Author Archives: Neha acharya-patel

Making things pretty

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The last couple days have been pretty chill over here. The seas have been calm, and the sea lions have been behaving.

Yesterday Greg, Mike and Oliver came over to bring a super comfy sectional couch (Gregs kind donation :)) over to the Student house.

The student digs are so cosy now! It is awesome that they have been getting used so much more this year. Fingers crossed, I have some students come stay during my shift!

Today, I ran the desal and I cleaned the goose poop off the pathways. I think of all the poop types on the island, Goose poo is the worst.

GEESE!

Facilities

  • Fixed the Fence
  • Swept/Swiffered student house
  • Ran the Desal (~300 L)
  • Refilled the generator
  • Cleaned the pathways

Weather

  • Sky: Partially Cloudy
  • Wind: 2kts E
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Air Temp: 10C

Endless battles

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Yesterday we had some issues with the wifi. Greg said that this often happens after a windy day, but I am rather inclined to blame the eagle, who sat on the Starlink reciever all afternoon :)

Today I spent a long time fixing the electric fence down at the Jetty. It seems like the more I try, the more the sea lions just don’t care.

5 minutes after I fixed the fence

I also sprayed down all the outdoor staircases with algae killer so they wont be too slippery all winter. Hopefully I will have some super satisfying before and after photos to share in a couple days.

On another note, we have another entangled sea lion. The bright orange flasher sticking out of his mouth was the first thing I saw this morning. I will continue to keep an eye out for him.

Facilities Work:

  • Fixed Fence
  • Filled batteries
  • Sprayed/Scrubbed stairs

Weather

  • Sky: Partially Cloudy
  • Wind: SSE 5 kts
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Temp: 10C

Windy Day

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Today we had a very windy day with 30kt gusts all day.

The sea lions took this opportunity to nap hard.

Facilities Work

  • Filled Generator
  • Swept out battery room/generator room
  • Fixed fence

Weather

  • Wind: SW 25 kts
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Sea State: 2 ft wind chop
  • Temp: 10 C

 

We have WATER!!!

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Today was a very PNW day… a slow steady rain all day.

I know it gets old quick, but I really love a nice, cozy, rainy day at Race Rocks!

But also because of the rain, most of the sea lions spent the day in the water, making the census counts low.

Of note today, Greg came out to the island, and we fired up the Desalinator after more than an entire year of issue after issue. Greg was jubilant to say the least :).

Facilities Work

  • Checked and filled battery levels
  • Fixed fence
  • Ran the desalinator (300L)

Weather

  • Sky: Rainy (12mm)
  • Wind: NNE 5.2 Kts
  • Sea State: Calm
  • Air Temp: 9C

Census:

  • Harbour Seals – 5
  • Stellar Sea Lions – 79
  • California Sea Lions – 99
  • Seagulls – 353
  • Cormorants- 515
  • Turnstones – 15
  • Oyster Catchers – 12
  • Canada Geese – 3
  • Snow Goose – 1
  • Elephant Seal – 1

 

Im Back Baby

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Hello All!

I am so excited to be back here after more than a year!! And I am thoroughly enjoying my loud and stinky welcome from the Sea Lions.

I actually got to the island on Tuesday to relieve Kendra, but have had some login issues so i’m posting my first blog of the shift today.

The weather this week has been stunning, blue skies, low winds, and beautiful sunsets, so no complaints from me.

I have spent the last couple days getting reacquainted with the daily routine!

Kendra’s Entangled Sea Lion is still hanging around the dock

I think I saw my first snow goose here today!

Facility Work

  • Fixed fence
  • Chopped Wood
  • Refilled diesel in generator and tidy tank

Weather

  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Wind: WSW 10 Kts
  • Sea State: Choppy
  • Air Temp: 12 C

 

Our Last Day on Station!

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I cant believe it has been a month already!

We spent our last day doing the end of month and, end of shift tasks, like taking stock of fuel used, and uploading the water sampling data set.

We also made sure that everything is ready for Kendra, the next Eco-Guardian.

Sharing a space with 1000 + Sea Lions and Seagulls has been an interesting time, and I think it will take me sometime to get used to the silence.

Until next time – Neha and Scott

Weather: Sunny all day, Winds pretty steady around 8knts SE All day

Whale Watching Vessels: 13

Private Vessels: 5

**Loads of Humpbacks hanging about :)

September Sea Surface Temp and Salinity Dataset

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Station: RACE ROCKS
Observer: James Tuohy, Neha Acharya-Patel, Scott Murphy Month: September
YSI ID: 13 Year: 2024
YSI YSI
Temp Sal
Day Time ºC ppt
1 1425 12.3 31.7
2 1500 12.5 31.4
3 1524 12.5 31.9
4 1615 11.7 31.9
5 1640 12.1 31.9
6 1655 12.6 31.4
7 1727 11.3 31.8
8 1745 11.7 31.2
9 1820 11.9 31.1
10 Missed Day * :(
11 1810 12.4 30.7
12 905 11.6 31.4
13 1042 11.9 30.3
14 1150 11.7 31.2
15 1230 12.5 31.2
16 1305 11.2 32.0
17 1400 10.4 32.7
18 1450 10.6 32.9
19 1540 9.5 33.3
20 1610 11.4 32.7
21 1706 11.1 32.6
22 1739 10.5 32.7
23 1820 11.0 32.4
24 1820 11.4 32.5
25 924 10.6 32.8
26 1045 10.2 32.9
27 1145 11.0 32.0
28 1305 10.7 32.5
29 1320 10.7 32.4
30 1342 10.9 32.8
Data Taken with Old Method: September 30, 13:40
YSI From Ocean: Temp. 10.9, Sal: 32.5
Metal Thermometer: 10.9
Glass Thermometer: 11.1
Hydrometer: 252

Our Last Census Day!

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Sunday, September 29, 2024

Today was our last census!!!

We took our coffees up to the tower for the 7am Low tide.

Animal Census:

Birds:

  • Gulls: 1580
  • Cormorants: 22
  • Canada Goose: 22
  • Turnstones:
  • Shorebird: 1

Would love help on the ID of this.. email us if you know!

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lion: 306
  • California Sea Lion: 834
  • Harbour Seal: 81
  • Elephant Seal female: 2

Animal Tracking and Injuries:

Spotted a Stellar Sea lion with fishing line wrapped around his neck ☹

Reported to DFO.

Since we are leaving on Tuesday, we spent the day cleaning the house, and washing the windows.

As well as our daily fence repair. It’s a particularly nauseating feeling to wake up each morning, look out at the beautiful view, and survey the extent of fence damage that has happened overnight…. This is a task I definitely will not miss.

Weather: Sunny all day, Very windy all night (35+ Knts, dropping all day to around 20knts W/SW)

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 2

**Loads of Humpbacks hanging about 😊

Water Woes

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Friday, September 27, 2024

Unfortunately for us, the levels of water in the massive cistern beside the house are low, so we have not been running the desalinator lately, and despite our best water saving efforts we need more …

Until the sea lions (and the massive amounts of poop that comes with them) clear out we aren’t able to fill the cistern with seawater. So…  today, Greg came out with a massive tank of freshwater on the back of the Second Nature to top up our reservoir.

This was a bit of a production as we had to lay out ~ 75m of fire hose from the reservoir to the dock, but we did it, and now we won’t be leaving the next eco-guardian in a lurch.

On another note, we have a returning Elephant Seal. This lady is untagged, and definitely knows her way around the island. We first saw her at 11 am on the jetty, and by 2 pm she was in the grass by the main path to the house.

I hope she sticks around for the weekend!

Weather: Sunny all day, Wind at around 16knts SW all day.

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 0

**Loads of Humpbacks close to the Island today 😊

Grey Days Ahead!

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Thursday, September 26, 2024

Finally, some real lighthouse keeping weather! Greg paid us a visit with a freshly tuned up Second Nature. We topped up the large diesel holding tank that is used to power the generator. We laid out some firehose as tomorrow we will top up the fresh water holding tank. Normally, we are able to make our own water but the cistern is running low and the area where sea water is pumped from is right where the sealions are hanging out.

Weather: Intermittent rain all day with brief periods of heavier fall. Wind 8-14kt with some heavier gusts.

Whale Watching Vessels: 13

Private Vessels: 3