Wildlife notes

I didn’t realize until recently just how far a sea lion could travel in a day or two.

Of the nine branded California sea lions sighted on Race Rocks in the past month, 3 have satellite transmitters. The three are part of a joint study between Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and UCLA, monitoring disease and movement ecology of California sea lions (CSL) captured on the Columbia River. The three seen here at Race Rocks are numbers 3-22, 3-24, 3-52.

For 3-22, the satellite transmitter only worked for a few weeks so the researchers couldn’t provide much information on him.

For 3-24 they have data from Aug 2024 to April 2026. He was branded in Oregon, swam as far south as the Channel Islands (an important haul out and rookery) near Los Angeles California and as far north as Texada Island, BC. This total distance is probably over 3500 km.  He made stops at Race Rocks in Dec 2024, Sept 2025. They say he spent a great deal of time in Northwest Bay BC hauling out on the log booms and eating herring.

Center stage, facing directly at the camera is 3-24 on Race Rocks, Sept 1st. He is still here today.

The travels of 3-24 from Aug 2024 to April 2026.

The area with the most dots in Northwest Bay BC, where 3-24 spent a lot of time hanging out and booms and feasting on herring.

Number 3-24 has travelled a great distance since being tagged in Aug 2024 but with 3-52 we get an idea of just how quickly they can get around. The map below just shows 3-54’s recent movements from Aug 15 2026 to Sept 1 2026. On Aug 15th he was in the Columbia River, Oregon and five days later on the Aug 20 he was up in Barkley Sound, BC. Another five days later he was back down in the Olympic Peninsula, WA. He then swam down Juan de Fuca Straight and three days later on Aug 28 he was on Race Rocks. I saw him here on Aug 30th. Two days later on Sept 1st he was near the top end of Texada Island, BC, which is about 250 km away from Race Rocks! I figured if he swam day and night without stopping for the 2 days he would need to the maintain a travelling speed of 5.2 km/hr and asked the researchers if this was really possible. They said it was and provided the values below from relevant research papers:

• Maximum swim speed 3m/s or 10.8 km/hr
• Maximum travel speed approximately 5.4 km/hr (Wright et. al. 2010)
• Maximum 24-hour travel distance during the migration 235 km (Gearin et. al. 2017)
• Six of the nine instrumented CSL had one day travel distances of at least 176 km (Gearin et. al. 2017)

The travels of 3-52 from Aug 15 2026 to Sept 1 2026.

The Sea Lion Olympics! I’ve seen the male synchronized swimmers practice here at Race Rocks and was impressed. These are amazing athletes.  I think 3-24 has a good chance in the long distance open water swim event and  3-52 m at the mid distance or the long distance relay event.

Facility work

Today was extremely busy, filled with sad and happy news. The sad news is the diesel generator needs major repair and will be out of commission for a while. The happy news is all the holes in the rock are now drilled and we have begun laying the new fence line.

• cleaned solar panels
• finished drilling holes
• started assembling and laying the new fence lines

Vessels

I was preoccupied for parts of the day, so the vessel count is incomplete. The same dive boat has been here three days in a row. I wonder if they are filming a movie?

• Ecotourism: 15
• Private: 4
• Paddleboard: 1

Weather

Clear skies. Wind 3 to 13 knots, direction variable. Daytime temperatures 12 to 21 degrees.