Author Archives: Courtney Edwards

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.

 

 

eagle

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Moderate NE winds all day. 3 ft wind chop. Cloudy but no rain.
The students left yesterday, and some volunteers from the college made a brief photo stop when Chris came to pick them up.

There was a boat fishing illegally in the reserve this morning. It left before I could try to make radio contact.

wind

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Strong winds all day, switching between NE and W. Scattered showers.

 

-prepped student house for visitors
-Erik delivered propane
-made keeper’s house floor plans

raven

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Overcast, scattered showers. Moderate NE wind all day.

I finally figured out what moves the dead sea gulls around at night: Ravens. Because I rarely see them out here I had been wondering what moved the dead birds back onto my pathways night after night. They must live nearby on the big island (Vancouver Island) and come out here to forage and feed.

Female elephant seal and a dead gull on the boat ramp.

Female elephant seal and a dead gull on the boat ramp.

California "See" lions!

California “See” lions!

[Daily Marine Conservation Link]
My Salish Sea Marinipedia is a citizen science project created by our local aquarium, the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre. It is a database (for kids) of species found in the Salish Sea, but the information comes from anyone. Their slogan…”Join us in discovering the biodiversity of your ocean, share what you learn and inspire others to make a difference.”

-electric fence around student house
-diesel to student house

business as usual

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Cloudy. Moderate NE winds all day. And it’s getting cold! 7C most of the day.

[Daily Marine Conservation(/Art) Link]
Okeanos: A Love Letter to the Sea is a live dance/cirque show created by  a group that fuses art and science to connect people to their world. Okeanos is performed on stage, with dance, music, sculpture, aerialists and underwater film as a backdrop. Says Jodi Lomask, “Science is the way I learn about the world. Art is the way I process what I have learned.”

 

-prepped, painted, and draft-proofed keeper’s house basement door
-diesel to keeper’s house
-worked on SOPs

 

 

Time Change

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Light to Moderate West winds all day. Clear skies. West swell.

With the high tides and the swell running most of the animals in the reserve are still staying on Greater Race Rock, with some sea lions on the south rocks. There were some massive groups of sea gulls out on the water today.

With the time change, remember that the times written in the Canadian tide and current guides are the actual times of high and low tides, and max flood, ebb, and slack tides (up until yesterday you should have been adding an hour).

[Daily Marine Conservation Link]
Sylvia Earle is an all-star marine scientist, a tireless conservation advocate, and a powerful and charismatic speaker. In this TED talk she talks about ‘the vital blue heart of our planet’ and our need to protect it. And if you have a moment look at Mission Blue which was formed in response to Sylvia Earle’s TED Prize Wish, where she urged people “to use all means at your disposal — films, expeditions, the web, new submarines — to create a campaign to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas; Hope Spots large enough to save and restore the blue heart of the planet.”

storm warning in effect!

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Light SE wind in the morning. 3ft East swell.
Midday it switched to 25 kts West.
Late afternoon it was blowing 45 kts West. With a 5ft+ West swell.

Bird Count
26 Canada Geese spent the day sheltering from the storm on Greater Race Rock
670 Adult Gulls + 96 Juvenile Gulls = 766 Gulls total
20 Oyster Catchers
136 Cormorants
I don’t know where the Turnstones and Sparrows hide during bad weather

Screenshot 2013-11-03 09.43.35

How I counted Birds: The nice thing about bad weather is that it forces all the birds to come to Greater Race Rock because of the waves surging over the outer islands. They also tend to sit in organized groups when it’s really windy. So I took photos of all the groups of birds and using a ‘cell counter’ macro in a great free program called ImageJ I counted all the birds and tallied the results.

 

[Daily Marine Conservation Link]
Sea stars up and down both coasts of North America are experience a mass die-off event now called Sea Star Wasting Syndrome. In recent years the populations of sea stars has been extremely high in the Salish Sea, and in September 2013 reports of mortality events started coming in from divers. A collaborative research effort is now underway and the Vancouver Aquarium is hoping that divers start to participate in some Citizen Science.
The Howe Sound Research and Conservation team is tracking this event by mapping observations of healthy and sick sea stars  but they need data! So if you see any sea stars while diving report it to this website

 

 

 

calm before the storm

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Overcast. Calm.
Erik picked up Maciek today.

 

P1010218

Sea lions (looking really comfortable) and Cormorants

-Collected recycling and garbage from all the buildings and sent it away with Maciek.