Category Archives: Island Visitors

kayak disturbance, tagged e-seals, pup, etc

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Wind has varied between W and NE less than 20 NMPH over the past few days.  We have had some patches of fog during the week and partly clear skies today and yesterday.

On the 15th a group of 20 kayakers passed through the reserve on the East side heading West.  They passed on both sides of East rock and caused one of the largest sea lion disturbances I have seen here, several hundred sealions scrambled into the water.  I was able to talk to one of the kayakers as they passed by the south side and told him that they are not allowed to cause this kind of disturbance to marine mammals at race rocks. Though I love kayaking and prefer kayaks to motorized vessels, kayakers need to realize that because they are so nice and silent they can also easily surprise wildlife.  Once startled sealions stampede and can easily trample younger sealions or injure themselves rushing over the jagged rocks.

1 dive boat in the reserve today, 1 eco tour in the afternoon, 1 sports fishing boat in the morning which traveled too close to sealions on the East rocks. I called Pedder Bay Marina and gave them the ID number and a description and asked them to talk to the operator about regulations at Race Rocks (thanks Pedder Bay Marina!).

The elephant seal pup seems to be in good shape and is drinking milk regularly. Chunk seems fairly well behaved, a few times a day he we will arise from his slumber and chase after Bertha. Sometimes it seems he is trying to separate her from the pup and restrain her. I have seen him with his mouth around the pup’s head as well as with the pup partly underneath him though on all occasions I have observed he has clearly not harmed the pup when he easily could have. Chunk went off the island last night, I assume to middle rock and was back in the morning. There are two elephant seals on middle rock, both fairly large, one possibly a young male. I have been hearing what sounds like a male’s call coming from middle rock today. There were also two smaller scruffy, moulting female elephant seals in the shoreline of the main island today one tagged green 7502 the other tagged pink N93_ the last number is not visible. That brings the current e-seal population to 7.

Past week maintenance:
-cleaned solar panels daily
-flushed media filter on desal
-changed pre-filters on desal
-troubleshooting cam 5 with help from Jonathan, replaced POE unit. took measurements to replace leaky cable housing at base of cam stand
-ran desal x2
-ran fire pump
-replaced leaky hydraulic line on crane, pressure tested line
-cut, chopped, stacked fire wood
-replaced fire extinguishers which had been sent in for annual servicing
-brought temporary fire extinguishers off island for servicing
-troubleshooting of failed internet system with help from Jonathan
-swapped out 1 propane tank on main house

Visitors this week:
-on the 15th Erik came with a guest to drop off supplies
-on the 16th Erik brought Jonathan out to replace switch in the tower as well as the Marine sciences class for a field trip (12 students and Ann)

Dec 31, visitors, octopus

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overcast, wind light.

Chris came out in the morning with a group of 8 visitors.

Several octopus encounters today: there was an octopus near jetty as the guests were leaving, I heard a fisherman on the radio talking about having caught an octopus, and in the evening I came a across a small octopus in a tide pool at a very low (0.1 meter) tide.

1 ecotour and 1 recreation boat in the reserve today

-tidy engine room and house for visitors
-did a maintenance tour with Chris
-cut, chopped, stacked wood
-checked battery water level
-fuel inventory for month end report
-started preparing month end report

Westerly, speeding, visitors

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Monday a west wind picked up over night and was blowing over 20 knots most of the day with gusts over 40 knots.  The wind diminished over night and was calm on Tuesday.  I had been planning on picking up some guests Monday but it was too windy so rescheduled for Tuesday morning. Tuesday was partly sunny and today there has been a light N wind and partly cloudy sky. I went off island today for a short christmas visit with family.

On Tuesday a private sports fishing boat traveled through the reserve well in excess of the 7knot speed limit (within 400m of rocks). I signalled to the boat to slow down, they saw me and slowed down but not enough. I photographed the boat and got ID numbers and made a request to Pedder Bay Marina to check if it was a boat returning to their marina and if they could speak to the operator about the speed limit in the reserve.

On Sunday Chunk left great race and returned to Middle rock. There has been one moulting female elephant seal hauled out in the rocks in south bay.

-cut fire wood
-pulled in log from water
-cleaned solar panels
-2 visitors (arrived Tuesday)

Nice Day for a visit

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The wind dropped and sky cleared up today.  I counted 15 bald eagles on West rock and Middle rocks in the morning

Angus Mathews, Executive Director of the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre and long time champion of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve, visited Race Rocks with some staff members from the Shaw Centre as well as Bruce Obee, freelance author and photographer, Todd Golumbia, Ecologist formerly with the Gulf Islands National Park and Garry Fletcher, Race Rocks Ecological Reserve warden. They came out on a Eagle Wing Tours boat with Brett Soberg, co-owner of Eagle Wing and long time tour guide, who carefully manoevered the sleek fiberglass boat, with three 250 hp outboards, alongside the unforgiving concrete jetty.

All images below were taken by Bruce Obee:

Angus and Garry both have a long history with Race Rocks so we had a good tour and heard some good stories. Todd noticed that one of the black oyster catchers on the south side of the island was banded, likely a banding he had done in the gulf islands. We weren’t able to get a reading on the ID number so I will try to follow up with this information.

The Shaw Centre has initiated the Salish Sea Institute.  To learn more about this important project check out this article by Bruce: http://bruceobee.com/readers-picks-2/ and this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SNhwzhk-oA&feature=youtu.be

One private sports fishing boat toured around in reserve today.

-9 visitors to the island today
-did some preparations for visitors including installing bumpers on jetty
-toured island with visitors
-cut, chopped, stacked firewood
-did some tinkering with boat house door. It has new hardware installed and is working better than before but is still derailing sometimes. Maybe installing some roller brackets at the bottom could help keep it aligned.
-observed nice sunset

Change of Guardian, Snow

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I got a ride out to Race Rocks today with Erik to start my winter shift.  Pedder Bay was covered in ice up to around the college’s main docks.  Courtney updated me on operating procedures and returned with Erik. There was supposed to be a chimney cleaner coming too but it has been snowing since this morning and it was too slippery.

Chunk was in the water by the jetty when we arrived and came up the ramp. He is so big that i thought it was the alpha male, Misery, at first. The scars, from getting chewed up by Misery, are visible on his back.

The snow stopped before sunset so I cleaned off the solar panels. The tilted panels were partly clear whereas the horizontal panels had accumulated about an inch of snow.

visitors

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Light winds. Clear skies.
Two Eagles this morning.
The Canada Geese have all left the reserve.
There are two elephant seals on the boat ramp.
 

Jamieson and Jer are out for the night
-Worked on SOPs
-Replaced boat ratchet winch
-Put the rest of the paving stones on the boat dolly

 

eagle

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Moderate NE winds all day. 3 ft wind chop. Cloudy but no rain.
The students left yesterday, and some volunteers from the college made a brief photo stop when Chris came to pick them up.

There was a boat fishing illegally in the reserve this morning. It left before I could try to make radio contact.

low west swell

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Overcast in the morning, sunny in the evening. The gale and small craft advisory never arrived, light winds all day.
2 ft West swell running this morning. The water still has great visibility.
Tour boats: 7
Dive boats: 1

A float plane flew over this morning.
Grey whale spouts in the mouth of Pedder Bay this morning. Spouts to the South-West at sunset.
Maciek was dropped of by Chris early this evening. He’ll be here for project week.

Another organization now using remote (and remotely operated) cameras is Pacific Wild. After you’ve looked at what’s going on here at Race Rocks, maybe spend a few minutes up the coast in the Great Bear Rainforest and see what the wolves and bears are up to [click here to go see].

 

-Ran desalinator
-Sorted recycling
-Completed WHMIS ticket