Full moon taken Feb 7th from remote camera 1 in tower.
Author Archives: Alex Fletcher
Zeke(Chunk) is Wounded
This morning Zeke and Misery were both back on Great Race. At some point in the night they must have come in contact and Zeke took a beating.
Ed Note : We now thinks Zeke and Chunk are the same male individuals. Scar patterns match.
There are multiple puncture wounds on his back and the one large open gash looks about 8″ long. His right eyelid is also slightly to torn.
Misery chased Zeke again today over onto the rocks to the edge of the cliff. This time Misery followed him onto the rocks but Zeke managed to make his way down the steep rocks on the West side and into the water. He is currently hauled out on Middle Rock out of harms way for now.
A Standoff and a Fight
As mentioned previously, Misery seems to be a bit more aggressive now that Bertha is gone. Yesterday after chasing the pup around the house he took off after Chiunk, the younger male, who had been lying near the helicopter pad.
Misery chased him onto the rocks to the edge of a cliff. Chunk was stuck but Misery didn’t seem to want to venture onto the rocks, a standoff ensued.
Eventually Misery gave up and made his way down to the boat ramp and into ocean. Later on Misery was in the water near Middle Rock sounding off his horn. Chunk took his time to get off the rocks and eventually made his way to the ramp and into the water. Just before dark I could see Misery in the water by the jetty and throughout the night I could hear him sounding off.
Sometime during the night Zeke and Misery must have had an encounter and it did not go well for Zeke…
Bertha Departs
The last 24 hrs have been pretty active on the elephant seal front. Yesterday morning I woke up to find Squall, the pup, right up against the door of the house, Misery laying about 12 ft away and no sign of Bertha, the mother.
Bertha had been looking increasingly skinny, tired and pale the past days and had likely given the pup all the milk, and Misery all the mating, that she could give. She has been remarkably self-sacrificing and resilient, an impressive job of being a mother. I like to think that she is out there somewhere feasting on fish and getting some well deserved rest.
Now that Bertha is gone though, and can no longer distract Misery, he seems to be getting more aggressive. Yesterday he chased the pup several times and had his jaws around it twice, if he had wanted to do the pup harm he easily could have, but he did not. Apparently, in past years, Misery has tried to mate with a young pup. The pup eventually made his away around the N side of the house and hid under the staircase. Misery again chased it later around the E side of the house where it seems to be out of his reach.
The pup stayed on the East side of the house shown in the photo last night and is still there today. It has been making a lot of noise, presumably calling for its mother.
Change of Guardian
On Saturday afternoon I arrived back on Race Rocks after a month away. I will be here about two months then Mike will be returning.
Last night the elephant seal family moved from the engine room area over to the middle of the island, closer to the main house. The younger male (Chunk) was on Great Race this morning but tried to get close to Bertha and was promptly chased off by Misery. After having witnessed Misery’s brutal attempt at being a father last year (that resulted in a disemboweled and eventually dead pup), it is nice to see him being less aggressive this year and to see the pup looking so plump and healthy.
Yesterday there were 3 boats in the reserve: 1 dive boat, 1 eco tour and 1 pleasure craft. Today there has been 1 eco tour vessel in the reserve.
Wind NE 30 knots, sunny.
Elephant Seal Chase, Wind, Vessels
The small female elephant seal had stayed up near the base of the tower until last night when the fog horn went off, she moved down to the path near the middle of the island. Misery came back to Great Race this morning. 
When he started approaching the female she moved away. She made it back up to the base of the tower again where Misery doesn’t seem to like to go, maybe too much of an incline for the fat bugger. Misery stayed by the engine room, likely in the females path if she tries to leave.
Yesterday there were three boats in the reserve: a dive boat in the morning and 2 eco tour boats in the afternoon.
The wind picked up today around noon reaching gusts of 60 knots from the west. The wind has stayed around 30 knots most of the afternoon.
Visitors and Projects
Julia taking daily seawater salinity measurement
Jake and Julia left yesterday after 6 days on the island. They helped with several projects while they were here. Work projects over the past few days have included:
-Scraping, cleaning and painting the basement floor of the Science Center
-Topping up water level of the batteries and coating some of the battery terminals with anti-corossion paste
-Electronic data entry of visitor log
-Making new template for engine room log
-Transfering diesel to furnace tank
Jake painting the basement floor
-Pumping salt water to cistern and test filling the sand filter box
-Detangling new cable for camera 5 and sorting out existing conduit/cable situation
-Cleaning out gutters for rainwater harvesting system and chiselling out concrete lip to cistern filter box
-Organizing in the tank room
Erik came out yesterday to pick them up and dropped off my parents and my sister for an early christmas lunch. I brought them back to the college in the afternoon.
Elephant Seals
This morning Misery and the small female elephant seal were back on Great Race. The female was up in the grass near the base of the tower with a fresh looking injury to her left eye.
Pam reported an incident between Misery and another individual on Middle Rock on the 18th where she could see Misery grab something in his jaws. Maybe it was this elephant seal that she had witnessed getting a beating. Misery has a history of aggressive, violent behaviour. Pam has several image captures and a description of the incident on her flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66339356@N00/6537477915/in/photostream/
The number of elephant seals on Middle Rock has been increasing, Pam has recently counted up to 8 elephant seals on Middle Rock.
Entangled Sea Lion
This sea lion was on the South Rocks yesterday and again today with fishing gear or some other type of human-made garbage embeded around his neck. A report has been sent to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Misery delays boat launch
Julia and Jake cleaning solar panels
Yesterday I left the island around noon to go to campus and returned around 16:00 hrs with Jake. Erik brought out Julia, Jeanie and Mark in Second Nature. I took Jeanie and Mark back to campus today around 15:00 hrs, it was great to have them out here for a visit. Julia and Jake will be staying out here for a few more days. They did a great job scrubbing the solar panels today and carried several containers of deionized water across the island to the battery room. I did some cleaning in the battery room this afternoon.
The eco tour vessel Five Star Fast Cat came into the reserve this morning around 10:30.
Misery left Great Race yesterday around noon, taking his time on the boat ramp while I waited to launch the whaler, and is back on Middle Rock with the ladies. There were around 10 Sealions on South Rocks today and over 40 cormorants observed on South Rocks, Middle Rocks and the SW side of Great Race.
Misery taking his time on the boat ramp