Daily Archives: Friday,June 8, 2018

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts N
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Ripply
  • Light rain all day

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Average amount of ecotour boats around the island today
  • Another group from the Kule foundation came for a tour of the island.

Marine Mammals

  • It was an exciting day for Elephant seals as 2 new males showed up, bringing the total count of male Elephant seals to 4. One of the new males stayed in the water on the south side of the island, but the other came on to the shore which led to a fight between the new adult male and the existing adult male. The new adult male was slightly injured near the mouth during the fight. Guy filmed part of the fight, and the video is below.
  • The sea lions were barely seen today on the shore, I assume because of the rain. This affected the census count.

Census

  • Elephant Seal
    • Male = 4 (1 young one, 1 only in the water)
    • Female = 3
  • Sea lions (see note above)
    • Steller = 3
    • California = 12
  • Seagulls = 220
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 82
  • Geese = 6
  • Eagles = 2
  • Oystercatchers = 12

Video by Guy Ouradou

Corolla spectabilis: Pteropod–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Pteropods are occasionally found in the plankton that passes by Race Rocks and are found distributed throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans..They have a transparent body with no external shell. An internal gelatinous pseudoconch provides protection and skeletal support. A continuous plate is formed by the oval wings which are marked by indentations.A long proboscis partially fused with the wing plate.The pteropod has a wingspan of up to 8cm. It lacks radula and jaws and it has a distinctive dark gut nucleus.Because it is planktonic, its biotic associations include predation by anything that eats jellyfish.

REFERENCE: ”Pacific Coast Pelagic Invertebrates” by David Wrobel and Claudia Mills—Note: This source had an error which was pointed out to us by Moira Galbraith of DFO:—-“I think that your video in the Race Rocks portion of the website is actually of Corolla spectabilis. The 12 mucous glands on the anterior lateral borders of the wing plate are a species characteristic; C.calceola will have 18. Also according to Carol Lalli, only Corolla spectabilis occurs in the eastern Pacific.
See http://faculty.washington.edu/cemills/ActaErrata.html for an update.
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Subclass: Opisthobranchia
Order: Thecosomata
(Suborder)(Pseudothecosomata)
Family: Cymbuliidae
Genus: Corolla
Species: spectabilis
Common Name: Pteropod
Other Members of the Phylum Mollusca at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The 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.