Author Archives: Carol and Mike Slater

uses his good eye to watch the boat move up the rails

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Feb. 23,2003: The recovering Elephant Seal was very restless,spent most of they day moving around the island trying to find the best spot.He finally settled near the south end of the boat house.The other Elephant Seal spent the day in his usual spot just below the door to the boat house.

Feb. 26, 2003: The recovered Elephant Seal still spending a good part of the day roaming about then usually settles down behind the boat house. The recovered Elephant Seal still spending a good part of the day roaming about then usually settles down behind the boat house. 

Feb26: 2003: The 2 Elephant Seals hauled out most of the day. The one by the boat ramp is not bothered at all with our coming and going in the boat, even the noise from the winch for the boat dolly does not bother him,he does turn his head to use his good eye to watch the boat move up the rails and we are careful to give him lots of time to back out of the way. Once the boat is put away he usually stretches back across the rails in his favourite spot!

never know where he will be stretched out in the dark!

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Feb. 12 2003: The injured Elephant Seal has moved over near the engine room, he seems to like the long grass. We haven’t heard him vocalize but the other big fellow is quite noisy. The molting juvenile Elephant Seal left sometime during the night.

  Feb. 17, 2003: The Elephant Seal still spends most of the day near the end of the dock with 2 or 3 ‘haul outs’ by the boat house usually in the early morning and mid afternoon and since he often floats just below the surface boaters should take special caution in the area.

Feb. 20, 2003: he 2 big Elephant Seals both spent the day hauled out,one on the boat ramp and the recovering one in the long grass between the Science centre and the boat house. We can get quite close without disturbing them but for some reason they react to people wearing red jackets.

Feb. 21, 2003:Still hear the Elephant Seals at night,sounds like they are going into the water to feed about 1 a.m. and returning a couple hours later. The one that hauls out by the boat house is the more vocal one.The smaller one roams the island but usually ends up behind the boat house,seems to like the grass.We are careful to take a flashlight at night, never know where he will be stretched out in the dark!

The wounds look like they are healing very well,

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Feb. 3 2003: The large male Elephant Seal is still hauling out on the boat ramp for several hours at a time then returning to the water to leisurely circle the island just off shore.He is not as vocal as he has been but do hear him snorting every half hour or so.

Feb 4 2003: The large Elephant Seal has not returned to the boat ramp but we do now have a juvenile that appears to be going through it’s ‘molt’.

Feb. 5,2003:. The young Elephant Seal seems settled in for an extended stay in front of the boat house and except for rolling from one side to the other a couple of times has not moved much.Unlike the big males this juvenile ‘growls’ if anyone approaches within 8-10 feet,we keep our distance anyway, don’t want to add stress to an already stressed animal.

Feb. 11, 2003: The molting juvenile Elephant Seal is still hauled out next to the boat house and just likes to be left alone.The Elephant Seal that was injured has returned! He has moved inland about half way across Gr. Race near the Science building. The wounds look like they are healing very well, his eyes are clear and healthy looking. The other male Elephant Seal still around but did not come ashore today.

First report of Slash being wounded

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Jan 19 2003: We have a very disturbing and sad situation here with one of the Elephant Seals. In the late morning an elephant seal hauled out by the boat house, it was immediately apparent that this poor animal has had a run in with a boat prop. There are several deep gashes in the fore head just above his eyes. One eye is very bloodshot and the other eye seems to be getting red. There are other wounds or slashes from the head down to below the front flippers. The wounds are curved slices like a series of long parallel ‘slashes on both sides.The deepest gashes are on the head and right side cheek area. We checked on him all during the day, just before dark he moved into the water. The other much larger elephant seal is still around and happy to say he has no marks on him. He has hung around by the dock all afternoon and at times quite loud. I do wonder if there is any communication between these two great creatures. They are really quite placid most of the time and we can get as close as a foot if we approach from the front. Hopefully the one fellow’s wounds are not fatal. People must take extra care moving boats through the area to avoid hitting seals and sealions and causing what must be very painful injuries. See http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/archives/vidinjureseal.htm for a video of the elephant seal.
You can also see other  videos taken taken later of Slash and his recovery over the next few years:
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/miroungaa/slash.htm

Three elephant seal notes

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Jan 14, 2003: The large Elephant Seal floated along the south shore of Gr. Race until near noon then hauled out on the rocks just below the fog horn tower where he remained the rest of the day.

Jan 16, 2003: The large Elephant Seal continues to spend the night and early morning floating around Gr. Race then hauling out for the rest of the day, lately on the south side below the engine room.

Jan 18, 2003: The Elephant Seal floated leisurely in the dock area all morning and in fact we had to wait around for nearly half an hour for him to move away so we could launch the boat for a quick trip to Pedder Bay

at night….snorting, bellowing Elephant Seals.

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Jan 13, 2003: The juvenile elephant and the skinny looking Northern Sea Lion have left the haul out on the slope of the southeast rocks. There is a wide range in size in the Northern Sealion population hauled out just now -quite a few in fact in the 300/500 lbs., about 1/4 seem to be the really mature fellows some as big as 2000lbs. Usually there are mostly males but some of the smaller animals look very much like the females which appear more cylindrical in shape and colour more uniformly brown.Very easy to tell the Northern Sea Lions even at night by their growling which they seem to do a lot of as they tend to feed at night.The California Sea Lions sound like a pack of large dogs. Mostly what we hear these nights are the Northern Sea Lions and the snorting, bellowing Elephant Seals.

a dangerous place to stretch out for a nap!

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Jan 2 2003: A large elephant seal came ashore this morning on the boat ramp but did not stay long as the swells were tossing 5-10 lb. rocks almost to the door of the boat house, a dangerous place to stretch out for a nap. The Elephant Seal has been spending part of the night near the dock the past week and vocalizing quite a bit. There is a Northern Sea Lion hauled out about 3 metres from the front porch, he looks a little thin and has several small wounds on his head,he spent the whole day there, hardly moving at all.