Category Archives: Marine mammals video

Effect of DND Blasting on Bentinck Island on Sea lion Behaviour at Race Rocks

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This video was made on October 7, 2002 in order to document the effect of the Department of National Defence demolition exercises on Bentinck Island on the behaviour of birds and marine mammals at Race Rocks MPA. In previous years we have observed considerable disruption by military exercises involving blasting on nearby Bentinck Island in the fall just after the sea lions have returned to the island. We have requested that blasts be spread out over a longer period of time during an exercise. Traditionally blasts have come in a series of three. The first one would alert the sea lions, the second would send a few in the water and the third would clear the islands. This year on this one occasion, only two blasts were held at five minutes apart. The results are shown in the video.

See the index of the effects of human activities on marine life at Race Rocks

Northern Sea Lion , (Steller Sea lion)

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Several hundred Northern Sea Lions, Eumetopias jubata, formerly known as “Steller’s Sea Lion” visit Race Rocks in the winter months. They are now on the Endangered Species list as their numbers in the Northern Pacific have declined significantly in recent years. “I got this clip on a calm day when the swells were breaking on the islands and the sea lions were hauled out in a sheltered area just below the tower. By creeping up slowly on the ground, I was able to look down on them from a few meters distance without disruption. In this way, some of the normal patterns of behaviour can be observed. Note that there are a few Californian sea lions mixed in with this group and the occasional barking sound comes from them. The low growls are from the Northern Sea Lions.” (GF)

See other images of the Northern Sea Lion in the Race Rocks Taxonomy

Male Elephant seal Vocalization

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Normally in past years, during the winter and summer, the 2 male elephant seals have stayed around the middle island. This year, this one large male hauled out onto the rocks to the south of the tower for a few days. In this video, note the clicking sound that he emits when his head is in the air. Thanks to Chris Blondeau and Jane Johnston for getting the footage for this unique piece of video late one evening in late December, when they were out relieving for Mike and Carol at the MPA.

Phoca vitulina: Harbour Seal –The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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The total harbour seal population in the eastern north Pacific is estimated to be  330,000, and in California the estimated population was 40,000 in 1997.  They usually are found in small groups, but sometimes occur in numbers of up to 500.
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RANGE/HABITAT:  Harbour seals are found across the Northern Hemisphere in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  In the Northeast Pacific, they range from Alaska to Baja California, in Mexico. They favor near-shore coastal waters and frequent sandy beaches, mudflats, bays, and estuaries.

See the most recent posts on harbour seals by the Ecoguardians at Race Rocks 

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Harbour seal photo by Ryan Murphy 2002

silverHarbour seals spend about half their time on land and half in water, and they sometimes sleep in water.  They can dive to 1,500 feet (457 m) for up to 40 minutes, although their average dive lasts 3 to 7 minutes.  They are opportunistic feeders and hunt for sole, flounder, sculpin, hake, cod, herring, octopus, and squid.They will also take fairly large salmon.

This image of a mother an baby harbour seal was taken by Ryan Murphy when he was the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks 2009-2011 See this and many more excellent shots  on his Flickr album of Race Rocks Seals here.rmharbsealandpup

” Ryan and I were doing a live webcast from West Race Rocks, when we came across this harbour seal. It kept returning for a view of our activities so we were able to take several video shots while it hovered nearby. We noticed how it seemed to like returning to this rock pinnacle which was covered with kelp and the plumose anemone. When the lights of the camera get in at close range on the stalks or stipes of the kelp, you can see the brightly colored brooding anemone.” Andras Rozmer, (PC year 26)

 

Birthing location. Mother and and baby harbour seal. A few scenes taken in June at the time of the harbour seals giving birth. Note membranes still attached to the mother in the swimming scenes near the end.

 

Harbour seals are year-round residents of Race Rocks. Their numbers increase to over 400 in June and July at the peak of the pupping season. This video shows a quiet scene with seals hauled out on the shore on the west side of Race Rocks.

 

Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Clade: Pinnipedia
Family: Phocidae
Genus : Phoca
Species : vitulina

Phoca vitulina (Linnaeus, 1758 )

COMMON NAME: Harbour Seal

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In the summer, the South East bay is often populated by harbour seals. In this view taken in July, 2005 from the tower, you can count at least 25 seals.

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This shot is from the tower of the south bay by PB, Sept. 14 2007, the seals can be seen swimming underwater.

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Harbour seals on the south intertidal island, Sept. 2007

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A panorama of the seals on South Islands in June.. photo: GF

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The cause of death of this seal is unknown.It could have been hit by a boat.

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It had been providing food for an eagle several days before this picture was taken: see video:

rmsept2009decapsealAt Race Rocks,the Harbour seals are year round residents, although their numbers peak in mid summer to over 400. They have pups on the island from March to July. This file shows what happens if boat traffic is too fast in the ecological reserve or around any seal haulout area,

 

Damion Wilson PC Year 27.
Other Members of the Class Mammalia at Race Rocks.

See the most recent posts on harbour seals by the Ecoguardians at Race Rocks 

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 

Elephant seal Catastrophic Moult

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Race Rocks is at the northern limit of distribution of the Elephant Seal. They often number from 2 to 3 large males and 4 or 5 females. Arriving in January, they usually stay through the summer on the middle island and then leave for several months in the winter. Elephant seals often undergo a juvenile moult on the local beaches of Victoria when several years old. This individual may be at the end of such a moult as it still has a few sore spots on it’s coat. They end up on beaches where they wallow in the sand to keep the flies off. Members of the public often report them to the “authorities” as being diseased in appearance as their skin is blistered and raw. There has even been an example in the past few years in the local Victoria area when an animal in such condition was reported to the authorities as sick and due to ignorance, the animal was shot by an animal control officer. Of course this outraged some of some local residents who had been observing it for weeks as it was going through the moult, but the mistake had been made. So humans — leave well enough alone. Misguided intervention is not helpful for this rather rare pinniped

Elephant Seal Moulting 2

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Race Rocks is at the northern limit of distribution of the Elephant Seal. They often number from 2 to 3 large males and 4 or 5 females. Arriving in January, they usually stay through the summer on the middle island and then leave for several months in the winter. Elephant seals often undergo a juvenile moult on the local beaches of Victoria when several years old. This individual may be at the end of such a moult as it still has a few sore spots on it’s coat. They end up on beaches where they wallow in the sand to keep the flies off. Members of the public often report them to the “authorities” as being diseased in appearance as their skin is blistered and raw. There has even been an example in the past few years in the local Victoria area when an animal in such condition was reported to the authorities as sick and due to ignorance, the animal was shot by an animal control officer. Of course this outraged some of some local residents who had been observing it for weeks as it was going through the moult, but the mistake had been made. So humans — leave well enough alone. Misguided intervention is not helpful for this rather rare pinniped.

California Sea lions hauled out at Race Rocks Docks

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From August to November, a group of California Sea Lions hauls out on the shore to the East of the Docks with a few even staying on the docks. They get very used to the boats docking there and are often joined by a few large Northern sea lions as well. The constant barking sound comes from the California Sea lions, and the low growls are from the Northerns.”

Release of Entangled Sea lion- DFO and Vancouver Aquarium

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On December 13, 2009, Ryan Murphy reported to DFO that a sea lion on Middle Island was entangled in ropes. (See Ryan’s comments below) The ropes were snagged so it could not leave the rock. A rescue was mounted by DFO and the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre of the Vancouver Aquarium on December 16. This was the first time a sea lion had been successfully released from such an entanglement.

 

Further comments from resident marine scientist and ecoguardian at Race Rocks Ryan Murphy
: December 21 2009

Ryan was interviewed for this article in the Goldstream Gazette: Daring Sealion Rescue at Race Rocks

“Normally, neither DFO or the Vancouver Aquarium will intervene with entangled pinnipeds (seals and sea lions), but this case was special for a number of reasons.
1.  The sea lion was actually tethered to the rocks.  These animals are really tough and can often survive for years with their entanglements.  If tranquilized, these animals would take to the water and most likely drown before a rescue team could get to it.  This wasn’t the case here and so a rescue operation was a viable option.
2.  Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) like this one are listed as a species of special concern under SARA and as such are afforded a higher priority than other more abundant species like harbour seals and california sea lions.
3.  This animal was most likely spotted within 24 hours of its entanglement and was still in relatively good health.  Mike Demarchi of LGL who was on the island monitoring DND activity on nearby Bentinck Island and Rocky Point first spotted it on the morning of the 13th and his team and I were able to keep a very close eye on it during the daylight hours.  It was reported to DFO’s Observe, Record, Report (ORR) line (1-800-465-4336) and the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Centre (at 604-258-SEAL (7325) or via the emergency phone at 604-862-1647).  A case like this on an offshore haul out would most likely have resulted in death by starvation, hypothermia, or drowning long before it was sighted.  In the 3 days between the first sighting (first photograph) and its successful rescue, this animal had further tangled its tether from about 10m to 3m and exacerbated the wound to its flipper.  The gale yesterday would have drowned it had it not been rescued.”

 

Sealions Visit Divers Video

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Excerpts from the June 13, 2000 live webcast from underwater at Race Rocks. Northern sea lions visit the divers and end up by giving an aggressive threat display. One sea lion dives at the diver, then veers off at the last moment. This display is often accompanied by the snapping of teeth. Listen for it as the animal makes a close approach. It is adviseable that when sealions exhibit this behaviour it usually means you are encroaching on their territory and it would be best if you leave. 

Archived video

The Johan Ashuvud Project, 2000

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Victor David and Satoshi: For two weeks in May and June of 2000, Lester Pearson College graduating students, Victor Rakou, David Mesiha and Satoshi Kimura, and in the last week, Juan Manuel Alva and Martin Kryl, joined the sea gulls and stayed at Race Rocks running daily programs on a live camera, and broadcasting directly to the web. Faculty member Garry Fletcher worked with them for the daily webcasts from the shore and from underwater. Sponsorship for this week came from the Johan Ashuvud memorial fund.

The first big event was the Swiftsure Race Weekend. A camera was set up along with a supporting G4 computer in the top of the light tower. Two streams were broadcast, one to camera 4 on the website and a special experimental dedicated stream to Shaw Cable. This stream was of TV quality at 1Mbps and 21 FPS.

Our thanks to Kevin Sytsma of LGS for coming out to help setup for this 2 day broadcast and to Ken Dunham ( PC year 9) for reconfiguring the server from Ottawa in order to handle this experiment.

Each day at Low tide we set up in different locations around the island, always being careful to not disturb the nesting seabirds futher up on land. A Sony camera linked by Firewire to a G3 500 Mghz computer was located in the intertidal zone. From here, Audio and Video Signal went by the wireless Macintosh AirPort Link to the Science Centre. From here the signal traveled by Cat.5 cable to the top of the light tower where it was sent by radio to the Telus antenna at Lester Pearson College. From there it was webcast in live streaming video to the internet by a Macintosh G4 500.

Content through the week ranged from adaptations of organisms to the special ecological niches of tidepools and intertidal slopes, to First Nations use of resources and the role of community/ stakeholder participation in the Marine Protected Areas Pilot process.

The airport wireless base station was tried in a number of locations. We relied on David to find the best locations for connectivity. Best wireless transmission was achieved when we hoisted it up to the roof of the science house. The radio waves go through buildings but not through rocks!

Further editing for the video archives took place in the science centre in the evenings.

Video created this week by the team:

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Underwater Invertebrates and Fish On the last day of live webcasting, sea lions visited Glaucous-winged gull behaviour Gull territorial aggression

Chris Blondeau from Lester Pearson College joined us for a session on the care and maintenance of the underwater camera and housing. Chris is in charge of the shore-front at the college and is in charge of the SCUBA Diving program there.

We were also fortunate to have some visitors take part in the intertidal discussions we had on the islands. Dr. Jochen Kuum ( PC year 10) is seen here with Garry and diving with Satoshi and Victor Stephen Haggarty (PC year19) also participated above and below water. This video was made on the last dive

 

Carol Slater, who along with her husband Mike are the guardians of the MPA joined us to talk about the Black Oyster Catcher. We examined the trays of shells from last years midden of one nest. This parent bird was foraging off to the East of the dock where they hatched two chicks this year

Race Rocks viewed from the South at Rosedale Rocks Buoy.

One of the best parts in staying at Race Rocks overnight while doing these webcasts was the great sunsets. Sometimes you can view these on the remote control camera 1 and camera 5.