Facility work: Contractor over today to measure up the new stairs to main house front and back.Due to high exposure to salt spray over many years, the wood has decomposed.
Category Archives: Facility work
Goslings!
Today’s Weather:
- Sky blue, obstructed by very thick fog
- Visibility 200-500 m
- Wind 5-10 knots SW
- Sea state: calm
Visitors/Marine Traffic:
- Today Greg visited to do some maintenance
- One whale watching boat in the reserve yesterday
- The occasional pleasure craft outside of the reserve or passing through
Ecological Observations:
- No seagull chicks yet, although most nests have 2-3 eggs now.
- The oystercatcher chicks have grown incredibly fast, and are now approximately half of the size of their parents
- One male goose who was injured by another goose during a fight earlier in the year is still limping. It seems like the damage to his leg will be permanent and while he is able to move around the island, he sits to eat and is too slow to keep up with the other geese. He spends a lot of time alone.
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- Goose family
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- Watching out for danger
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- Elephant seal grumpy about the distruption!
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- All 4 goslings still accounted for
Coast Guard Visit, The Entangled Sea Lion Is Still Here
Weather:
- Sky partly cloudy, intermittent fog
- Visibility varying between 0-15 miles
- Wind 20-30 knots W
- Water rough, waves to half a metre with some whitecaps
Boats/Visitors:
- No visitors today
- The whale watching boats continue to decrease in volume, this month looks to be a turning point in their season.
Ecological:
- We spotted the sea lion with plastic around its neck on the jetty last night, and today it was hauled out onto land between the helicopter pad and the guest house. We contacted DFO, and the entanglement response team will assess if it’s a job that they can do.
- This afternoon we saw a blue heron, which we haven’t seen before out here.
Maintenance:
- The Coast Guard visited briefly a few days ago. They stayed on RR for about an hour and did some maintenance on the fog horn system. Two people came on to land, and a third stayed in the Coast Guard zodiac.
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- (1) The entangled sea lion on the jetty.
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- (2) The offending material looks like it may be polypropylene strap, the kind used when packing and shipping large boxes.
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- (3) It looks like it hurts.
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- Working on the fog horn.
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- The coast guard vessel.
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- A large sea lion defends its position from the highest part of a rock.
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- A small seal in front of the boat shed.
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- It doesn’t seem to mind resting with the larger sea lions.
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- Taking a dip in the ocean!
Rooftop Renovations
Weather:
- Sky partially overcast
- Visibility 15+ miles
- Wind 10-15 knots SW
- Water rippled
Boats/Visitors:
- Lots of things going on over the last days!
- A work crew came out and replaced the roof on the boat house, tank shed, and crane control room.
- The old shingles and tar paper are heavy! Removing them is messy work – but headway has been made. I think one more load taken away in Second Nature would deal with the leftovers.
- Today Mara returned, catching a ride with a water delivery.
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- The work begins…
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- The roofing team works quickly!
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- A seal invades the worksite, it returned to the ocean unharmed.
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- In a day and a half, the roofs were replaced.
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- The cleanup crew hard at work.
Ecological:
- Sea lions are taking over! Their numbers continue increasing.
- I’ve seen young seagulls land in the shallow water by the jetty, only to have a sea lion come up under it and eat it whole.
- The adult seagulls have started to chase and peck at their own young. I think this is probably to encourage their independence.
Finally, an Elephant Seal
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 0-15 SW
- Sky: Partly Cloudy
- Water: Choppy under a metre
Boats/Visitors
- Not much visitors lately and not as many ecotours either, there are still a few out there though
Maintenance
- A lot fo running the desalinator and pressure washing lately, trying to get some of the algae and lichen off the buildings and walkways
Ecological
- Slightly less sea lions than last week
- One little female elephant seal and possibly a bug guy out on one of the rocks but I can’t get a good enough look at him
- A couple ravens flying around this morning
- two entangles sea lions, I am in contact with marine rescue to see if its possible to get out here to help them before the sea lions leave
Entangled Sea Lions
Weather
- Visibility: 15 Miles
- Wind: 20-30 NE
- Sky: Partly cloudy
- Water: Waves about a metre
Boats/Visitors
- A few ecotours and fishing boats going by
Maintenance
- ran the generator and the desalinator, now that we had a good rainfall the cistern is filling up, hopefully start pressure washing more soon
- The fence hasn’t needed to be repaired in awhile but the sea lions are starting to gather more around the lighthouse which can be an issue
Ecological
- unfortunately still no elephant seals, they should be showing up any day now
- the snow goose is still around
- there are two entangles sea lions, it doesn’t look like the usual plastic packing tape but this time looks like fishing line, two of them have it tightly wrapped around their heads, I have notified marine rescue and will keep an eye on these sea lions and hopefully we can help them out
Busy Week
Weather
- Visibility: 0-15 Miles
- Wind: 0-15 NE
- Sky: Partly cloudy
- Water: Calm to choppy, under a metre
Boats/Visitors
- the past week was CAS week at the college so I had two groups of students drop by, the first group were marine scientists that came for 5 days and helped out with cleaning up garbage, collecting driftwood, doing a daily census and stuff like that
- the second group were divers that unfortunately did not get to dive while they were here but have been diving around race rocks before, they stayed for two nights
Maintenance
- What a week, the fence had to be repaired quite a bit, the students helped me with it one day, and I did not properly show them how to repair the fence so the wire ended up being grounded which the sea lions took full advantage of and completely messed up the fence
- The electric pump in the crane house is working but is kind of slow going, it also takes a lot of priming
- the fire pump is out of commission at the moment, there were a lot fo issues with it probably due to the fact it is not a saltwater pump and has been sitting by the ocean for 3 years
- the desalinator is not cooperating either, it will work for maybe an hour before it shuts itself off, I can restart it but again it will only run for another hour and only desalinates half the water it used to in the same amount of time
Ecological
- I personally have seen about 8 humpback whales a day for the past week
- there was also a pod of about 6 killerhwhales that one of the students saw from the lighthouse which we found out later were transients and were actually hunting sea lions
- There have also been some interesting birds around, there was a robin here, which I don’t typically see and there was also a snow goose, which I personally have never seen here before, its been hanging out with the Canada geese other birds include oyster catchers, killdeer, ravens, and eagles
- the neck banded sea lions seem to come and go, they are very difficult to keep track of, I believe there are two at the moment and I see them about once a week, since there are over 1000 sea lions at the moment they easily get lost in the crowd, even the group of students I had here only saw them once
Water pumps and whales
Weather
- Visibility: 0-15 Miles
- Wind: 0-15 NE
- Sky: Dense fog to partly cloudy
- Water: Calm to choppy, under a metre
Boats/Visitors
- A few ecotours and fishing boats going by
- Greg dropped by to help us sort out our water situation
Maintenance
- Fence maintenance with the help of the students
- The electric water pump in the crane shed is working to an extent, the issue is the hose doesn’t go out far enough, so I can’t pump water at low tide
- The fire pump also needs some maintenance
Ecological
- The students have been doing a daily census
- Today they have spotted about 7 or 8 humpbacks and a pod of about 6 killer whales
CODAR installation for Race Rocks
Juan de Fuca _CODAR_backgrounder
Today Guy drove me out to Race Rocks with Kevin Bartlett, Marine Equipment, Specialist with Ocean Networks Canada. They had installed equipment earlier in the year but had ro change the frequency of broadcasting before it is operational. Kevin was making repairs, one being fixing the conduit at the base of the tower which had been disturbed by sealions. When this equipment is fully operational it will give acurate current vectors for the eastern entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
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- CODAR antenna
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- Conduit with cables from Antenna to transmitters
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- Sea lions had snapped off this conduit at ther base of thew antenna. We reattached and built up rocks around it to prevent reoccurrence
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- Transmitter and receiver in Science house basement
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- I removed this iron peg which could be a hazard where the sea lions haul out and learned the hard way about gyroscopic precession a disc grinder ..ooops
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- California sea lion in the area.
Sample from a similar station now in operation:
It was has been noticeable this year that instead of hauling out on the neighbouring islets of the Race Rocks Archipelago, the sealions are hauled out entirely on the main island of Great Race Rock. They have heavily impacted the vegetated areas .
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- Northern ( steller) sea lion, also a branded one in this photo, haul out near the docks and on the isthmus under the light tower
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- California Sea lions have occupied much of the main Island.
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- Upper tidepools of the southwest knoll have been heavily impacted by sealion excrement
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- Some damage by sealions to the aboriginal burial cairns
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- Main burial cairn eroded on top where the three concrete anchors were found a few years ago
ER Wardens Report, Sept.21
Today, Guy Ouradou from Pearson College drove me out to Race Rocks Ecological reserve with David Obura, Pearson College alumni from Kenya year 10. The main change since I was there last was the predominance of California sea lions over most of the island. Northern sealions occupied a small portion of rock near the docks and the isthmus below the light tower. Each year the college has to put up an electric fence to prevent the sealions from invading the centre of the island which can result in damage to conduits, and facilities.
Laas adjusts the electric fence on the south side of the house.
A new fence system is being installed this year, which has so far proven to be very effective. Another aspect of the sealions being on the centre part of the island is that they have been damaging the structure of the rocks arranged in the areas of the aboriginal burial cairns. The big change in sealion distribution is that previously they have concentrated on West Race Rocks, North Race Rocks and the south Islands off the tower. This year there are none out on those islands and they are all on the main island.
CODAR antenna and sealions
I also was able to observe the equipment installed by Oceans Network Canada for CODAR. Hopefully we can get a connection to the output of the data obtained from this equipment when we neet with Kevin Bartlett from Ocean Networks Canada next week on Sept 28.
Earlier this year, Lester Pearson College upgraded the solar batteries which have served for the past 11 years. New inverters were also installed.
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- Storage batteries
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- New control panels and inverters for the Solar panels
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- New storage batteries
Leaving the island we have to deal with a dock full of sealions which have returned since our arrival.