| Station Race Rocks Lightstation | |||||||
| Month: April | Year: 2016 | ||||||
| Observer: Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific | |||||||
| Date | Time | Sea | Jar | Hydro- meter No. | Observed Density | YSI Salinity | YSI Temp °C |
| Temp. | Temp. | ||||||
| °C | °C | ||||||
| 1 | 6:00 | 31.2 | 9.4 | ||||
| 2 | 7:00 | 31.3 | 9.3 | ||||
| 3 | 9:06 | 31.4 | 9.4 | ||||
| 4 | 11:20 | 29.3 | 9.4 | ||||
| 5 | 12:42 | 31.7 | 9.4 | ||||
| 6 | 13:43 | 32.0 | 9.6 | ||||
| 7 | 14:48 | 32.0 | 9.8 | ||||
| 8 | 15:48 | 32.3 | 9.5 | ||||
| 9 | 16:53 | 32.4 | 9.6 | ||||
| 10 | 18:00 | 32.3 | 9.6 | ||||
| 11 | 19:00 | 32.3 | 9.5 | ||||
| 12 | 20:00 | 31.8 | 9.4 | ||||
| 13 | 6:00 | 32.1 | 9.3 | ||||
| 14 | 6:20 | 32.1 | 9.2 | ||||
| 15 | 5:55 | 9.4 | 9 | 10,802 | 1.036 | 32.1 | 9.2 |
| 16 | 9:35 | 31.9 | 9.6 | ||||
| 17 | 11:20 | 31.9 | 10.1 | ||||
| 18 | 12:45 | 31.8 | 10.2 | ||||
| 19 | 13:55 | 31.9 | 10.4 | ||||
| 20 | 14:23 | 31.9 | 10.7 | ||||
| 21 | 17:30 | 31.9 | 10.2 | ||||
| 22 | 16:25 | 31.9 | 10.2 | ||||
| 23 | 18:50 | 31.9 | 10.2 | ||||
| 24 | 19:55 | 32.1 | 9.6 | ||||
| 25 | 20:45 | 32.1 | 9.5 | ||||
| 26 | 21:45 | 32.1 | 9.6 | ||||
| 27 | 20:15 | 31.8 | 10.0 | ||||
| 28 | 20:15 | 31.6 | 10.0 | ||||
| 29 | 21:35 | 31.8 | 9.7 | ||||
| 30 | 6:15 | 31.6 | 9.7 | ||||
| Submitted monthly to: Inst. Ocean Science, P.O. Box 6000, Sidney, B.C. V8L 4B2 | |||||||
| Recorded by Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Guardian for Lester B. Pearson College | |||||||
Monthly Archives: April 2016
Last Day of the April Month
Weather
- Visibility: 15+ miles
- Wind 0-5 knots most of the day, 15-20 West in the evening
- Sky: sunny
- Water: calm
Ecological
- 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
- 10 of them were in the water playing at 6 AM.
Maintenance
- Cleaned the windows of the eco-guardians house.
- Entered the sea water data and sent it off to Peter Chandler.
- More goose work.
- Ran the desal.
- Had to restart the communications in the tower after shutting off the generator.
Boats
- 3 eco-tours came by today.
- One black boat that looked like an eco-tour came by, but it only had one occupant,
Other
- The mystery buoys are still appearing from time to time in Middle Channel.
- However they don’t exclusively appear at low tides, so I am baffled.
- Will have to get out there to remove them sometime.
No Boats Go
Weather
- Visibility: 15 miles
- Wind: 20-30 knots West
- Sky: overcast in the morning, cleared up later
- Water: 1′ chop
Ecological
- 15 elephant seals on Great Race
Maintenance
- Cleaned the solar panels
- Started applying algicide to the building walls during a brief lull in the wind.
- Didn’t go so well when the wind picked up again.
- Scrubbed the walls after. Moderate improvement.
Boats
- No boats in the reserve today.
- A group of students were supposed to come out here, but Second Nature isn’t back from overhauls yet, and it was too windy for the smaller boats.
Windy Census Day
Weather
- Visibility: 15+ miles
- Wind: 15-20 knots West in the morning, 25-30 after noon.
- Sky: Sunny with clouds.
- Water: 1′ chop
- Expect the wind to keep it up for a while.
Ecological
- Conducted a census today.
- I suspect that the high winds have kept away certain species of birds, making today’s list less impressive.
- Harbour Seals: 91
- Northern Sea Lions: 47
- California Sea Lions: 27
- Elephant Seals: 19 (15 on Great Race, 4 on Middle Rock)
- Seagulls: 314
- Pigeon Guillemots: 108
- Surfbirds: 39
- Canada Geese: 18
- Black Turnstones: 14
- Black Oystercatchers: 10
- Rock Sandpipers: 3
- Bald Eagles: 3 (2 adult, 1 immature)
- Savannah Sparrows: 2
- Harlequin Ducks: 2 (1 male, 1 female)
- Cormorant: 1 (one seen on Turbine Rock)
Maintenance
- Intended to spray algicide on various building walls, but too windy to ensure accuracy. Perhaps tomorrow if the wind dies down.
- Started investigating the paint stock.
- Some goose work.
Boats
- No boats in the reserve today.
Het Nieuw Amsterdam
New hashtag for #racerocks
I have just started a twitter hashtag for our the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve #racerocks You are welcome to use this in your twitter feed to provide links to significant new news-worthy events concerning the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.
There is also a new one for British Columbia Ecological Reserves: #ecoreserves
GF
Battery Water Top Up
Weather
- Visibility: 15 miles
- Wind: 10-20 knots West
- Sky: overcast in the morning, rather cleared up later
- Water: rippled
Ecological
- 14 elephant seals on Great Race
Maintenance
- Kyle, Guy, and I topped up the water in the battery bank.
- Cleaned the solar panels.
- Lots of goose related work today.
Boats
- Kyle and Guy came to the island at about 8:30.
- They departed just before 10:00.
- One fishing boat passed through the south channel, which is too narrow for boats to safely pass through when animals are present.
- The boat also seemed to be going too fast.
9 eco-tours
Weather
- Visibility: 15 miles
- Wind: 5-10 W, in the evening up to 20 W
- Sky: clear, later cloudy
- Water: 1′ chop
Ecological
- 14 elephant seals on Great Race
- 2 that I could see on Middle Rock
- The sea lions were surprisingly calm today considering how many boats seemed to be too close.
- The injured California sea lion was near the derrick again.
Boats
- 9 eco-tours came by today. I guess there was a big backlog of tourists after several days of high winds.
- I think 8/9 of the boats today looked to be too close. Certainly the boats that viewed the sea lions near the derrick were the closest I have ever seen.
- The viewing distance for boats near marine mammal haul-outs has been accepted by the Ecotour community to be 100 metres.
Other
- One DND blast at 10:02.
- Another one at 11:12.
Another Windy Day
Weather
- Visibility: 15 miles
- Wind: 15-35 knots West
- Water: 2′ chop
- Sky: Partly cloudy
Ecological
- 13 elephant seals on Great Race today.
- In the morning there was a lone California Sea Lion on Great Race fairly far from shore.
Maintenance
- More goose work.
- Cleaned the solar panels.
- My coat now needs to be cleaned for the same reasons as the solar panels.
Boats
- One pleasure craft passed through Middle Channel today.
- Spied an attractive blue and white fishing boat to the north of the reserve.
Other
- 6 loud DND blasts today.
- 10:40, 10:42, 11:50, 11:52, 13:57, 13:59
Windy Day, Frisky Elephant Seals
Weather
- Visibility: 15 miles
- Wind: 15-35 knots West
- Water: 2′ chop
- Sky: Overcast with showers, cleared up in the late evening
Ecological
- The broken Canada Goose eggs from last night were still on the grass.
- 13 elephant seals on Great Race.
- 5 on Middle Rock.
- The elephant seals just outside the house were in a frenzy all morning.
- Some of them play fought for hours, whilst others tried to mate.
- Inevitably they all ended up in a big pile of flailing bodies.
- Saw an injured California sea lion on the derrick rocks.
- It appears as though it had part of a flipper torn off.
- Boat motor or predator?
- There was a tiny harbour seal on the east part of Great Race.
- It was farther from water then I had ever seen one.
Maintenance
- Ran the desalinator.
- Again unfavourable conditions to run the fire pump.
Boats
- No boats in the reserve.
- A couple sail boats farther out.
Seawater Temperature and Salinity at Race Rocks 2011-July 30, 2015
The Seawater Salinity and temperature data has been taken by the Ecoguardians at Race Rocks. It is submitted monthly to the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, BC Canada, The complete set of data can be accessed here:
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/oceans/data-donnees/lighthouses-phares/data/racerockday.txt Continue reading