Category Archives: Marine Vessels

Vessel traffic

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Weather: good visibility, light wind, overcast, calm sea

Vessels. After a couple fairly quiet days traffic increased today. Several of the boats appeared to be within 100 meters of sealions. A couple appeared to be going over the 7 knot speed limit within 400 meters of the rocks.

-1 Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue boat

-4 private/sports fishing boats

-2 rental boats from Peder Bay Marina. I called the Marina to let then know their rental boats were in the reserve and that one was quite close to marine mammals.

-4 tour boats

-Hyaku from Pearson College, Cory with 2 guests stopped in for a short tour on the island

Maintenance:

-continued work on energy system assessment, writing report.

Neighbour almost

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Weather: Wind light, good visibility, cloudy with a few breaks, and pretty calm sea.

Maintenance:  

  • Boat. Guy came out in the morning on Second Nature to bring me to campus.  We looked over Neighbour and found a 20 amp fuse in the outboard that was burnt out. Replaced it and the engine started and ran well. I ran some errands and came back in the afternoon.  Took Neighbour, was running great, but the engine died near the Navy docks, engine alarm sounding.  Guy came out in Second Nature and towed me back to campus. I took the zodiac out and made it to the island, Guy provided escort.  Big thanks to Guy for the support!
  • Reading through the new off-grid energy system operating manuals, trying to trouble shoot. It looks like we are running on only one of two inverters so have a reduced charge capacity when running the generator.

Vessels:

  • 1 ecotour boat before dusk that got well within 100 meters of sealions. 

 

Shift Change

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Good conditions for a shift change today.  Jeff has been out since Laas left last week, I will be on until around January 3.   Guy brought me out on Second Nature and brought Jeff and guest back around noon.  Unfortunately Neighbour wouldnt start, she is at the college dock, we will try again tomorrow.

Vessels:

  • A dive boat without divers,
  • a private boat,
  • and an ecotour

Ecological

  • A Crude Oil Tanker, the Alaskan Legend passed by in the afternoon. Photos below of the tanker with wildlife in foreground
  • Neck ringed sealion, photographs below
  • Chunk hauled out in the afternoon bringing total large male E Seals to 4 on the island along with 3 females, none of which appear to be pregnant.

The effects of Vessel Underwater Noise on whales

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Currently Mike Fenger and I are representing the Board of the Friends of Ecological Reserves as Intervenors in the New round of Reconsideration Hearings  of the National Energy Board on the Trans Mountain Pipeline Proposal . You can follow this process with its daily updates from participants at https://apps.neb-one.gc.ca/REGDOCS/Item/View/3614457

Since one of the aspects ordered by the Review Panel is the state of the Southern resident Killer whales one of the most disturbing piece of evidence of their plight comes  I have come across is contained in this audio clip:

This audio clip comes from the following image posted in the NEB records:

A95280-effects-of-uw-noise-and-what-mariners-can-do-A6J6G4

 

Census and so many sea lions

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy, Greg and Travis came by to help finish putting up the fence and also fix a couple things in the house
  • Still a lot of ecotours cruising by each day

Maintenance

  • The fence is up and working better than the old fence for keeping the sea lions out of certain areas
  • the washer is now also working, which is great for me
  • had to run the generator quite a bit today, the batteries have been running low

Ecological

  • About a hundred more sea lions than there were last weak
  • also seems to be more gulls and harbour seals
  • havent see the geese around today
  • also a sea lion with garbage wrapped around its neck, will contact the right people and keep an eye on him

Census

  • California sea lion – 371
  • Stellar sea lion – 184
  • Harbour seal – 77
  • Elephant seal – 1 female , there was another female but she left a couple days ago
  • Cormorants – 30
  • Seagulls – 486
  • Black turnstones – 25
  • Fox sparrows – 12

River otters and Fences

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Weather

  • Visibility: 0-15 Miles Foggy until noon
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • There were still plenty of ecotours even through the fog that covered the island all morning
  • Guy and Greg came by today and we put up the electric fence to keep the sea lions away from the generator room and the guest house

Maintenance

  • Putting up the electric fence and running the generator a bit to make up for the lack of sunlight this morning
  • Guy also brought me fuel today so we topped up the diesel tank

Ecological

  • Found the body of a river otter today near the tank shed, it doesn’t look very old but it was definitely squished
  • Still two female elephant seals but no others have shown up
  • Seems like there is more and more sea lions everyday

Another Elephant

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 SW
  • Sky: Cloudy, patches of fog
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Some boat traffic around, mostly ecotours

Maintenance

  • had to run the generator for a few hours today because there was no sunlight coming through those clouds

Ecological

  • the sea lions are taking up that area between the guest house and the generator room, seems to be more and more of them everyday
  • there is another female elephant seal, shes bigger than the first one that showed up and more calm, she doesn’t look like she is molting as bad as the first one

Census, rain and whales

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Flat calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, most of it being whale watching tours
  • Guy came by with a couple more boat loads of students to give them a tour around the island

Maintenance

  •  Didn’t have to do any pressure washing today thanks to the rain although I did have to run the generator a bit to make up for not getting any solar energy today

Ecological

  • An elephant seal showed up yesterday and she is still around today, so thats exciting
  • also there have been a few humpback whale sightings and Guy said he saw some killer whales on the way over here but I missed them unfortunately
  • plenty of sea lions, seems like there is more everyday
  • not as many gulls as last week and I haven’t seen any cormorants on the outer rocks today

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 132
  • california sea lions – 314
  • harbour seals – 94
  • gulls – 261
  • elephant seals – 1 female
  • black turnstones – 12
  • fox sparrows – 2

New Students

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, many ecotours, fishing boats and sailboats
  • Guy brought by a couple boat loads of the new first year students, as he did yesterday so we could give them a little tour of Race Rocks, its great when the students get to come out here and see another aspect of Pearson College, they don’t come out here that often and you can’t see it from the college

Maintenance

  • having some camera issues lately, will need to order a new SD card for the Race Rocks camera and the one in personal camera is not cooperating either, but hopefully we will be able to get more photos up soon

Ecological

  • still around 300 sea lion, mostly californias around the island.
  • plenty of harbour seals on the outer rocks, a few on the main island
  • also a few whale sightings, I saw two humpbacks by north rock yesterday morning and Guy said he also saw killer whales near there when he came he around 9:30am yesterday.
  • Also one of the younger seagulls I posted a photo of last week is dead, not quite sure what happened, just its body by the pathway
  • there are still about 4 of the younger ones all together

Its been an eventful week and hopefully I can start taking pictures again soon :)

Census and Visitors

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 20-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, most of it being whale watching tours
  • Guy, Greg and Mike came by today to take the old washer and dryer in for repairs

Maintenance

  • did some pressure washing today, but will probably do more of the solar panels tomorrow, need to fuel up the pressure washer first

Ecological

  • Quite a few sea lions, and harbour seals around
  • Birds consist of seagulls and cormorants, haven’t seen any eagles or harlequinns around, there aren’t even any geese here today
  • it looks like one of the young seagulls, there are still about 7 maybe 9 around of the really young ones, but it looks like one of them was pecked at around its head

Census

  • stellar sea lions – 104
  • california sea lions – 198
  • harbour seals – 55
  • gulls – 289
  • cormorants – 26