Category Archives: PC Students at Race Rocks

Views from Race Rocks

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On  March   Barry Herring, spent a day with us out on Race Rocks recording some of the views.  Included here is some of his work. Barry is a photographer from Victoria, BC.

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Click on this image for a panorama view of the south side of great Race Rocks island. On the left are the solar panels and foghorn operated by the Canadian Coast Guard for the lighthouse. On the left is the energy centre operated by Lester Pearson College . Note solar panels on the roof. This is the centre for the integrated Energy Project which provides energy for the other buildings and the camera servers on Race Rocks

 

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A panorama of the southwest coast.

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The remote-control camera 5 and a view to the west.

We happened to be there on a very calm evening with a great sunset:

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The former Assistant lightkeeprers residence of the Lightstation is now the science house at Race Rocks. The building can house visiting students and researchers who arrive at Race Rocks.

 

 

Inverter back online

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For most of last week we had steady westerly winds reaching upwards of 40 NMPH. We got a break in the weather on Friday and Saturday some flurries began and the wind shifted back to North East and cold. It has been upwards of 20 NMPH NE today and the past two days. Today it is sunny for a change.

On Tuesday February 18 there were three heavy blasts that appeared to come from behind Christopher Point, not the usual blasting location.

On Friday Feb 21st Erik brought a group out to Race Rocks that include Ric the electrician and his apprentice. The inverter which had been repaired in Vancouver had shipped overnight and arrived on campus just in time to make it out here. We were able to re-install and test run the inverter, replace a broken solar pane- using adapter cables-on the roof of the engine room  and repair a failed light circuit in the assist house. Jonathan also came out and replaced the switch in the assist house and did some troubleshooting of the internet system. He also brought out a replacement conduit access box for Camera 5.  Five other guests from the college also came to visit for a total of 9 visitors including Erik. Erik returned in the afternoon with a group of student divers from the college; they dove near the jetty and brought the electrician and company back to campus. I picked up 3 guests form Pedder Bay and brought them for an overnight visit.

On Saturday, in the morning I counted over 200 Pigeon Guillemots along the shore of race rocks.  I have seen and heard them a few times this year but this was by far the most i have seen. There were at least 3 eco tour vessels in the reserve, there have not been many lately.  I went off island for a few hours in the afternoon.

-fixing running light wiring in boat
-finished building and painting box for GPS console on boat
-coordinating with DFO for tagging elephant seal
-measurements for adapter cables for replacement solar panel
-coordinating with electrician, assisting with gear, installation, etc
-communications about wood stove
-moving back into main house/clean up
-cleaning up jetty more frequently due to NE wind

kayak disturbance, tagged e-seals, pup, etc

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Wind has varied between W and NE less than 20 NMPH over the past few days.  We have had some patches of fog during the week and partly clear skies today and yesterday.

On the 15th a group of 20 kayakers passed through the reserve on the East side heading West.  They passed on both sides of East rock and caused one of the largest sea lion disturbances I have seen here, several hundred sealions scrambled into the water.  I was able to talk to one of the kayakers as they passed by the south side and told him that they are not allowed to cause this kind of disturbance to marine mammals at race rocks. Though I love kayaking and prefer kayaks to motorized vessels, kayakers need to realize that because they are so nice and silent they can also easily surprise wildlife.  Once startled sealions stampede and can easily trample younger sealions or injure themselves rushing over the jagged rocks.

1 dive boat in the reserve today, 1 eco tour in the afternoon, 1 sports fishing boat in the morning which traveled too close to sealions on the East rocks. I called Pedder Bay Marina and gave them the ID number and a description and asked them to talk to the operator about regulations at Race Rocks (thanks Pedder Bay Marina!).

The elephant seal pup seems to be in good shape and is drinking milk regularly. Chunk seems fairly well behaved, a few times a day he we will arise from his slumber and chase after Bertha. Sometimes it seems he is trying to separate her from the pup and restrain her. I have seen him with his mouth around the pup’s head as well as with the pup partly underneath him though on all occasions I have observed he has clearly not harmed the pup when he easily could have. Chunk went off the island last night, I assume to middle rock and was back in the morning. There are two elephant seals on middle rock, both fairly large, one possibly a young male. I have been hearing what sounds like a male’s call coming from middle rock today. There were also two smaller scruffy, moulting female elephant seals in the shoreline of the main island today one tagged green 7502 the other tagged pink N93_ the last number is not visible. That brings the current e-seal population to 7.

Past week maintenance:
-cleaned solar panels daily
-flushed media filter on desal
-changed pre-filters on desal
-troubleshooting cam 5 with help from Jonathan, replaced POE unit. took measurements to replace leaky cable housing at base of cam stand
-ran desal x2
-ran fire pump
-replaced leaky hydraulic line on crane, pressure tested line
-cut, chopped, stacked fire wood
-replaced fire extinguishers which had been sent in for annual servicing
-brought temporary fire extinguishers off island for servicing
-troubleshooting of failed internet system with help from Jonathan
-swapped out 1 propane tank on main house

Visitors this week:
-on the 15th Erik came with a guest to drop off supplies
-on the 16th Erik brought Jonathan out to replace switch in the tower as well as the Marine sciences class for a field trip (12 students and Ann)

river otter

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Cloudy. Strong West wind.
2 Eco-tour boats.

I saw a river otter scurry down the rock bluff by the boat ramp. Earlier in the season there was one living under the pile of wood next to the tank shed, maybe it moved a little down the path and now lives under the crane platform. This could also be a critter that is leaving broken and emptied urchin shells on the end of the jetty.

Erik brought out David Hawley + adivsees in the late afternoon to spend the night.
The replacement solar panel arrived. And Erik took away fuel spill rags and the jugs to fill with deionized water for battery top up.

eagle

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Moderate NE winds all day. 3 ft wind chop. Cloudy but no rain.
The students left yesterday, and some volunteers from the college made a brief photo stop when Chris came to pick them up.

There was a boat fishing illegally in the reserve this morning. It left before I could try to make radio contact.

PC divers

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A bit cooler than previous days, but otherwise a lovely overcast day with sunny periods.
A bit of SE wind in the morning, glassy calm in the evening.

Tour boats: 9, mostly in the afternoon
A Winter Wren has been hanging out by the desalinator shed

Jamieson and Maciek on the island today
Erik + 6 divers, 3 surface tenders, and Laura Verhegge came out for a dive off the jetty
Maciek left for the college with the dive boat

Incident with a tour boat operating over top of the divers, despite a properly posted dive flag and hand signals to back off. Settled it over the radio.
Consider making it policy to call a securite on the radio to inform operators that there are divers in the water.

-A box of supplies was delivered by Erik for a variety repairs
-Scoped out plumbing repairs in the student house
-Started cleaning student house (murdered flies, cleaned windows and sills, vacuumed)
-Ran dealinator
-Practiced docking the boat on the jetty in the evening with the ‘Jamieson School of Boat Handling’

lots of visitors

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Pretty calm all day. Intermittent showers, moments of sun. 2 ft swell still running

Erik brought Maciek (our new volunteer) out this morning, he’ll stay until Friday to help out with two person projects.
Tharis came out for a visit for a few hours just to see the awesomeness of Race Rocks.
Students from the college and Catrin Brown came out for a lab on food webs, and Libby Mason’s brother (whose name escapes me right now) also came out with the students.

First day that I didn’t see any marine tour boats
Lots of commercial fishing boats heading back out to sea now that the bad weather has passed
Coast Guard was heading out this evening
Spotted a California sea lion with a line around its neck
Noticed a Glaucous winged gull with a broken wing

-Ran desalinator
-Cleaned tops of batteries and replaced cups; tidied battery room
-Chopped up log along jetty
-Reset Davis instruments computer. It was having issues since I installed the UPS yesterday.
-Posted missing seawater data to the log from February and August
-Posted branded sea lion photos to the log

first student trip of the school year

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A group of 11 students and a teacher visited Race Rocks today for the IB Biology class. They had hoped to do some food web observations in tide pools, but with the tides today and the swell that’s been running it wasn’t possible. Instead, they spent some time observing sea lion behavior and getting their first impressions of the ecological reserve.

With the high tide and swell the sea lions have set up camp in front of the science house on the South-West side of the island.

1110 Coast Guard helicopter flew over East to West

Tour boats: 8

There’s a great swell running, smashing into West and North Rocks throwing huge spray into the air

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PC Students observing sea lion behavior

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PC Students taking in it all in

-Fixed electric fences that were damaged over night by sea lions
-Cleaned solar panels
-Swept walkways
-Erik helped get the boat shed doors up. Waiting on hardware to finish.

killer whales

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Saw a few orcas off the East end of the island midday
Lots of marine tour boats, counted 15 but some definitely went unnoticed
9 elepant seals behind the boat shed and in the shallows on the East side of the jetty
Students from the college came out to the reserve for a boat trip
-set up sea lion fence between the keepers house and around the derrick shed