Author Archives: Garry Fletcher

Beroe sp. : Ctenophore-Comb jelly–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Ryan Murphy took this image of a Ctenpphore in 2010. This is one of the large forms of “plankton” in our waters.

Combjelly

Phylum Ctenophora – Sea gooseberries & comb jellies
Class Nuda – Sea gooseberries & comb jellies
Order Beroida
Family Beroidae
Genus Beroe

References
http://faculty.washington.edu/cemills/Ctenophores.html: This reference provides a good general description of the characteristics of Ctenophores . Note the discussion on the fact that they are not bioluminescent as many believe.

Claudia Mills and Stephen Haddock have a technical chapter of Ctenophores with good diagrams.

This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by  the students, faculty, volunteers and staff of Lester B. Pearson College– 2014-Garry Fletcher

 

Victoria Natural History Society Field Trip-Bird Count

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Thanks to the participants of the VNHS Field Trip today and especially to Daniel Donnecke for tabulating this detailed bird census list.

For the boat crossing between Pearson College and  Race Rocks, Daniel and the group on the boat made the following observation:

2 Great Blue Heron
110 Double crested cormorant
2 pelagic cormorants
160 rhinoceros auklets
45 common murre
3 pigeon guillemot
25 Heermann’s Gulls
8 Glaucous winged gull
20 California Gull
30 Gull sp.
4 Oystercatcher
4 Harlequin duck
1 common Goldeneye
4 mallard
1 red-throathed loon
56 greater white fronted geese (single flock crossing the strait)
20 band tailed pigeons
2 coopers hawk
400 turkey Vultures (attempting to cross the Strait but turned  around)
DanielleD-Amerpipet

American Pipit–Anthus rubescens photograph by Daniel Donnecke

At Race Rocks Daniel made the following census notes which he entered on eBird : 23 species (plus 2 other taxa) total:

4
Greater White-fronted Goose
11
Canada Goose
2
Harlequin Duck
17
Surf Scoter-(-east-bound)
42
Brandt’s Cormorant
8
Double-crested Cormorant
18
Pelagic Cormorant
25
cormorant sp.
10
Turkey Vulture- (-distant, ketteling)
16
Black Turnstone
2
Dunlin
1
Western Sandpiper
1
Short-billed Dowitcher
2
Common Murre-(-low number, most alcids closer to Vancouver Island)
1
Rhinoceros Auklet-(-low number, most alcids closer to Vancouver Island)
41
Heermann’s Gull
1
Western Gull
110
California Gull
1
Herring Gull
25
Thayer’s Gull
36
Glaucous-winged Gull
85
gull sp.
8
6
Savannah Sparrow
1
Song Sparrow

For other images of the species above see the Race Rocks Taxonomy

Field trip for VNHS

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2014-09-27gfvnhstowers

 

Members of the Victoria Natural History Society accompanied ER warden Garry Fletcher on a field trip to Race Rocks this morning. Most of the members were avid birdwatchers so this time of year was ideal to view some of the many species that stopover at Race Rocks in their fall migration. See the census records submitted by Daniel Donnecke

 

 

 

Some of the birds seen on the trip”

wtattlerAlso on a trip on a ecotourism vessel, Liam Singh took this image of this  wandering tattler which we had missed.

gfbrande calseal

One branded california sealion was hauled out near the docks. The number was not clear.

Ascidia paratropa : Glassy tunicate –The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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glasstunicate

Glass tunicate image by Ryan Murphy. ID by Rick Harbo Sept 2014

Phylum Chordata,
Subphylum Urochordata,
Class Ascidiacea,
Order Enterogona
Family Ascidiidae
Suborder Phlebobranchia
Genus Ascidia
Species paratropa
(Huntsman, 1912)

 

 

 

 

 

This is a solitary tunicate, 10-15 cm tall.. We find these only occasionally at Race Rocks, sub-tidally  at about 10-15 metres. The colonial ascidians are always more abundant.

Other Members of the Subohylum urochordata 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.

 name –year (PC)

Aequorea victoria, crystal jelly : The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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aequorea

Aequorea in a kelp bed at Race Rocks, photo by Chris Blondeau

Kingdom: Animalia Subkingdom: Eumetazoa Phylum: Cnidaria Subphylum: Medusozoa Class: Hydrozoa Subclass: Leptolinae Order: Leptomedusae Suborder: Conica Family: Aequoreidae Genus: Aequorea Species: A. victoria The following quote  is from Wikipedia.. noted here because of the reference to Dr. Anita Brinckmann-Voss.

“Aequorea victoria, also sometimes called the crystal jelly, is a bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish, or hydromedusa, that is found off the west coast of North America. This species is thought to be synonymous with Aequorea aequorea of Osamu Shimomura, the discoverer of green fluorescent protein (GFP). Shimomura together with Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry[1] for the discovery and development of this protein as an important biological research tool. Originally the victoria species was supposed to designate the variant found in the Pacific, and the aequorea designation was used for specimens found in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The species name used in GFP purification was later disputed by M.N. Arai and A. Brinckmann-Voss (1980),[2] who decided to separate them on the basis of 40 specimens collected from around Vancouver Island. Osamu Shimomura notes that this species in general shows great variation: from 1961 to 1988 he collected around 1 million individuals in the waters surrounding the Friday Harbor Laboratories of University of Washington, and in many cases there were pronounced variations in the form of the jellyfish. “

 An interesting account by Claudia Miils about the misidentification of the bioluminescence in Aequorea in various scientific journals and magazines  can be found in : Bioluminescence and other factoids about Aequorea, a hydromedusa See this link for other hydroids:  https://www.racerocks.ca/tag/hydroid/ 

This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by the students, faculty and staff and volunteers of Lester B. Pearson College
 originally published 2006, updated: 2014 Garry Fletcher

Esquimalt First Nation Traditional land (and water) use areas.

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In August, 2014, the Trans Mountain Pipeline consultant Tera submitted a “Supplemental Traditional Marine Resource Transportation Technical Report. 

In it, a chart is presented with areas of traditional use by the Esquimalt First Nations is presented. This is the first time this kind of map has appeared, and it is rather interesting since the Esquimalt FN remained uninvolved throughout the Race Rocks MPA Advisory Board meetings .

 

“EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment was completed by TERA, a CH2M HILL Company,and was submitted as part of the Application to the National Energy Board (NEB) in December 2013 for the proposed Trans Mountain Expansion Project (referred to as TMEP or the Project). The NEB will conduct a detailed review and hold a Public Hearing to determine if it is in the public interest to recommend a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for construction and operation of the Project. Pending regulatory approval, Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC (Trans Mountain) plans to begin construction in 2016 and go into service in 2017.Trans Mountain will continue to engage Aboriginal communities through all phases of the Project. Traditional Marine Resource Use (TMRU) information received from participating communities will be reviewed in order to confirm literature results and mitigation measures. Additional issues of concern, TMRU sites or features identified through ongoing engagement with Aboriginal communities will be considered for incorporation into Project planning under the guidance of existing marine transport regulations and mitigation recommendations. The results of these ongoing engagement efforts will be provided to the NEBin future supplemental filings. Further information is provided in Technical Report (TR) 8B-5 in Volume 8B,  Traditional Marine Resource Use Technical Report of the Application. ”

This report contained a map of the traditional use areas of Esquimalt First Nations which shows use of the  Race Rocks Area as well as the adjacent coastline. It is shown in this link:

esquimalttraditionallanduse area

Click for large version

Branded sea lion 183R shows up at Race Rocks

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Our viewer from England, Pam Birley,  sent us this image image of a branded Northern Sea lion (Steller’s) that she had taken with the remote control camera 5  today. She noted that this is the first time this particular one has shown up in her records which she has been keeping for several years now.

For other posts on branded sea-lions, see this link: https://www.racerocks.ca/tag/branded/

For our taxonomy file and gallery of images on this sealion see our archived file: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/nufar.htm

Also for an explanation of why the tagging program goes on see this link also on our website: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/marmam/sealion/tracking/tracking.ht

Branded Northen sea lion # 183R

Branded Northern sealion # 183R

 

 

Aurelia aurita: Moon Jellyfish–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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ESMoon-jelly

Moon Jellyfish Aurelia aurita photos by Eric Schauff

ESMoon-jelly2

From the log February 05, 2002
We counted 7 Moon Jellyfish( Aurelia aurita) floating amid the logs and debris in the tide wash east side of the boat dock.Most of them were 15-16 cm wide. In the sea they looked bluish -white and translucent.Unfortunately they were somewhat battered as they washed towards shore and Garry said that they were on their last legs so to speak.
Mike and Carol Slater.

From the log February 05, 2002
There were 19 Moon Jellyfish along the east side of the dock this morning and we saw quite a few more just off shore when we left in the boat.
Mike and Carol Slater.


Scientific classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Semaeostomeae
Family: Ulmaridae
Genus: Aurelia
Species: A. aurita

Aurelia aurita
Linnaeus, 1758

Other Members of the Phylum Cnidaria 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.

 

Sedum anglicum, English Stonecrop–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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stonecrop

Sedum anglicum,(in bloom in July,) English Stonecrop– invasive at Race Rocks

 

Englishstonecrop

Sedum anglicum, English Stonecrop all photos by Garry Fletcher

This plant was introduced to Race Rocks by Assistant keepers in the 1980s. From a small flower bed near the assistant’s house It has spread over much of the Great Race Rock Island. Since it is a member of the Crassulacea family, it uses the crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) method for fixation of

The crevices of the rock outcrops where native grasses grew are being invaded by this stonecrop.

The crevices of the rock outcrops where native grasses grew are being invaded by this stonecrop.

Carbon Dioxide for photosynthesis. Since it can fix Carbon into a chemical when stomata are open only when its cool at night, it is very resistant to drought, and can survive with very little soil.

stonecrop_cistern

The mat of green is a monoculture of Sedum anglicum, English Stonecrop growing on the concrete surface of the large gound-level cistern.

It is of course not the only introduced species on Race Rocks but since it is not grazed by anything, it is rapidly replacing the sparse growth of native species such as thrift  and grasses in the rock crevices.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaceae
Genus: Sedum
Species: S. anglicum
English Stonecrop
Other Angiosperms (flowering plants) at Race Rock

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.