Our thanks to Christine and Guy Ouradou for serving as Ecoguardians at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve through July and August. They have worked at many aspects of keeping the island system up and running and leading on maintenance and repairs. We would like to send a few of their favourite barking sea lions with them as they leave for home in France, but luggage restrictions are getting tough these days.
On Aug 29 we are having problems with the website.. currently only parts of it will work… come back again in a few hours.–8:00 PM -still working on it—-
Aug 30 UPDATE: The service provider has updated the database and has unfortunately made it so that I have to remove wp/ from every picture,page and post link.. this may take some time to work down through the various levels of the website, so thanks for your patience.
Aug 31 update: Most of the links are working right now after I finally got a support person of the service provider who figured it out.
Garry
Courtney providing the transportation, along with Garry Fletcher took two sets of lighthouse keeper’s family members, the Robert Lundy Family and a branch of the (first light keeper ) George N.Davies family for a prearranged visit to Race Rocks today. They left archival documents and photos; and are sending more to add to the web pages;
This photograph taken at Race Rocks by Alex Fletcher in January 2012 was featured in the British Columbia Magazine Winter 2014. This female elephant seal (Squall) was born at Race Rocks and was successful in leaving theisland without injury.
Minke whales are being seen more frequently in recent years off Race Rocks . See the posts on Minke whales sighted from the Ecological Reserve.
(We are still waiting for a picture of whales in the Ecological Reserve.)
For reporting Minke whales, go to the Northeast Pacific minke whale project.
The BC Cetacean Sightings Network has a good description and images:
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Eutheria
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Mysticeti
Family: Balaenopteridae
Genus: Balaenoptera
Species: B. acutorostrata
Other Members of the Class Mammalia at Race Rocks.
 Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomyand Image File |
 The 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. |
Station Race Rocks Lightstation
Month :July
Year:2015
Observer Lester B. Pearson College UWC
| Date | Time | Sea | Jar | Hydro- meter No. | Observed Density | YSI Salinity | YSI Temp °C |
| Temp. | Temp. | ||||||
| °C | °C | ||||||
| 1 | 20:40 | 30.5 | 12.3 | ||||
| 2 | 21:10 | 30.6 | 12.2 | ||||
| 3 | 21:00 | 30.4 | 11.9 | ||||
| 4 | 21:45 | 30.5 | 11.7 | ||||
| 5 | 20:40 | 31.5 | 11.1 | ||||
| 6 | 20:35 | 31.4 | 11.2 | ||||
| 7 | 20:55 | 30.1 | 11.4 | ||||
| 8 | 19:55 | 31.2 | 11.3 | ||||
| 9 | 20:50 | 31.3 | 11.5 | ||||
| 10 | 21:05 | 30.5 | 12.0 | ||||
| 11 | 20:50 | 31.1 | 11.8 | ||||
| 12 | 21:15 | 30.2 | 11.2 | ||||
| 13 | 21:15 | 31.3 | 11.6 | ||||
| 14 | 21:00 | 31.7 | 11.7 | ||||
| 15 | 20:45 | 11.5 | 11.2 | 10,802 | 22.5 | 32.1 | 11.1 |
| 16 | 21:00 | 31.7 | 11.7 | ||||
| 17 | 20:50 | 31.6 | 11.3 | ||||
| 18 | 21:15 | 31.6 | 12.2 | ||||
| 19 | 20:55 | 31.4 | 11.9 | ||||
| 20 | 20:20 | 31.6 | 12.3 | ||||
| 21 | 19:55 | 31.5 | 12.2 | ||||
| 22 | 20:15 | 31.4 | 12.2 | ||||
| 23 | 19:30 | 31.1 | 12.5 | ||||
| 24 | 20:20 | 30.8 | 12.4 | ||||
| 25 | 20:15 | 30.7 | 12.8 | ||||
| 26 | 20:00 | 30.7 | 12.9 | ||||
| 27 | 20:45 | 30.6 | 12.9 | ||||
| 28 | 20:45 | 30.8 | 12.8 | ||||
| 29 | 21:00 | 31.2 | 12.4 | ||||
| 30 | 20:50 | 31.6 | 12.2 | ||||
| 31 | 20:50 | 31.6 | 12.5 | ||||
| Mean | 31.1 | 12.0 | |||||
| Recorded by Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Guardian for Lester B. Pearson College | |||||||
We received a copy of this article from a Sooke newspaper in July. It never ceases to amaze me how some people can be so out of touch about conservation and species and ecosystems at risk. It seems that some think that as long as “humans have it all ” then it doesn’t matter about others with whom we share the resources of this planet.
Click to enlarge
Two divers have been found safe after their failure to surface sparked an extensive rescue operation on Saturday.
The divers — one experienced and one inexperienced — went into the water about 11:10 a.m. and were expected to surface near Race Rocks at noon.
At 12:30 p.m., the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre alerted search-and-rescue crews from Sooke and Victoria, a Royal Canadian Air Force Cormorant, the Canadian Coast Guard and West Shore RCMP to the incident.
Hoping the divers had drifted, the Sooke crew searched an area 0.5 nautical miles west of Race Rocks, according to a post on the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue – Station 37 Sooke’s Facebook page.
“One of our spotters who was using binoculars noticed something black and shiny at the surface of the water south-east of our position. We navigated the vessel towards the area and realized that we were spotting some harbour porpoises,” the post said.
While awaiting direction from the Coast Guard regarding which area to search next, the team once again spotted something in the distance.
“This time, it was a much larger object in the water. We quickly navigated to that area and located the two missing divers who were very happy to see us.”
The crew gave them a quick medical check and notified the rescue centre, the post said.
“Tired and relieved, they both appeared to be fine. … The other divers and their vessel met us on-scene and we passed the two individuals over to them.”
– See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/missing-divers-found-safe-near-race-rocks-1.1960756#sthash.4k5v3Rgd.dpuf
| Station Race Rocks Lightstation | |||||||
| Month: May | Year: 2015 | ||||||
| Observer Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific | |||||||
| Date | Time | Sea | Jar | Hydro- meter No. | Observed Density | YSI Salinity | YSI Temp °C |
| Temp. | Temp. | ||||||
| °C | °C | ||||||
| 1 | 14:07 | 30.3 | 10.8 | ||||
| 2 | 15:10 | 30.5 | 9.8 | ||||
| 3 | 17:02 | 30.7 | 9.8 | ||||
| 4 | 18:00 | 30.9 | 9.4 | ||||
| 5 | 18:00 | 31.0 | 9.5 | ||||
| 6 | 18:00 | 30.5 | 9.5 | ||||
| 7 | 18:49 | 30.7 | 9.7 | ||||
| 8 | 18:00 | 30.9 | 9.8 | ||||
| 9 | 19:10 | 30.3 | 10.0 | ||||
| 10 | 18:30 | 30.9 | 10.1 | ||||
| 11 | 19:00 | 31.0 | 9.6 | ||||
| 12 | 5:40 | 30.8 | 9.3 | ||||
| 13 | 9:47 | 9.7 | 10 | 10,802 | 23.7 | 30.6 | 9.7 |
| 14 | 11:42 | 30.9 | 9.6 | ||||
| 15 | 11:45 | 30.7 | 9.7 | ||||
| 16 | 14:32 | 31.1 | 9.4 | ||||
| 17 | 17:27 | 31.0 | 9.7 | ||||
| 18 | 18:45 | 31.4 | 9.4 | ||||
| 19 | 19:27 | 31.6 | 9.6 | ||||
| 20 | 19:27 | 31.6 | 9.5 | ||||
| 21 | 19:53 | 31.6 | 9.2 | ||||
| 22 | 20:45 | 31.6 | 9.3 | ||||
| 23 | 19:21 | 31.3 | 10.1 | ||||
| 24 | 20:44 | 31.1 | 10.1 | ||||
| 25 | 21:07 | 31.0 | 10.1 | ||||
| 26 | 21:15 | 30.9 | 10.1 | ||||
| 27 | 10:14 | 31.0 | 9.9 | ||||
| 28 | 12:27 | 30.6 | 11.0 | ||||
| 29 | 14:00 | 30.4 | 10.7 | ||||
| 30 | 16:30 | 30.3 | 10.8 | ||||
| 31 | 17:00 | 30.6 | 11.1 | ||||
| Monthly | means | 30.9 | 9.9 | ||||
| Recorded by Race Rocks Ecological Reserve Guardian for Lester B. Pearson College | |||||||
The Board of Friends of Ecological Reserves, submitted their final report as Intervenors in the National Energy Board Hearings on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion Project.
