Author Archives: Alex Fletcher

Shift changeover postponed day 2

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Weather: The NE wind has continued over 30 knots and up to 50 over night and throughout the day.  Forecast says it will keep up a few more days.  Temperature at or below freezing.

Maintenance:

  • The door to the fresh water cistern was blown off its hinges overnight, I did a rough, temporary fix with new set of hinges.
  • Several shingles have blown off or are flapping, some more soffit blown off
  • cut and chopped firewood

shift changeover postponed

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The changeover of guardians scheduled for today was postponed due to strong winds blowing waves into the jetty.

Weather:  Wind N 15 knots becoming NE reaching up to 50 knots by afternoon. Clear sky, temperature falling to near 0 deg C.

December Sea Water

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Temp Temp Sal
Day Time ºC ºC ppt
1
2 13:00 10.0 31.2
3 14:00 10.0 31.2
4 8:00 9.8 31.5
5 8:15 9.7 31.2
6 8:00 9.0 31.3
7 9:00 8.7 31.5
8 9:30 8.9 31.4
9 9:30 8.7 30.9
10 10:30 8.8 31.2
11 9:20 8.9 31.9
12 11:30 8.5 31.5
13 11:45 8.5 31.7
14 12:00 8.4 31.9
15 13:00 8.6 31.9
16
17 16:30 8.3 31.9
18 9:00 8.4 32.1
19 8:30 8.6 8.5 32.4
20 16:15 8.6 8.6 31.8
21 9:30 8.5 8.4 32.1
22 10:00 8.5 8.4 32
23 11:00 8.4 8.3 31.6
24 10:30 8.0 31.4
25 10:15 8.1 31.4
26 12:30 8.1 31.3
27 10:30 8.1 31.5
28 11:00 8.2 31.8
29 12:00 8.2 31.9
30 11:05 8.2 31.8
31 12:30 8.1 31.8

Prep for shift change

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Weather: Light South wind in the morning becoming West 30 -40 knots in the afternoon with rain.

dsc_0128Ecological:  Seagulls, Black Turnstones and Bald Eagles have all started feeding on the elephant seal carcass. With the rain, a lot of elephant seal blood washed out over the rocks and into the sea.  I removed the flipper tag from the carcass, we will mail it to DFO to handle.

Boats: 2 ecotour

Maintenance:

  • filled day tank and pumped one barrel of diesel into generator tidy tank
  • added propane tank to main house
  • clean/pack

 

green tag, C-586

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Weather: West wind, 30 knots reaching up to 40 knots. Visibility limited by rain.

Ecological: While doing the Christmas Bird count I came across a female elephant seal on the West side of Great Race.  She is flipper tagged, green, c-586 and appears to be moulting. She also appears to be stuck in between some rocks.  With an iron bar I was able to move a rock that was against her neck, this exposed a nasty wound where the rock had been embedded into her flesh.  With the impediment removed I left her to see if she would be able to move freely.  When I returned a few hours later she had only changed position by 90 degrees.  I could see signs of abrasion on her underside as well.  I took photos and sent a marine mammal injury report to the DFO and a veterinarian at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.

Boats: 1 ecotour

Maintenance: continued firewood stacking, basement tidying.

christmas bird count and census

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Birds:

  • Turnstone: 12
  • Dunlin: 4
  • Bald Eagle: 13
  • Raven: 2
  • Harlequin Duck: 22

     

  • Black Oyster Catcher: 13

 

  • Cormorant (pelagic and double crested): 57
  • Gull: 67

Pinnipeds:

  • California Sea Lion: 106
  • Northern Sea Lion: 94
  • Elephant Seal: 2 male, 1 female green flipper tag c-586
  • Harbour Seal: 10 (probably more, West Rock)