Visibility: 8 miles in the early morning, 15 later on
Wind: 15-20 knots East, then North, then West
Sky: foggy and overcast, then sunny, then overcast
Scattered raindrops throughout the day
Water: mostly calm, with swells in the afternoon
Ecological
Maya and Tazi conducted 4 intertidal transects today.
Studying an intertidal transect involves measuring out a certain distance from a peg, and then documenting the different species found every 0.5 metre.
In some transects the 0.5 metres are measured by water elevation; in others simply by distance.
By comparing the species found in every zone of the transect with transect data from previous decades, you can see the change in intertidal ecosystems due to climate change.
We saw a California Sea Lion with the brand U374 and another with a tracker.
While most of the gull eggs all look the same, one particular egg is quite different.
Intertidal Transect
Water level elevation
0.5 metres
Photographing the zone
Compass to determine direction of transect
California Sea Lion with tracker
Tracker
Brand U374
Moulting E-Seal
Seagull eggs
Seagull eggs
Before
Maintenance
Maya and I ran the fire pump in the morning.
This added a few inches to the cistern.
We removed the old Canadian flag and hoisted a fresh one.
Tazi and I removed some algae.
Ali whacked away at the thistles.
We cleaned the solar panels.
Boats
Over 150 sailboats from Victoria passed by Race Rocks in the late morning on their way towards the Western horizon.
Some of them started to return as late as 22:30.
The colours of their sales included: red, blue, white, fluorescent yellow, green, purple, black, orange, and many combinations of all of the above.
Some standouts included the Miles Davis sail and the Union Jack.
I couldn’t stop taking photos and ended up with dozens. Below is a selection of the best.
One coastguard zodiac and a search and rescue boat appeared to be accompanying the sailboats.
Several eco-tours came by, including one Eagle Wings tour that drove through the South Channel.
Passing through the South Channel is prohibited as the width is too narrow.
Glued the edge of the desalinator bunker door back on.
Cleaned the solar panels.
Boats
Between 15-20 eco-tours came into the reserve today; I lost count.
Most of them appeared to be too close to the sea lions at one point or another.
Once there were 4 eco-tours in the reserve at the same time.
Another time there were 5 eco-tours within the reserve.
Two times the small Prince of Whales boats went THRU the South Channel.
When marine mammals are present, this channel is too narrow for boats to pass through (the minimum distance for boats viewing marine mammals is 100 metres!)
Both times there were many sea lions present, including several that were already swimming in the channel or near the entrances.
Most of the sea lions were at the right hand entrance to the channel. Unfortunately both times the boat had already passed thru that entrance before I could get a photo.
I did get some photos of one PoW boat in the middle of the channel, and exiting it.
Several pleasure craft passed through the reserve as well, including a sail boat that was towing a smaller boat (reminiscent of motorhomes that tow cars).
I wasn’t able to get photos of all these boats, as I didn’t always have the camera on me. I also accidentally deleted a few photos.
