Author Archives: Courtney Edwards

shake down of the new boat cradle

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Clear skies. Moderate NE winds. 2+ ft chop

Today was the first real test of getting the Boston Whaler back on the new boat cradle with Easterly wind and waves. The trailer lowers down into the water great because we added big cement paving stones for weight and ballast. It also means that the boat doesn’t pull it up off the track when a wave rolls in. The boat stays pretty straight on the trailer, even with waves, because of the new stern posts. Although, it helps to run the stern line to a cleat on the jetty and then forward to be able to pull the stern in next to the jetty when you need to. The new ratchet winch (used to pull the boat up on the trailer) is safe for the fingers, easy to use, and has great torque. And despite filling my boots with water, the new setup works great.

Off station from 1400 to 1530
Jamieson and Jer are no longer on site

-Worked on SOPs

animal census

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Sunny all day. Light E-NE winds. Cold! It dropped below freezing over night.

I found some treasure on the boat ramp this morning in the form of a drift card. Although there are several groups that set out these small, buoyant yellow cards to study ocean circulation patterns, this card is meant to map the potential distribution patterns and impacts of an oil spill from a tanker. For more information, check out the website that’s written on the image of the card.

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Animal Census
California Sea lion: 371
Stellar Sea lion: 308
Harbour seal: 66
Elephant seal: 3
Gull: 647
Cormorant: 977
Eagle: 1

Jamieson and Jer are still out here
-Diesel to Keeper’s House
-Took down some electric fences
-Puttery yard work

visitors

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Light winds. Clear skies.
Two Eagles this morning.
The Canada Geese have all left the reserve.
There are two elephant seals on the boat ramp.
 

Jamieson and Jer are out for the night
-Worked on SOPs
-Replaced boat ratchet winch
-Put the rest of the paving stones on the boat dolly

 

rainbows

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A day of squalls. Sunny periods, followed by sideways rain. Lot’s of rainbows all day.

This photo was forwarded on to me out at Race Rocks from a client on one of the eco-tour companies that operates out of Victoria and is a frequent visitor to the reserve. Because of the challenges in tranquilizing a marine mammal, there is very little that can be done for these animals. However, this incident highlights the fact that eco-tour companies can play a critical role in marine conservation by reporting these incidents and by educating their clients about issues surrounding marine debris. There are some great programs out there that focus on shoreline cleanups. Keep an eye out and volunteer for your local beach  cleanups. They usually happen in the summer and are a lot of fun.

For older posts in the log on the topic of sea lion entanglement or ‘rings’ see this link, and for newer incidences search the tag “entanglement“. For injured marine mammal photos from a previous eco-guardian Ryan Murphy see this flikr site.

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helicopter and new seawater sample methods

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Cloudy with light wind in the morning. Calm seas. Rain. Moderate NE winds in the afternoon. Low East swell.

The helicopter landed  around 1000 hrs
It came in from the East. Circled Greater Race once. Then on it’s second trip around it nosed in from the South-East and landed on the helicopter landing pad at 1007.
As best as I can tell there were 3 people inside it.
They stayed for less than 5 minutes. The guy in the back at the sliding door took pictures of the lighthouse. In the photograph you can see he’s only using his cell phone.
The number on the side was 437.

Our seawater sample methods have changed as of tomorrow. Our contact at IOS informed me that we will now only be using the digital YSI salinity and temperature meter. And once a month we are supposed to collect a sample using the old method for quality control and to monitor any measurement drift on the digital meter

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YSI digital salinity and temperature meter. Provided by the Institute of Ocean Sciences

Off station from 1130 to 1330
Jamieson is back on the big island
-got gas
-took in garbage and regular recycling
-took in electronics for recycling
-worked on SOP

Spring tides

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Cloudy with scattered showers. Calm in the morning moderate West wind in the afternoon.
Tour boats: 2

There were four eagles cruising around the reserve in the morning.
The sea lions spent the previous night and day on the East side of the island, just bellow my bedroom.
November 16th, 17th, and 18th we have an 8.9 ft (2.7 m) tide. The high tide on the 16th is called a perigean spring tide (as in the tide is “springing forth,” not the season). These tides occur when the moon is at it closest point in orbit to earth and the moon and the sun are lined up so that their gravitational pull is in the same direction; All of which results in some of the biggest tides of the year. There is an effort now to take photographs of areas and infrastructure that are strongly affected by Spring tides in order to better understand the potential impacts of sea level rise caused by climate . Search ‘king tide photo initiative” for more information.

-Cleaned keeper’s house basement
-Finished topping up water to battery bank
-Worked on SOPs
Jamieson is still out here

Desalinator Maintenance

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Strong W, SW, and S winds this morning. Strong W for the rest of the day. Rain.

Mike Cullen + apprentice came out to do maintenance on the desalinator.

Animal Census

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Clear sky. Moderate W winds.
1 Tour Boat

Animal Census
153 Gulls
474 Cormorants
27 Canada Geese
2 Cackling Geese
1 White Fronted Goose
4 Turnstones
6 Oyster Catchers
1 Elephant seal
58 Harbour Seals
498 California Sea lions
345 Stellar Sea lions

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Branded Stellar #8329

-prepped student house, but group cancelled
-pressure washed walkways
-cleaned and organized Boston Whaler

boat cradle

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The day started with moderate NE, and dropped to light variable SE. Low E swell in the am. Glassed off this evening. Scattered showers.

cradle
Erik dropped the new boat dolly/cradle off this afternoon. With some slight modifications, it came up the track just fine. Tomorrow we’ll see how the boat sits on it (fingers crossed).

 

 

 

[Daily Marine Conservation Link]
The area around Race Rocks is a Rockfish Conservation Area, which means that any type of fishing that could impact rockfish is prohibited. Established by DFO, there are over 100 sites on the BC coast. It is a complicated issue that involves many stakeholders and even more species. The debate is a heated one (as are all fisheries debates in this province) and, despite some level of protection, there is still concern regarding the risk to these long-lived and sensitive fish, as well as the habitat in which they live. Today’s link is an editorial about some of the conservation progress that has been made because the fisherman are concerned about the sustainability of the resource, and their livelihoods, to a point that they are voluntarily working with NGOs and the government.