions but less vigorously and eventually both tending towards sleeping.  (photos to come)

Vessels

  • 2 pleasure-craft. One was speeding in the Reserve and passed too close to harbour seals on West Rock.

Maintenance

  • Cleared ramp
  • Collected and cut driftwood for firewood

big female e-seal

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Ecological

  • Wind NE 10-15 shifting to East
  • After shutting down generator around 10 pm I noticed a large, likely pregnant, female elephant seal freshly hauled out of the water coming up the path from the boat ramp.  I couldnt make out any clear identification marks, she does not appear to be Bertha.
  • Census:
    • Black Oyster Catchers: 50
    • Harlequins: 11
    • Crows: 2
    • Raven: 1
    • Bald Eagles: 10
    • Cormorants: 453
    • Surf Scoter: 7
    • Gulls: 6
    • Dunlin: 2
    • Surfbird: 8
    • Rock Sandpiper: 1
    • Black Turnstone: 27
    • Sparrow: 1
    • Elephant Seals: 2m 1f
    • Northern sealions: 133
    • California sealions: 97
    • Harbour Seals: 21

Vessels

  • 1 ecotour

Maintenance

  • Cleared ramp
  • Cleaned camera 5 dome
  • Started pressure washing derrick deck and boardwalk
  • Ran desalinator in evening

good conditions

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Ecological 

  • wind N 15 kts decreasing to 10. Partly clear.  Barometer on the rise.

Vessels

  • I went off island around 10 am and returned just before dusk.

Maintenance

  • cleared ramp 3 times, had to use snow shovel and fish net to get all the debris off the tracks
  • brought 15 fire extinguishers to college, they were inspected on the docks and I was able to reload the ones that passed.  2 condemned and one needs pressure testing. Brought 2 loaners out.
  • Talked with Chris and Jeff re maintenance tasks
  • Filled up 100 L of gasoline
  • Ran fresh water rinse through outboard engine
  • offload garbage and diesel/oil rags