A Dozen+ Eco-Tours

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind :15-25 knots West
  • Sky: mix of sun and clouds
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • Down to 14 elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • Lots of sea lions on the rocks near the derrick.

Maintenance

  • Glued the edge of the desalinator bunker door back on.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.

Boats

  • Between 15-20 eco-tours came into the reserve today; I lost count.
  • Most of them appeared to be too close to the sea lions at one point or another.
  • Once there were 4 eco-tours in the reserve at the same time.
  • Another time there were 5 eco-tours within the reserve.
  • Two times the small Prince of Whales boats went THRU the South Channel.
  • When marine mammals are present, this channel is too narrow for boats to pass through (the minimum distance for boats viewing marine mammals is 100 metres!)
  • Both times there were many sea lions present, including several that were already swimming in the channel or near the entrances.
  • Most of the sea lions were at the right hand entrance to the channel. Unfortunately both times the boat had already passed thru that entrance before I could get a photo.
  • I did get some photos of one PoW boat in the middle of the channel, and exiting it.
  • Several pleasure craft passed through the reserve as well, including a sail boat that was towing a smaller boat (reminiscent of motorhomes that tow cars).
  • I wasn’t able to get photos of all these boats, as I didn’t always have the camera on me. I also accidentally deleted a few photos.