Monthly Archives: June 2018

Federal Government Report on Healthy Oceans

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Committee report No. 14- FOPO (42-1) House of Commons

HEALTHY OCEANS, VIBRANT COASTAL COMMUNITIES: STRENGTHENING THE OCEANS ACT MARINE PROTECTED AREAS’ ESTABLISHMENT PROCESS — Report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans … Bernadette Jordan Chair

Ed note: After two unsuccessful attempts to finalize the MPA designation for Race Rocks, I find it interesting to see this committee report  so I have included the table of contents here , to see the complete document see this PDF FILE:   included in the report are 25 recommendations.(.foporp14-e)

Link to the work done by the Race Rocks MPA advisory Board  in two rounds of meetings– 1998-2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF MEMBERS

MANDATE

LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS

HEALTHY OCEANS, VIBRANT COASTAL COMMUNITIES: STRENGTHENING THE OCEANS ACT MARINE PROTECTED AREAS’ ESTABLISHMENT PROCESS

CONSERVATION OF MARINE BIODIVERSITY

A. International Commitments

B. Canadian Priorities

C. Protected Areas: Definitions and Guidelines

D. Oceans Act Marine Protected Areas

COMMITTEE’S STUDY

CURRENT CRITERIA AND PROCESS USED TO IDENTIFY AND ESTABLISH OCEANS ACT MARINE PROTECTED AREAS

A.  Precautionary Approach

B. Science-Based Decision-Making

1.   Selecting Areas of Interest

2. Community-driven Protection

3. Establishing a Marine Protected Area

4. Zones of Protection

C. Transparency With Regard to Consultations

D. Indigenous Considerations

1. Indigenous Rights and Interests

2. Co-Management

E. Plan to Achieve Canada’s Marine Conservation Targets

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF MARINE PROTECTED AREAS

A. A Precautionary Ocean Management Tool

1. Creating Resilience

2. Lacking Data

3. Spill-over Effects

B. Maximizing Marine Biodiversity Benefits

SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF MARINE PROTECTED AREAS

A. Impacts on the Fishing Industry

1. Means of Assessing Cost

2. Concentrating Fishing Efforts

B. Impacts on Subsistence Harvesting by Indigenous Peoples

C. Impacts on the Shipping Industry

D. Performance Assessments

ENHANCING THE OCEANS ACT MARINE PROTECTED AREAS’ ESTABLISHMENT PROCESS

A. Transparency: Ensuring a Comprehensive Consultation Process

1. Consultation Capacity

2.   Consultation Inclusiveness and Sharing of Information

2.1   Consultation Length

2.2      Providing Relevant Information

2.3      Marine Conservation Led by Resource Users

2.4      Terminology and Concurrent Processes

2.5      Process Improvements

3. Public Comment Periods and Proposed Regulations

B. Role of Science: Ensuring Science-Based Decision-Making

C. Protection Standards: Ensuring Marine Biodiversity Benefits

D. Recognizing Community and Indigenous Conserved Areas

E. An Integrated Process: Marine Planning

1.   Planning Frameworks and Partnerships

2. Integrated Marine Planning Processes

F. Enforcement and Management

CONCLUSION

GLOSSARY

APPENDIX A: LIST OF WITNESSES

APPENDIX B: LIST OF BRIEFS

APPENDIX C: TRAVEL TO CANADA – WEST COAST From May 28 to June 2, 2017

APPENDIX D: TRAVEL TO CANADA – EAST COAST From October 16 to 20, 2017

REQUEST FOR GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

SUPPLEMENTARY OPINION OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA

SUPPLEMENTARY OPINION OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF CANADA

 

A whole flock of Pelicans!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 Miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: 1-2 meter waves with white caps

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Not too many ecotour boats around today.
  • Spotted the HMCS Calgary leaving Pedder Bay and heading out towards the open ocean

Technical

  • Yesterday Kyle and Guy visited the island to go over all the energy and support systems. They identified some issues with the desalination pump, and the solar panel grid. There will be a technician coming soon to fix those.

Bird Notes

  • I saw a whole flock of Pelicans fly over the island – about 15-20 in number.

Chimney Cleaning and Aggressive Seagulls

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-20 knts NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: 1-2 meter waves with white caps

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Not too many ecotour boats around today. A few private boats

Technical

  • Guy brought the chimney cleaner to the island today who cleared and vacuumed all the chimneys on the island.

Bird Notes

  • The Seagulls have been getting increasingly aggressive, as is expected this time of the year due to their eggs. I spotted the first dead, adult Seagull of the season that I suspect was killed by another Seagull.
  • There are notably fewer Seagulls on the island this year compared to previous years.

Marine Mammals

  • Elephant Seal counts remain the same since yesterday. 4 males and 3 females.

Quiet Day

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm
  • Saw a rainbow over Port Angeles

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Not too many ecotour boats around today. A few private boats

Marine Mammals

  • The harbour seals were yet again on the closer rocks (between the south rocks and the main island). Not sure what’s attracting them, or if this is usual, but they were gone when the tide rose to cover those rocks
  • Elephant Seal count remains constant from yesterday, with the exception that the third adult male who remained in the water is now ashore.

Another Elephant Seal fight and Orcas in the distance

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts N
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Average amount of ecotour boats around the island today

Marine Mammals

  • The additional male Elephant Seals from yesterday remained on the island today, causing yet another fight between a new adult male and the existing adult male. Neither was seriously injured.
  • Some harbour seals got closer to the main island than I’ve seen before – they usually hang out around the south islands.
  • Saw some whale watching boats gathered probably a couple of kilometers away in the south, and with my camera I got some shots of the orcas they were watching. It was too far to see the orcas themselves with the naked eye, but I could see the water sprays they were making.

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.

 

Pelican and new male elephant seal

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Garry Fletcher (ER Warden) and the IT team from Pearson College came ashore this morning. The IT team worked on replacing some of the wiring at the top of the lighthouse while I gave Garry a brief rundown of the happenings on the island.
  • A group of 9 visitors from the Kule Foundation came for a tour later in the afternoon. They spent close to an hour exploring every part of the island, including the top of the lighthouse, as Guy and I provided information, facts and stories.
  • After a Seaking Adventures boat violated the rules of the reserve day before yesterday and went into the eastern channel, I called the company this evening to give a warning. They explained that they have a new driver who is new to the area, but assured me that there would be no more boating violations on their part.
  • HMCS Edmonton was headed towards Pedder Bay this evening, along with a tail of two hard-hulled inflatables.

Bird Notes

  • A Pelican spent a good part of the afternoon on the island, just north of the student house. I haven’t seen this Pelican here before in the last 10 days that I have been at Race Rocks.
  • More seagull eggs. None hatched yet. Seagulls are relatively less aggressive than usual for this time of the year.

Marine Mammals

  • Garry spotted a new male Elephant Seal on the island today. It’s a fairly young one with remarkably unmarked/scarred skin. We believe that’s because it may have recently finished molting.

Reordering of batteries and volunteers depart

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Technical

  • The volunteers were able to complete as much of the reordering of the batteries as possible currently. The old batteries that need to be disposed have been put aside and place for the new batteries has been created. An electrician will come soon to rewire the new batteries to move them.

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • All the visitors departed this afternoon after an enjoyable stay. They were also kind enough to scrub down the guest house, beyond the basic cleaning, and leave it in an amazing state.

Marine Mammals

  • There were 3 female and 1 male Elephant Seals on the island today.

 

Visitors and volunteers!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Quite a few ecotour boats today
  • One of the whale watching boats entered the channel on the East side of the main island. I was busy trying to get them to reverse out and couldn’t run to get a picture unfortunately. I’ll be on the lookout for the same boat again.
  • Guy brought several volunteers and visitors to the island today! The volunteers helped Guy place some of the old batteries on the upper shelves of the battery room. Guy was also able to help me with the desalination and power washer issues. We were also able to test the YSI meter to confirm that it is giving inaccurate readings and needs to be fixed.

Marine Mammals

  • There were 3 female and 1 male Elephant Seals on the island today. The second male from yesterday was nowhere in sight.