This morning I noticed a Glaucous-winged gull on a nest up close to Camera 5 on the West side. These pictures show an unusual eye pattern??
Category Archives: ER Warden Report
Ocinebrina lurida : Lurid rock snail–The Race Rocks Taxonomy
Ocinebrina lurida : Lurid rock snail. The orange snail on the left is probably Ocenebrina. The others are various litorine snails.
Physical description:
Small,size to 1 1/2 ” (38 mm) solid shell with up to 6 whorls; fine close spiral treads crossing 6-10 axial ribs; Oval aperture with 6-7 teeth or more within outer lip height. Shell height most commonly is up to 40 mm, however usually less, with six to ten large low axial ridges crossed by prominent spiral ridges. Colors range from white, pale yellowish, dark brown, or red. It has a canal well developed, and its aperture is oval.
Classification
Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Gastropoda
Sub class Prosobranchia
Order Neogastropoda
Family Muricidae
Genus Ocinebrina
Species lurida
Common Name: lurid rock snail
Global Distribution
Ranges from Sitka (Alaska) to Punta Santo Tomas
(Baja California). 57° N- 32° N, in the Pacific Ocean.
Habitat
Low intertidal zones, visible amongst the fucus and other algae at low tide.It is common on and under rocks and in crevices, commonly, clinging to rocks.
Feeding
The lurid rock snail is the natural predator of the giant chiton, Cryptochiton stelleris . It has been observed feeding on gumboot chitons, where it uses its radula to cut through the dark outer layers on the dorsal surface of the chiton’s girdle in order to eat the yellow tissue beneath. They feed on a number of prey items, ranging from bivalves to other gastropods
Reproduction
They have separate sexes. Fertilization of the egg occurs in seawater. Eggs cases are attached to water.
Interesting facts
It may be confused with Amphissa, because its shell shows a similar mixture of fine spiral lines and axial ribs. It’s less slender than Amphissa, its canal is better developed, and its aperture is not at all the shape being oval rather than nearly elliptical. The yellow-brown or orange-brown coloration, and the fact that the axial ribs cross the body whorl, enable one to distinguish it from a small specimen of searlesia. Often confused with larger rock snail, Ocinebrina sclera,
References
http://members.shaw.ca/bcshells/bcframe.html
http://people.www.edu/staff/cowlda/KeyToSpecies/Mollusca/Gastropoda/Prosobranchi/
Order_Neogastropoda/Suborder_Rachiglossa/Family_Muricidae/Ocenebra_lurida.html
Peterson Field Guides Pacific Coast Shells Percy A. Morris Houghton Mifflin Company Boston 2nd edition 1980 Canada
Shells & Shellfish of the Pacific Northwest Rick M. Harbo Harbour Publishing 1997
Other Members of the Phylum Mollusca at Race Rocks.
 Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomyand Image File |
 The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams. |
Transect Peg Locations on Great Race Rocks
Expand this map of Great Race Rocks in order to see the numbered pegs in red around the shoreline. Some of these pegs were intended as intertidal locators, and some as subtidal tethering pegs. The ones with question marks still need to be located to be sure.
Some of the pegs were established pre-1980 and some were established after 2000.
Peg 1: off west side of jetty end- subtidal
Peg 2: off point of bay west of jetty–subtidal
peg 3: further along north side– subtidal
peg 4: off base of cliff– subtidal (proved impractical because of high current)
peg 5: inter and subtidal
peg 5a:later installation- inter and subtidal
peg 5b: later installation-inter and subtidal
peg 6: for tidepool locator and intertidal and subtidal
peg 7: for subtidal minimal use
peg 8: for subtidal not used
peg 9: for subtidal not used
peg 9 : for subtidal not used
peg 10: for subtidal not used
peg 11: subtidal not used as too close to old outfall.
peg 12 inter and subtidal
peg 13: used for annual intertidal algae stratification lab exercise.
peg 14: subtidal- outer extreme North East corner.
peg 14b: inter and subtidal concrete mound with stainless steel hole for peg – inter and subtidal
peg 15: large boat mooring post — used for intertidal lab exercises
peg 15a: inter and subtidal concrete mound with stainless steel hole for peg – inter and subtidal
From peg 5 and 5a:
See Transect A0050101
See Transect A0050102
See Transect A0050103
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Return to the Contents page for Environmental modelling with Transects..
Human Impact on Sealions: Fishing Flashers, Entanglement, Boat strikes
In this post we have put together many of our references to the impacts that humans have inflicted on our California and Steller or northern sea lion population which hauls out at Race Rocks. It includes images of fishing flashers and entanglement in commercial fishing gear, especially plastic net-binding hoops, as well as examples of strikes by boats which have injured sealions, often resulting in limb amputations. It is our hope that the fisher community can be more aware of how harmful their actions or negligence can be on marine mammal populations.
FISHING FLASHERS:
We see this event all too often at Race Rocks. Fishers must take responsibility for removing fishing gear from the water when marine mammals are nearby. Not only is it expensive to loose equipment, the impact on these sea lions is uncertain. If the animal succeeds in breaking the leader for the flasher, then the animal only has to contend with the hook down in the stomach. It is not known how this effects sea lion mortality.
 Dec. 13 2006 |
 Feb. 2006 |
 Feb. 2006 |
 This Northern sea lion was photographed on August 15, 2007 by Roth Wehrell. UVIc |
 A flasher on one of the sealions at the docks |
Entanglement in Commercial Fishing Plastic bindings on Nets.
This section shows plastic neck rings from commercial fishing nets around the neck of a sea lion.
Please write your Fisheries governing departments to request that all plastic bands used in the fishing industry for binding fish nets by made of biodegradable material.
 Neck rings on middle island |
 Oct26 2015 |
 Sept. 9,2009- |
| This northern (steller’s) sea lion showed up on Middle Rock in February of 2009 . Note the ridge formed by the ring toward the head end. Photo by Ryan | two neck rings and three brands appear in the same photo from the tower. GF | |
 Aug 31, 2009 |
 Sept. 2, 2009- Ryan Murphy photo |
 Sept. 1999 Carol Slater took this picture of a California beside the docks. |
These two tags will bring up the other posts on Marine mammal Injuries and Entanglement.
See other photos from the excellent collection of Ryan Murphy on Flickr
Kimberly L. Raum-Suryana, , , Lauri A. Jemisonb, Kenneth W. Pitcherc
Elsevier: Volume 58, Issue 10, October 2009, Pages 1487–1495
Abstract
Entanglement in marine debris is a contributing factor in Steller sea lion (SSL; Eumetopias jubatus) injury and mortality. We quantified SSL entanglement by debris type, sex and age class, entanglement incidence, and estimated population level effects. Surveys of SSL haul-outs were conducted from 2000–2007 in Southeast Alaska and northern British Columbia. We recorded 386 individuals of all age classes as being either entangled in marine debris or having ingested fishing gear. Packing bands were the most common neck entangling material (54%), followed by rubber bands (30%), net (7%), rope (7%), and monofilament line (2%). Ingested fishing gear included salmon fishery flashers (lures: 80%), longline gear (12%), hook and line (4%), spinners/spoons (2%), and bait hooks (2%). Entanglement incidence was 0.26% (SD = 0.0064, n = 69 sites). “Lose the Loop!” Simple procedures such as cutting entangling loops of synthetic material and eliminating the use of packing bands can prevent entanglements.
BOAT STRIKES:
As the Northern (Steller) and California sea lions started to return to Race Rocks in the fall of 2009, Ecoguardian Ryan Murphy noticed what may be a significant increase in the number of encounters they have had with humans. Ryan took these pictures at the time.
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- ” I cannot say for certain that it was one of the boats in the reserve that mangled this animal’s hind flipper,
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- however, boat traffic in the reserve consistently gets too close to marine mammals both in and out of the water.” RM Aug 23,2009
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- A gash on the chest
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- The origin of this is difficult to say, perhaps a whale, shark or boat prop
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- Boat prop scars on the back of this individual.
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- Close up of the wound.
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- Sept 26,2009 This california sea lion has a bad wound to the flipper.
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- A decapitated harbour seal.
New hashtag for #racerocks
I have just started a twitter hashtag for our the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve #racerocks You are welcome to use this in your twitter feed to provide links to significant new news-worthy events concerning the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.
There is also a new one for British Columbia Ecological Reserves: #ecoreserves
GF
Family Myctophidae: Lantern Fish–The Race Rocks Taxonomy
Lanternfish Photo by Anne Stewart
Anne found this specimen washed up in the intertidal In April, 2016.
Its not surprizing that we don’t have a name for it as can be noted in this quote from the website ” Sea and Sky presents The Sea”,
“There are over two hundred different species of lanternfishes in the deep sea. In fact, they are thought to be some the most common deep ocean creatures. Sampling by deep sea trawling indicates that lanternfish make up as much as 65% of the deep sea biomass. They are among the most most widely distributed and diverse of all vertebrate species and it is believed that they play an important role as prey for larger organisms.”
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass*: Osteichthyes
Class: Actinopterygii
Subclasses: Neopterygii
Order: Myctophiformes
Family: Myctophidae (T. N. Gill, 1893)
Genus: ?
Species: ?
Other Members of the Class Actinopterygii at Race Rocks.
| Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomy and Image File |
| The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.
Anne Stewart, Ecoguardian, April 2016 |
Marine Mammals Hauled out on Race Rocks Jan 2014-Feb 2016
This graph represents the 6 marine mammal species which haul out on Great Race Rocks in the Race Rocks Ecological reserve. providing the population numbers and the time of year CLICK to enlarge. The data was obtained from the Posts on census done by the Ecoguardians at Race Rocks.
The graph below represents the Elephant seal population at Race Rocks Ecological reserve with data taken from the Ecoguardian logs for January 2014 to January 2016. Click to enlarge.
Female Elephant seal with tag #5928
The mother of the 4th pup born this year has a tag on her: This is quite significant as it is the first female to give birth on Great Race Island which has been tagged as a pup in California, probably in Ano Nuevo.
#5928 Moulting in 2013
Tag on female #5928 in February, 2016
Third elephant seal born on Middle Rocks
Alex noted in his last log that he had heard another pup out on middle island and was able to see it from the tower. Today we have a clear shot at it from camera 1 . The pup seems quite lively. The unfortunate thing is that every year there has been a pup born out there, the next big storm washes it off, so as far as we know there has never in the past 8 years been a surviving pup from the middle island. Here’s hoping for no storms for the next few weeks??? not likely..
Second Elephant Seal Pup born at Race Rocks
This morning the large female that had been on the lawn near the other mother and pup for several weeks gave birth to a new pup sometime last night. View on the lawn on the North side of the tower on Camera 1.
Second Elephant seal pup. It was born on January 27, 2016. Cam1 photo.