Category Archives: Overflights

visitors

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David and friends arrived for an overnight stay.
At 1950hrs PDT a Canadian Coast Guard chopper flew in from the west over the strait and circled the tower once before heading east in the direction of the CCG Victoria base. Suspect they were performing a quick visual inspection of their equipment while on a return trip from servicing stations up the coast.

There were 3 visitors to the island today.

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.

Airplane and helicopter flights under 305 metres ( 1000ft)

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111009patbay

A float plane, hired by a Fisheries and Oceans Creel Survey flight over the reserve on November 10, 2009.
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Shortly after 11 AM, Oct. 18/2009, a float plane over the reserve at very low altitude (well under 305 metres, (1000 ft.): reported by a kayak tour group.

 
harbairtower

A low flight by a local airline company in 2004

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For a Creel survey, the fisheries observer on board knows which are the restricted fishing areas and if he sees a vessel that appears to be engaged in sport fishing in a restricted area he tries to get the vessel’s license number or name to pass along to enforcement. It has a defined route that includes going by Race Rocks, usually at 500′. UPDATE: The flight on Oct.18 2009 was also a DFO Creel survey flight which went to 300’ to check out a vessel which appeared to be involved with sports fishing.

The Problem with Airplanes and Helicopters.Sea lions and harbour seals are especially wary of low flights by helicopters and airplanes usually leading to stampeding into the water. helicopter landing kills gullsA helicopter landing on the island at the wrong time of year can cause havoc among the seabird colony. This video shows the aftermath of a landing by a coastguard helicopter in August of 2003. At that time, the Glaucous winged Gull chicks are able to move around within the envelop of their nesting area but leaving that area means certain death by being pulled apart by other adults. This territorial behaviour has evolved as a mechanism to prevent overcrowding of nesting areas. The helicopter landing the tower resulted in an high mortality rate.
From the DFO Consultation Secretariat: Updated draft of the Marine Mammal Regulation Amendments (5) (a) No one shall operate an aircraft for purposes of aerial marine mammal observation at an altitude of less than 1000 feet.; (b) For purposes of subsection (a) “aerial marine mammal observation” means any alteration of course of an aircraft in flight which is designed to bring the aircraft closer to the marine mammals.Comment: Aircraft (fixed wing & helicopter) are handled separately because of the demonstrated disturbance of aircraft when flying over marine mammals and the risk associated for the marine mammals and the aircraft when landing on the water. This proposed regulation is currently being reviewed by Transport Canada to ensure consistency with existing aviation regulations.NOTE: As of November 12, 2009, the regulations of Transport Canada still do not reflect the 1000 ft distance. We understand they are working on this to harmonize the policy between departments. Further note: In the regulations for flying in Alaska a greater elevation distance is required.
From: “How to View Marine Mammals from an Airplane or Helicopter
• Maintain a 1500-foot (457.2 metres) minimum altitude when viewing marine mammals from the air.
• Buzzing, hovering, landing, taking off, and taxiing near marine mammals on land or in the water is likely to harass the animals.”It would be useful if the US and Canada could have some agreed upon figure.
Return to the Environmental Impact and Disturbances Index:

Boats and Planes disturb the marine life.

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Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 15.7 ºC »» Min. 8.8 ºC »» Reset 12.1 ºC
MARINE LIFE: Still quite a few birds in the area feeding, counted over 130 Cormorants, most of them on North Rks. and the rocks to the southeast.The ones on North Rks. were scared several times by boats going by but the sea lions for the most part were undisturbed.One boat that comes into the reserve about once a week, a Lifetimer 14K 38596 did approach too close and 5 or 6 Sea Lions took to the water, many others were alerted and moved towards the water but as the boat moved back they settled back down.At about 11:45 an Ultralight made several passes over Gr. Race at times too low, scaring some sea lions into the water and most of the birds took flight. The aircraft was black with orange and yellow trim-C-1FQC
HUMAN INTERACTION: The observers from LGL spent the day in the tower and departed just after 17:00. There were 11 Ecotour boats, 6 pleasurecraft and the 1 research boat (Lifetimer) in the reserve today.  Hyaku (Chris) over from campus to return the station boat-repairs completed.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:14 PM