The scene at the Jetty this morning was similar to yesterday but with a bit more destruction of electric fence supports and bigger logs straddling the Jetty.  Sadly the emancipated California sea lion didn’t make it through the night and was found with its head hanging in the water in the same place it spent all of yesterday.

The Jetty this morning at high tide with logs and water washing over it. The dead California sea lion is at the top of the boat ramp just ahead of the logs.

A gull found it late afternoon and was feeding on the fluids draining from its nostrils.  An hour later it began working at its eyes. It is hard to watch how quickly an animal goes from being a predator to carrion.

I thought I would report some good news on sea lions and how their populations have recovered in past 50 years and also on the data for the two branded sea lions observed this month at Race Rocks.

California sea lions have made a great recovery in recent years since the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1975.  From roughly 18 thousand individuals in 1979, the US population is now stable, last estimated to be over 250,000 in 2014. Abundance in Canada has increased. In 2020-2021 the population size of overwintering sea lions was 13,600 – 3 times more than in 2009-2010. The breeding season population size was 43,200, compared to 39,200 in 2013. Below is a photo and table of observations for the branded California sea lion observed in January 2026.

Stellar sea lions were once on the Endangered Species List in the US. It was delisted in 2013 and today the population size is about 52,000 in the US. From aerial surveys in 2016 – 2017 in Canadian waters the breeding season estimate was 43,200 and the overwintering population estimate was 52,700. The figure below shows how many Stellar sea lions were killed in BC!

Figure 3: Total Numbers of Steller Sea Lions Reported to have been Killed in BC as Part of Control Programs and Commercial Harvests During 1913-70. See source

Below is a photo and table of observations for the branded Stellar sea lion observed in January 2026. In the wild female Stellar sea lions can live to 30 years. Males can live up to 20 years.

To learn more about California and Stellar sea lions see these two Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans reports:

• Stellar sea lions: https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/41252627.pdf
• California sea lions https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/41111151.pdf

To see stock assessments for all marine mammals in the US visit this website:

• https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/marine-mammal-stock-assessment-reports-species-stock

Facility work

• ran the desalinator
• moved logs around
• vacuumed the basement
• made kindling

Vessels – none

Weather

Cloudy skies. Periods of rain. Winds gentle to moderate northerly breeze (The large waves and surges at the Jetty we experienced today were generated in the stronger wind areas to the north and east of here and are a combination of waves and tidal surge). Daytime temperatures 9 to 11 degrees.

There was too much excitement here this morning. Waves and a high tide brought a ton of logs crashing on the shore, over the Jetty and against the electric fence shattering the wooden supports.

I so wanted to pike pole some of nice logs onto the ramp but the California sea lion on the ramp ahead of the logs wouldn’t allow it. Normally approaching with the herding board will encourage them to move.  The wheelbarrow also normally works. I even tried putting the herding board upright in the wheelbarrow.  It grabbed the wheelbarrow in its mouth, picked it up and flung it over its shoulder toward the sea. That ended my efforts to move it along. I was glad to able to retrieve the wheelbarrow with a pike pole.

The sea lion has been there all day and it doesn’t appear well. It is very skinny, almost skeletal, and appears to have little ability to move its hind end. I expect it may decide to move tomorrow when the students come and it sees a large group of people.

An emancipated CA sea lion. Normally you can’t see their spine or shoulder bones.

California sea lion with its spine bones protruding. A broken wooden support piece for the electric fence is lying on the Jetty above.

I had to skip the sea water sampling today as it was too sketchy during the morning flood with all the water over the Jetty and crashing logs, and too scary to walk past the sea lion in the dark for the evening flood event. The fences will need to be repaired when the tides drop later in the week and hopefully the good logs aren’t washed away.  I focused on cutting the smaller firewood pieces on the grass that had been hauled up previously.

Facility work

• ran the desalinator to produce fresh water
• transferred fuel
• cut firewood

Vessels – none

Weather

Partly cloudy in the morning, overcast with periods of rain in the afternoon. Gentle northerly breeze (Gentle sound pleasant, I suppose on large sail boat,12 to 19 knots may feel gentle and keep the boat moving, but in the rain and cold, there is nothing gentle about it). Daytime temperatures 9 to 11 degrees.

Wildlife notes

The elephant seal family is content in the hollow. The pup is growing and the mom is determined to keep the birds away from the placenta and has large blood stains from rolling in it.

Mother and pup on Day 8. The red stains are from rolling in the placenta, seen on the far right.

A couple dunlins, a sanderling, a surf bird and several black turnstones were feeding at the low tide on the north shore.  They are all roughly the same size but with different colourings and beak shapes – shame I didn’t have the time to observe if they were targeting different things to eat.

A dunlin (left) and a sanderling (right).

Facility work

The focus of today was filling the cistern with salt water as we need a huge reservoir of salt water. The ratio varies a bit but for every 1.5L of fresh water produced, about 9L of concentrated salt water is sent back to the sea (for pictures of the desalination plant see 26 | July | 2024 | Race Rocks Ecological Reserve-).  Here are some photos of the fire hoses and pump setup we use to get salt water up to the massive rock and concrete cistern beside the Keeper’s house. It took many hours and 3.5 tanks of gas on the pump.

Pump tied down on the Jetty. The green intake hose on the right is lowered into the ocean and the pink hose sends the salt water up to the cistern.

Fire hose leading into the cistern hatch. The foot print of the cistern is larger than the house.

Fire hose filling the cistern with salt water

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 0
• Private: 2

Weather

Overcast. Light to gentle northeasterly breeze. Daytime temperatures 6 to 9 degrees.

Wildlife notes

The pup slept up close to its mom on this cold winter day.  There was frost on the ground and it was 3 degrees most of the morning. I even pulled out the big guns… my heavy weight merino long johns, normally reserved for winter sailing. I turn the furnace on for 10 minutes in the morning and have the woodstove going all day.  The house cools down a lot over night and it is really hard to get out of down bag in the morning.

Elephant seal pup on day 6 pressed tight to its mother

A group of about 30 pigeon guillemots were feeding in the current north of the Jetty. I had never seen them in their winter plumage so it took quite a while observing, photographing and freezing my fingers before I saw their tell-tail orange feet.

Facility work

I had fun with the chainsaw today making a piles of sticks in the grass but it was down on the beach by the boat ramp where I struck gold. I cut up a yellow-cedar and Douglas-fir log. Too bad the yellow-cedar wasn’t a bigger log as it burns so hot.  Poseidon please bring us more yellow-cedar!

• topped up battery fluids
• transferred fuel
• cut firewood

Golden yellow-cedar saw dust on the left and pinkish Douglas-fir sawdust upper center. The yellow cedar smells a little bit like raw potato.

Vessels

• Ecotourism: 0
• Private: 0

Weather

Clear skies. Light to gentle northeasterly breeze. Daytime temperatures 3 to 6 degrees.