morning weather: wind W 15kts sea 1ft Chop Sky clear
Out of curiosity I have been looking at the solar panels output throughout the day. With a clear sky at 1340hrs we were producing 2410 Watts and adding charge to the batteries after accounting for the island load.
1440hrs Float plane low overflight. Likely Fisheries observers; I thought I recognized the plane from past years.
Started work on cleaning and lubrication of the boat cradle wheels.
winds up in the evening to 40kts
Chris Blondeau on watch at Race Rocks @ 1600hrs
It has been a while since I have been here for more than a few hours. I am looking forward to reconnecting with the place and its inhabitants.
Mike will be off for the rest of the week, so I will have time to get the full experience
It was both fun and a bit daunting to pull the boat out, run the generator, do the seawater sampling (9 deg C) after so long. It all came back though; just like riding a bike as they say.
One whale watching vessel at approx. 1730hrs
One overflight approx. 2030hrs
More and more tour boats are visiting the reserve this week. It is easy to loose track of the numbers because they come out of nowhere it seems and from every direction. I estimate we are seeing about 20 visits a day this week. This may be because the orca are out of range, and Race Rocks can always be counted on to provide a picturesque opportunity to see marine mammals in the wild. By and large the tour boat operators are respectful but some operators seem ignorant of the reserve boundaries and come in or leave a little too rapidly. I will be emailing the companies to clarify this issue when I have some photographic evidence.
Whale-watching vessel
This enormous vessel is new. I will be curious to see how marine mammals react to it. I suspect it will have less impact than the zodiacs because it will stay a bit further away and more people will see the animals on one trip than 6 or 8 zodiac trips. We will see!
This large California Sea Lion arrived yesterday. He has a brand that appears to be 909 (or 606). More pictures of him coming soon….
Elephant Seals at Docks
There are 6-7 elephant seals finishing up their moulting now. On occasion we get a little traffic jam on the ramp. Here Bertha reminds the others who is boss…
The military conducted several over-flights whilst on manoeuvres, but at a reasonable altitude. Yesterday Erik and I shipped 500 gallons of water over, as finding parts for the desalination unit is challenging. I hope that volume will last a month or so…
This weekend the island and reserve is teeming with humans. Seven Pearson students are experiencing a weekend here, we have 4 groups of Pearson students (60 in total) coming out for a biology exam. As well the “Friends of Ecological Reserves” group is coming for a tour in a few hours. But perhaps most obvious are the 25-30 sport halibut fish boats ringing the reserve to the East, South and West. Apparently there is a derby with about 450 fishing tickets sold. Either those boats are crowded or we can expect more before the day is over. Personally I am routing for the halibut!
We had 6 elephant seals here yesterday including numbers 6360, 5086 and 6375. Bertha is back for her moulting time of the year. She seems to go through the process much quicker than the juveniles. You can see the scar that makes her so easy to identify and is testament to her recuperative powers.
One of the juvenile elephant seals managed to wiggle under the chicken wire of one of the enclosures Alex made to measure the impact of Canada Geese on the grass. Turns out a 100 kg e-seal can have an impact on grass too.
photo courtesy of Pam Birley. Taken from the tower remote camera.
She has been liberated but seemed more annoyed than thankful!
Bald Eagle flyover…. a float plane just buzzed us and last night the military helicopter was doing exercises in the area. Chris cleaned the underwater webcam yesterday. You can watch the fish and if you are lucky spot a Sea Lion! https://racerocks.ca/racerock/uwcam/video2frame.htm
California Sea Lion: 14
Human Interaction
At ~1935hrs PDT a vessel was spotted fishing within the limits of the RCA in close proximity to the E. side of Rosedale Reef. The vessel eventually made its way out.
At 1245hrs PDT a vessel was spotted speeding into the Reserve from the E side. The station vessel was already on the water and advised the mariners to slow down.
At least 4 OBMG vessels were spotted this afternoon approaching close to mammals on Middle Rock and on Great Race and proceeding at a speed in excess of 7 knots.
Ocean Magic II produced a very large wake this afternoon while transiting the Middle-North Race channel against the current. This is the largest eco-tour vessel seen so far within the reserve
At 1945hrs PDT a CCG or CCGA rescue RHIB transited the South Passage E to W, then the main passage W to E. Once near the jetty end of the passage, the vessel throttled up and proceeded to power through the Middle-North Race Passage at high speed before exiting into Race Passage heading westbound.
At 2010hrs PDT a floatplane flew exceptionally low over the N side of the Reserve, E to W. No license/company name obtained.
Overall, yesterday and today were very traffic-heavy days due to whales in the area. At times 8 or more boats were in the Reserve at any single time.
Two techs arrived from Environment Canada to finish servicing the EC weather equipment at the top of the tower.
There were 2 visitors to the island today.
Vessels:
| Pleasure: 7 | Eco-Tour: 30 | Total: 37 |
At 1111hrs PDT a Prince of Whales vessel was spotted entering the Reserve at high speed in close proximity to West Race.
A CCG helicopter did a reconnaissance flight around the tower this morning.
Erik and Evgeny arrived to install the cable for the new underwater camera. Two techs from Environment Canada arrived to work on their weather equipment.
There were 4 visitors to the island today
California Sea Lion: 8
Human Interaction
At 0835hrs PDT a floatplane flew W to E over the south side of the Reserve under 1000 ft.
At 1035hrs PDT a small RHIB entered the east side of the Reserve near North Race at high speed. The vessel proceeded to transit the main passage to the south side of Middle Race where they approached within 30 metres of harbour seals on the Rocks. At least 25 seals took flight to the water.
At ~1100hrs PDT a vessel was spotted entering the Reserve from the east at high speed.
At ~1330hrs PDT a vessel was spotted transiting the main passage at very high speed. Communication was made with the vessel and it slowed.
At 1510hrs PDT an Oak Bay Marine Group vessel was spotted fishing within the limits of the Reserve. Pedder Bay Marina was alerted. The vessel was halted by another recreational fishermen before PBM staff could respond.
At 1515hrs PDT an OBMG vessel was spotted speeding in the waters west of Great Race. The vessel eventually departed.
At 1515hrs PDT a recreational vessel was spotted fishing near West Race. The station vessel was launched to intercept the violators and they departed shortly thereafter.
At ~1900hrs PDT a recreational vessel was spotted speeding into the eastern portion of the Reserve in the direction of the North Race-Middle Race channel. The vessel slowed before entering the channel.
Divers from Ocean Educations arrived in the afternoon to dive off the front side of the island.
There were 18 visitors to the island today.
Pleasure: 10 Eco-Tour: 5
At 0842hrs PDT a floatplane flew W to E over the south side of the Reserve.
At 1017hrs PDT a floatplane flew in from the E, banked over top of the south side of the Reserve then headed SE towards the Puget Sound region.
There was 1 visitor to the island today.
Posted by Adam
At 1230hrs PDT a vessel (13K 116013) was observed entering the Reserve under high speed from the west. Within 100 metres of Great Race, the vessel slowed, passed near Rosedale Reef, then turned around and sped back out to the west under high power.
Mid-afternoon, a vessel was spotted drifting into the NW side of the Reserve while fishing. The vessel departed after about 10 minutes.
At ~1515hrs PDT a red eco-tour zodiac (company name not visible) transited the main channel from E to W at a speed greater than 7 knots and fast enough to keep the vessel up on a plane.
At 1533hrs PDT a floatplane passed from E to W over the north side of the Reserve.
At ~1600hrs PDT a whale watching vessel approached closer than 100 metres to a California sea lion hauled out near the derrick. The vessel was actually within the kelp bed off the rocks. Upon sighting me [Adam] the vessel backed off and sped through the main channel to the west. After passing between West Race and Middle Race, the vessel throttled up well within the limits of the Reserve.
Posted by Adam
At 0836hrs PDT a floatplane flew W to E over the south side of the Reserve under 1000 ft.
There were 2 visitors to the island today.
Posted by Adam