Author Archives: Alex Fletcher

clear sky, humpback

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Weather: steady west wind, 20-30 knots.  Mostly clear sky.

Ecological:

  • One humpback whale was visible near the reserve for several hours beginning around noon.
  • 3 Male elephant seals have been staying mostly on Great Race, traveling individually to middle rock occasionally.
humpback-dec-4

Humpback between North Rock and William Head

Maintenance: Flushed rainwater barrel pipe to cistern.

Boats: 1 ecotour, caused some disturbance of sealions near jetty as well as on South Islands.

humpback

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Weather

North wind, 10 knots in the morning.  Stronger Easterly winds up the straight directed swells into the jetty throughout the day.  Wind direction shifted to West in the evening and picked up to over 30 knots with rain. Visibility dropped to around 1 mile in the afternoon.

Ecological: Before dusk I saw a lone humpback whale surfacing near the reserve.

humpback-dec2

Humpback flukes, NE of Race Rocks

Maintenance

Removed broken fire bricks from bottom of wood stove, cleaned out firebox, and replaced broken bricks with intact ones.  Inspected baffle and tubes.

Guardian shift change

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Guy left the station around 800 in the morning. We met around noon at the college and debriefed. I came out in the whaler and landed around 1400.  I will be here for the month of December.

Ecological

  • There were 3 male elephant seals on Great Race when i arrived, 2 of them are adult including Chunk, the other appears to be adolescent.  There was another male elephant seal on West Rock.
  • There are more sealions in the reserve than I recall from previous years at this time and they are more present on Great Race as well,  including a persistent congregation on and around the jetty.

Boats

  •  3 ecotour boats after I arrived in the afternoon.  Two of them appeared to be within 100 m (DFO setback guideline) of sealions.

November seawater data

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YSI YSI
Temp Sal
Day Time ºC ppt
1 13:50 31.7 10.4
2 13:50 31.8 10.3
3 13:50 31.7 10.4
4 13:50 31.6 10.3
5 12:08 31.3 10.6
6 10:10 31.6 10.6
7 10:03 31.3 11
8 10:00 31.5 10.7
9 10:03 31.4 10.7
10 10:25 31.3 10.9
11 10:45 31.5 10.7
12 11:15 31.4 10.7
13 11:48 31.5 10.5
14 12:06 31.5 10.7
15 16:00 31.4 10.3
16 15:00 31.2 10.2
17 13:00 31.2 10.2
18 x x x
19 14:00 31.2 10.2
20 13:00 31.4 10.2
21 x x x
22 12:00 31.6 10.2
23 11:00 31.4 10.3
24 12:00 31.3 10.4
25 13:00 31.6 10.2
26 12:00 31.4 10.3
27 12:00 31.5 10.1
28 13:00 31.4 10.1
29 14:00 31.5 10.3
30 12:00 31.4 10.2

4th e-seal pup this season

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Ecological

  • The female elephant seal that hauled out yesterday onto Great Race gave birth overnight on the lawn between the science centre and the desalinator bunker.  The pup looks big and healthy.  Several birds have been sneaking in to snack on the placenta and umbilical cord.  Also the amniotic sac was visible on the lawn nearby.  The mother has what appears to be a pale green flipper tag with very worn out ID numbers. ( greenish- tag # 5928)
  • Chunk was more interested in mating than in checking out the new pup.
  • A west wind picked up over the day up to 40 knots in the evening gusting close to 50 knots with heavy raiin.

Maintenance

  • Month end reporting
  • Cleaning, packing, tidying for shift end.

pup deceased

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Ecological

  • In the morning on Feb 3rd the second pup that had been born on Great Race (on Jan 27) was motionless.  The pup had previously seemed a bit weak and slow compared to others, since mating began there has been a lot more commotion in the area and the pup was often unable to get out of the way.  It is likely that it was either crushed or suffocated under the weight of the adult elephant seals.  The mother stayed close to the body and was pushing and prodding it with her nose throughout the day.
  • A third female e-seal was hauled out onto Great Race in the morning yesterday.  While not as large as the others were before giving birth she is behaving like the other pregnant females.

Vessels: I returned in the afternoon, there was one eco tour after I got back.

Maintenance:

  • Brought the whaler in on Tuesday, Feb 2nd and sent it to a mechanic to work on electrical problems.  There was a problem with the grounding connection and a few of the wiring connections (GPS, vhf and nav lights have been failing) which have been fixed.
  • picked up some “U” bolts from Slegg for a camera mount attachment
  • started month-end records and reporting.

January Seawater

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Date Time Sea Jar Hydro- meter     No. Observed Density YSI Salinity YSI Temp °C
Temp. Temp.
°C °C
1 8:50         32.2 8.3
2 9:30         32.2 8.2
3 9:26         32.1 8.2
4 9:47         31.9 8.1
5 10:06         31.9 8.0
6 9:05         32.0 8.2
7 9:30         32.0 8.2
8 10:06         32.2 8.3
9 11:45         32.1 8.4
10 13:10         32.4 8.4
11 13:00         32.4 8.3
12 13:30         32.5 8.6
13 14:30         32.5 8.5
14 15:40         32.7 8.5
15 7:25 8.6 8 10,802 248 32.9 8.5
16 8:00         32.7 8.5
17 8:30         32.6 8.6
18 9:15         32.5 8.5
19 10:10         32.4 8.5
20 9:24         32.3 8.4
21 11:15         32.1 8.6
22 11:30         32.3 8.7
23 13:00         32.3 8.6
24 13:00         32.4 8.6
25 13:15         32.4 8.6
26 14:25         32.4 8.6
27 15:00         32.3 8.5
28 16:00         32.2 8.7
29 8:00         32.2 8.7
30 9:10 8.6 8.5   237 32.4 8.5
31 9:00         32.1 8.5

Orcas, Penis, Helicopter

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Ecological

  • Elephant seals: Chunk has appeared to be trying to mate since before the pups were born but today it was the first time I have observed successful copulation with the mother of first pup.  In the photos he seemed keen to go again but she didn’t seem very interested.
  • Orcas: what appeared to be a family of 4 orcas passed through race passage in the morning heading East.  A “Whale Research” vessel can be seen in the photo following them.
  • Fishing: several sports fishing boats with buoys were around the reserve today,  a sure sign that the halibut fishery has reopened for the season.

Other:

  • took measurements for camera mounting housing and hardware
  • Coast Guard Helicopter pilot Captain David Ferguson paid a visit to Race Rocks with 2 crew to do routine maintenance on the light and fog signal.  They came in one of the Coast Guard’s new, shiny Bell 429 machines, which apparently cost about 8.3 Million dollars apiece.