Category Archives: Marine Vessels

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

I’m Back

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 miles
  • Wind: 15-25 kn SW
  • Sky: slightly hazy/partly cloudy
  • Water: a bit choppy, under a metre

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Plenty of ecotours, whalewatchers around today, by the way they were circling the kelp patch I assume the otter was there

Island maintenance

  • had to run the generator for a few hours today because there was not a lot of sunlight
  • also cleaned off the camera by the helicopter pad, received a message saying the cameras were getting difficult to see through

Bird notes

  • Nice to see a few younger seagulls around, they were already a decent size and lost their baby feathers by the time I got here last september

Marine mammals

  • Plenty of sea lions already on the main island, will need to put up a fence soon to keep them away from important areas, such as the generator room, don’t want to run into them if I need to get to the generator

Visitors, injured seal, and canoes

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Kyle visited the island today and brought Nick along, who is a former Ecoguardian and currently works as a facilitator for Pearson’s PSYL program. They brought my my food supplies and Kyle gave Nick a tour on some of the newer systems here.
  • Lots of whale watching boats in the area today
  • Saw a bunch of canoes paddle past the island, headed south. I believe they originated from Beecher Bay. Photograph below.

Marine mammals

  • Noticing a slow rise in the steller sea lion population on the northern rocks. There’s at least one really massive sea lion. I’ll get an accurate count later this weekend.
  • The injured seal that showed up a few days ago with predator marks and molting fur, returned to the island today and seemed to be more injured. I think it is a female. I’ll keep an eye on it.
  • Possible humpbacks far south of the island – too far to see the whales, but there was a gathering of whale watching boats in the spot where the humpbacks like to hang out.

Southeast winds, more work on the electric grid and ollie!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 SE in the morning, 5-10 N in the evening (quite unusual)
  • Sky: partly cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Kyle again brought several technicians from PTTP to do further work on the energy systems. They were able to connect the system to the internet which now allows them to remotely monitor solar input and usage. I also helped them lift the new batteries off the floor and place them on to an insulated rack.
  • Noticed an ecotour boat from the United States going around the reserve, and I’ve never seen this boat before. Maybe it was a 4th of July special?

Birds

  • Most seagull eggs have hatched, but some still remain whole. The seagulls are extremely aggressive now, and hard hats are a must for any visitors at this point.
  • A couple of juvenile bald eagles are making the rounds on the island – I initially mistook them for golden eagles, but Kyle explained they were simply juveniles.

Marine mammals

  • Kyle and I went to grab some photos of Ollie the sea otter that lives in a kelp patch near turbine rock.
  • We also spotted a humpack’s blow but by the time we got close it was gone.

Seagull Eggs have hatched!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knts W
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: small white caps

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Just a few ecotour boats in the area today
  • Kyle came by to drop off some food supplies for me, but because of the dropping tide he wasn’t able to stay long enough to come ashore.

Birds

  • The seagull eggs have started to hatch! I estimate about 20 babies as of this morning. It’s hard to get a count of them as the seagulls are now at their most aggressive – I got hit on the head a few times, but thankfully I had my hard hat on.
  • Spotted some more oystercatcher chicks, but again they were gone by the time I got close. They are REALLY hard to photograph.

Marine mammals

  • Yet another day of no sea lions
  • Elephant seal count remains the same – one of the adult males got all the way up to the base of the lighthouse today!