An IB Marine Science class from Lester Pearson College goes to Race Rocks for a field trip with Garry Fletcher on April 11.
Field trip to Race Rocks
Race Rocks exploration 11 April 2013
Category Archives: PC Students at Race Rocks
Project Week
There have been 6 Pearson College students staying at Race Rocks this past week for Project Week. They have been helping out with various projects on the island including scrubbing algae off of the siding of the buildings and painting baseboard trim for the guest house. On Friday Garry Fletcher visited the island to talk with students about history and biology.
During their stay there have been some stormy days with wind speeds gusting over 40 knots from the West.
Students snorkelling with sea lions
Student snorkelling with Sea Lions
This week I am lucky to have the company of some great students from Pearson College. Along with the privilege of living out here for a week, they are helping me with some of the maintenance duties and sharing some adventures. Unfortunately for them the sea lions have all moved to their side of the island and are surrounding their house, making for some noisy nights! But they have front row seats to a spectacle that is better than any TV show.
These days birds are showing up in winter plumage and look different from when they passed through in the spring.
A Dunlin in winter plumage.
We’ll have an animal census for you in just a couple of days… stay tuned.
Marine Science First Year Field Exam 2012
For an account of the field exam in Marine Science see the log http://pearsoncollegemarinescience.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/field-exam-2012/
Students at Race Rocks
On Friday afternoon Erik brought out 7 students as well as Natasha and Julien to Race Rocks to stay for the weekend.
The students helped with several projects on Saturday afternoon including:
-cleaning solar panels;
-completing the building of compost containers;
-edging the edges of pathways;
-cleaning and sealing conduit boxes to camera 5;
-assessing electronic devices;
-moving a propane tank;
-topping up heating fuel, and
-moving the dugout canoe.
On Sunday Chris came out around noon with Jane and 3 kids to pickup the group and return them to campus. Thanks to everyone for a great weekend and for all the help.
We have had clear skies, a brief 20 knot NE Sat morning but fairly calm for the rest.
Project Week-part 3 (final)
Yesterday was the last day of project week, in the morning I brought students back to campus in two trips on the whaler. It has been great group to have out here for the past week, they have helped out with several projects and tasks, endured some stormy weather, survived without a shower, cooked their own food (and shared a few good meals 
with me), and experienced the isolation and richness of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. During their stay they were very conscious of the time and resources required for importing fuel and generating energy and fresh water and did a great job minimizing consumption and waste.
In the final days of the week students helped out with transferring diesel to the furnace tanks and cleaning cupboards in the science centre kitchen. Throughout the week the group maintained a daily count of animals in the reserve, the count is included below.
| Feb 27 | Feb 28 | Feb 29 | Mar 1 | Mar 2 | Mar 3 | |
| Harbor seals | 45 | 50 | 10 | 22 | 20 | 16 |
| Elephant seals | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Sea lions | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Gulls | 57 | 23 | 33 | 43 | 31 | 26 |
| Cormorants | 60 | 27 | 29 | 40 | 56 | 32 |
| Oyster Catchers | 3 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 7 | |
| Bald Eagles | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Brown Sandpiper | 4 | 12 | 8 | 6 | ||
| White Sandpiper | 5 | 3 | 4 | |||
| Pigeon Guillemots | 22 | 150 | ||||
| Common Mergansers | 2 | |||||
| Harlequin Ducks | 12 | 7 | 6 |
Thanks to the group for their contributions and good company.
Project Week- part 2
Squall decided to position herself right next to the tank room on Wednesday so we had to put a hold on the siding work. We moved over the the South side of the main house to work on deconstructing an old cache and started work on footings to build a new compost container.
On Thursday Squall made her way around the NE side of the main house and came to rest right in the middle of our new work site. Thanks Squall, now that project is on hold. Fortunately the students did a good job of removing all the nails from the scrap wood, Squall was pretty interested in the 2×4’s.
So, it was back to the siding work yesterday. The students really took the lead on this project: removing the remaining panels, cleaning out rusted nails, replacing the panels that were lost, and putting the siding back up with stainless steel screws. Job well done!
We also put together a third goose exclosure yesterday on the lawn between the science centre and the energy building. Misery (in the background) has been relaxing near the science centre yesterday and today, keeping the students company.
Project Week-part 1
On Sunday, I brought 7 students to Race Rocks in two trips in the whaler. This week is project week at the college so all students are off campus on adventures, being creative, and doing service projects.
At Race Rocks students are helping with daily tasks of measuring ocean temperature and salinity and monitoring wildlife as well as working on a few projects including erecting exclosures to monitor the grazing and erosion impact of geese and doing repairs to the siding of the tank room that was damaged in a storm in January.
On Monday I brought two students back to campus, the other 5 will stay for the duration of the week. Unfortunately, on the way back out to Race Rocks I hit a piece of drift wood and bent a blade on the propeller.
On Sunday there were 3 eco-tour vessels in the reserve.
On Monday Misery gave Squall a chase and caught her on the N side of the main house. He held her down and was biting her, at one point he picked her up about 3 feet in the air and tossed her. Eventually she made it in-between some rocks where he could not reach her. Pam got some good shots of the escape from the web cam: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66339356@N00/6938289865/in/photostream
Yesterday afternoon a SE wind picked up in the afternoon increasing to over 50 knots before dark and pushing some big swells into the island.
Where do Sea Lions go?
This morning the 30 Stellar’s (Eumetopias jubatus) that have been dwelling on South Rocks have gone. Is it a coincidence that a Westerly gale began early this morning? Are they escaping the weather? Did they all choose to go hunting at the same time? Did something scare them away in the night? Is the cooler weather encouraging them to find warmer waters further up the Salish Sea perhaps on the log booms near Nanaimo (it is snowing as I write this…)? I will keep a sharp watch out for when they return.
Yesterday evening 6 student arrived for the weekend but if this weather continues we may be conducting classes here Monday morning!
Visitors and Projects
Julia taking daily seawater salinity measurement
Jake and Julia left yesterday after 6 days on the island. They helped with several projects while they were here. Work projects over the past few days have included:
-Scraping, cleaning and painting the basement floor of the Science Center
-Topping up water level of the batteries and coating some of the battery terminals with anti-corossion paste
-Electronic data entry of visitor log
-Making new template for engine room log
-Transfering diesel to furnace tank
Jake painting the basement floor
-Pumping salt water to cistern and test filling the sand filter box
-Detangling new cable for camera 5 and sorting out existing conduit/cable situation
-Cleaning out gutters for rainwater harvesting system and chiselling out concrete lip to cistern filter box
-Organizing in the tank room
Erik came out yesterday to pick them up and dropped off my parents and my sister for an early christmas lunch. I brought them back to the college in the afternoon.