Category Archives: Infractions

Close call–

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Friday, February 22, 2002
Good Evening
TEMERATURE: Max. 9.0c >>> Min. 5.2c >>> Reset 5.2c >>> Rain 29.5mm
MARINELIFE: 3 mature and 1 immature Bald Eagles were around a good deal today. Two pairs of Canada Geese enjoyed wading in the large puddles that have formed on Great Race Island as we have experienced 71.7mm of rain in the past 48 hours. An Elephant Seal chose to lounge beside the jetty for part of the morning.
HUMAN INTERACTION: Pearson College divers were out for a drift dive on the ebb tide. A television crew from The New VI joined us as well. Rick Searle, the host of EnviroMental on the New VI, is preparing a segment about Race Rocks for the program. Watch for it coming soon on Channel 12 in Victoria.
One eco-tour boat through the MPA about 13:00.
At 14:20 a rental boat from a local marina tried to run the tide rips in the narrow gap between the South Islets at full speed. I couldn’t believe my eyes as they stopped just short of the reef. Mother Nature has ways of dealing with fools but she let them off easy today!
We had to settle for arranging a stern warning when they returned to the marina.
posted by Angus Matthews at 8:12 PM
Good Morning again. Mike and Carol have gone ashore for a week, a very rare occurance. I will be your guest host and eco-guardian.
posted by Angus Matthews at 10:19 AM

Canada Geese

Posted on by
Saturday, February 02, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max.7.1C  Min. 4.8C Reset 6.5C
MARINE LIFE:The bull Northern Elephant Seal still spending part of the day, usually early morning floating along the south shoreline then hauling out on the rocks below the tower.We hear him vocalizing as he spends part of the night on the north side of Gr. Race.5 Canada Geese flew onto Gr. Race late morning, we heard them some distance away as they ‘honked’ in from the Northwest.The last 7 years we have had geese visit this time of the year. Sometimes they stay a couple of days,last year two pair stayed off and on for three weeks.14 mature Bald Eagles – 2 immature today.
HUMAN INTERACTION: At 1:30 Noticed a small open boat with three persons aboard jigging in the area between West Race and Gr. Race.Launched the Whaler to take out an information pamphlet and although the fishers were familiar with the Race Rocks Web site, did not know about the ‘no take’ guidelines. 2 Kayaks ( 2 persons ) in the reserve today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:58 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy Vis. 15 Miles  Wind North East 8 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:17 AM

Blasting continues

Posted on by
Friday, January 18, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 5.7C  Min. 3.8C  Reset 4.7C  Rain 3.6 mm
MARINE LIFE: At 8:30 there were only 75-80 sealions hauled out on middle rock, not all the animals have returned since the blasting yesterday.The first blast at 9:58 alerted all the sealions and 20-25 went into the water,the second blast 2-3 minutes later sent all but 6 animals scrambling into the sea.The last blast at approx. 10:25 sent 12 of the 20 sealions that had hauled out after the 10:01 blast, back into the water.There will be blasting exercises again next week on the 24th and 25th.There were 11 (7 mature ) Bald Eagles today.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:03 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER : Sky Overcast Vis. 15 Miles Very Light Rain Wind North 8 Knots Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 8:07 AM

Tour Boat Disturbance

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Wednesday, December 05, 2001
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max 6.1C — Min 3.3C — Reset 4.9C — Rain 0.8 mm
HUMAN INTERACTION: Two groups of students came over in 2nd Nature this afternoon to learn the intricacies of the desalination plant that provides our fresh water. Two tour boats were in the reserve at 14:40 one of which did approach Middle Rock a little too close and caused some Sea Lions to take to the water. I think actually having people standing so high on an observation deck was very threatening to the animals. Garry happened to be in the tower so obtained this video of the disturbance:
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/archives/videcotourimpact.htm
Sadly we have a dead marine mammal at the base of the ridge along the east shore of Great Race. Even with the telescope I cannot tell whether it is a Harbour Seal,an Elephant Seal or a California Sea lion and I can’t get close enough without disturbing the 50 or so Sea Lions and 2 Elephant Seals hauled out all around to make a positive ID.MARINE LIFE: At approximately 16:00 we saw 6 or 7 Orca just east of North Rocks, unfortunately it was too dark for filming but what a sight! There was one very large bull in the group and one quite small Orca, possibly a calf. They were breaching and slapping their tails and really churning up the sea. They started out in fairly large circles diving, porpoising and rolling and the large bull breaching quite often. After about 10 minutes the circles got smaller and they started swimming very fast on their sides with their dorsals at about a 45 degree angle to the water. They were quite low in the water and were sort of ‘plowing’ the water,back and forth,around and around.Finally with the telescope we did see the reason for all the activity, one unlucky California Sea Lion. Twice the Sea Lion was tossed in the air. We watched until it was too dark to see anything except a few white splashes. As all this was going on there was a group of 30-40 sea gulls circling over-head ready to snatch up any ‘crumbs’ that might come their way -nothing is wasted in this example of the food chain.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:08 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy — Vis. 15 Miles — Wind North West 5 Knots — Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:19 AM

DND Blasting

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Thursday, November 22, 2001
Good evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.5ºC — Min 7.8ºC — Reset 8.7ºC — Rain 12.8 mm
MARINE LIFE: A typical November day weather wise however the Military detonation exercises on Bentinck Island were particularly disturbing for the Harbour Seals and Sea Lions. Once the blasting was done for the day the animals were still quite nervous and in fact when a Cuda Marine Whale Watching boat went by one rock(15:15-15:30) with approximately 120 sea lions hauled out over half of them stampeded into the water!
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:11 PM
Good morning
WEATHER: Sky overcast — Vis. 10 miles — Rain — Wind north 21 knots — Sea 4 foot moderate — Low north east swell
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:24 AM

military blasting

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winds in Northeast 25 kn.

14:30– a large blast from military on then on Bentinck island  shook the house and 200 birds took flight. 14:31 – – another blast approximately 100 sea lions went into the water.   14:32 – – blast, approximately 30 more sea lions went into water. 14:56 blast cleared rocks of gulls and cormorants, seals and sea lions were inserted but did not enter the water.

14  bald eagles including nine mature, five immature, on Great Race. total sea lions in the reserve: 350,  including 150 Steller’s.

oil spill

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At 1400 hrs. as sports fisher reported oil on water in   Whirl  Bay.

coastguard was contacted they said the matter was taken care of. At 15:00 hrs. A second sports-fisher  reported that the area was very contaminated. Military police and at rigid hull inflatable wear out around North rocks. At  15:15- 15:25 Hyaku  was out to check oil –Garry called and reported spill to Vancouver Coast Guard radio