Category Archives: Animal census

Eco tour traffic

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California Sea Lion: 7
# of sealions at the NE haul out (first of a series of daily reports).
 Saw an abalone for the first time in 3 years while on a dive today.

Human Interaction
At 0829hrs PDT a floatplane flew under 1000 ft from E to W over Rosedale Reef.
A pod of orcas passed through Race Passage (W to E) this afternoon. At one point, at least 15 whale watching vessels were in pursuit. Subsequently, heavy eco-tour traffic was experienced in the Reserve this afternoon. Most vessels respected established guidelines, but there were a few notable exceptions:
1. Birds of a Feather approached within 100 metres of California sea lions hauled out near the jetty. The sealions did not upset as there was already activity on the jetty.
2. A vessel from Seaquest based out of Sidney was observed speeding into the east side of the Reserve, well within the limits of the 7 knot speed restriction, then later observed speeding out in the same direction.
3. Several other vessel were observed speeding within the boundaries of the Reserve, either to obtain a better vantage point for viewing whales or to shorten travel time to the whales once the whales had moved well past Race Rocks.
Luke came out to RR to dive this afternoon with Adam to help take measurements of the materials testing platform and for pleasure. Erik and Hao also arrived as did a contact from \”The Big Blue Technologies\” of Victoria and his two young kids.

There were 6 visitors to the island today.

1 lonely Cal. sea lion

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California Sea Lion: 1
Human Interaction
At 0952hrs PDT a Prince of Whales vessel was spotted ripping out of the main channel heading westbound into the Strait.

At 1130hrs PDT a small, white, fibreglass vessel was spotted entering the west side of the Reserve and transiting at high speed around West Race before leaving the Reserve and heading in the direction of Pedder Bay.

orcas behave, people don’t

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Orca: 6 A pod of around 6-8 orcas passed W to E through Rosedale Reef this morning.
California Sea Lion: 1
Orca: 8 At 2025hrs PDT a pod of orcas was spotted heading E to W through Race Passage against the flood current. Seven eco-tour boats were in pursuit.

At 0835hrs PDT a Pat Bay Air floatplane flew over Great Race at less than 1000 ft, entering from a direction WNW and exiting E. The aircraft license number was C-FGLU.

At approximately 1135hrs PDT an OBMG rental boat was found to be intermittently maneuvering unnecessarily in the main channel west of Great Race, and to the SW corner of Great Race. The vessel made a pattern of slowing down, speeding up, slowing down, speeding up. Two persons on board, license number 14K37828.

At 1259hrs PDT a pleasure vessel passed over Rosedale Reef at high speed in a direction W to E. No license number or photos obtained.

At 1845hrs PDT a white fibreglass vessel with three persons (man, woman, child) on board was spotted fishing in the RCA in the vicinity of the tidal turbine. The name was “The Liquidator” and the license #6K155545. The incident was reported to DFO and by 1858hrs PDT the vessel had departed in the direction of Beecher Bay.

Sealion census Nov 5-21, 2010

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‘2010-11-05’, ‘California Sea Lion’, 10, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’09:09:12 ,
‘2010-11-05’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 50, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’09:08:57 ,
‘2010-11-06’, ‘California Sea Lion’, 5, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’09:08:51 ,
‘2010-11-06’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 25, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’09:09:04 ,
‘2010-11-07’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 50, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’08:16:52 ,
‘2010-11-08’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 40, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’23:01:37 ,
‘2010-11-09’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 15, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’11:10:20 ,’2010-11-10′, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 40, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’11:14:33 ,
‘2010-11-11’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 25, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’22:57:33 ,
‘2010-11-15’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 25, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’09:33:49 ,
‘2010-11-16’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 25, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’11:50:20 , ‘2010-11-17’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 35, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’19:04:31 ,
‘2010-11-19’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 20, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’18:56:05 ,
‘2010-11-18’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 40, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’18:56:36 ,
‘2010-11-20’, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 35, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’18:59:58 ,’2010-11-21′, ‘Northern Sea Lion’, 35, ”, ‘VirginieLP’, ’20:25:30 ,

Census and orca

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Orca: 2
Two transient orcas were spotted this morning travelling westwards between Great Race and Middle Race. A number of whale watching boats were in pursuit.
Elephant Seal: 3
Misery has been hauled up behind the boathouse for several days now, while Bertha is beside the fuel hose container. A small, young elly is NW of the Science House. She has a green tag that reads 4252 in her flipper.

Sad to report our first neck ring sighting this year. A juvenile California sea lion was hauled out with a group of ~9 other sea lions; its neck was constricted and lacerated by a ring of marine garbage. Given the numbers of California sea lions spotted here so far this season, this sighting fits the 1-2% entanglement rate observed here last fall.

Oystercatcher’s territory

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‘Elephant Seal’, 5, ‘Fewer females are visible on Middle Rocks. The tagged female has returned to Great Race Island despite having completed her moult. The larger females on Middle Rocks are in various stages of their moults.’, ‘Ryan’, ’20:56:43 ,
-93, ‘2010-05-12’,

“Brown Pelicans are becoming a common sight at Race Rocks. See the log of May 12, 2010: Ryan Murphy

‘The diversity of bird life continues to increase with the appearance of
Dunlins, Brandts and Pacific Loons today.
Small groups of Brandts flew West throughout the day, followed by several large flocks numbering up to 100 birds in the evening.
A mature Brown pelican roosted here for the night, much to the gulls ” dissatisfaction.
There are still 2 pairs of Harlequin ducks spending their days around Great Race Island, plus
4 Whimbrels were again seen on the SW corner of the island where up to
3 Black Oystercatcher pairs have staked nesting territories. There are a total of
7 pairs of Oystercatchers with territories on the island, but only 2 confirmed nests so far, and of those only one nest with 2 eggs at the moment. Could be a bumper year as a maximum of 5 breeding Oystercatcher pairs have been recorded in the past. ‘,
‘Northern Sea Lion’, 10, ‘The numbers of Northern Sea Lions have been down the past several days, however they are still finding food in the reserve. A commotion right above the tidal turbine today attracted a number of gulls, and I could soon see a Northern sea lion was thrashing a large fish on the surface. Reviewing my photos it turns out the sea lion had captured a wolf eel! Long tasty filets on those protected fish, I can ”t say I ”m not envious!’,

‘Ryan’, ’21:10:38 ,