Orcas Feeding and Humpback Whales

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From the moment light touched the surface of the ocean there seemed to be excitement around me. 6:55 I stood on the end of the jetty finishing up our daily salinity and temperature readings, I looked out just to see the brief moment a pod of Orca passed through the reserve and as I headed up to the house the spray of a humpback whale arose in the east. A few hours later I found myself captivated for over an hour as the T109A pod hunted and fed upon, likely a young seal that tended to be hidden within the north kelp bed to which the orca swam, jumped, herded and slapped their tails in. While hundreds of nervous sea lions popped in and out of the nearby rocks worriedly. As the meal ended they slowly made their way west out of the reserve, whilst 4 humpback whales passed back and forth through the south of Race Rocks Ecological reserve.

 

Weather:

    • Sky: Clear
    • Wind: East 5kts
    • Sea: Calm
    • Visibility: 10 nautical miles due to haze from smoke

Weekly Census:

  • Steller/Northern sea lions: 768
  • Female Stellar/Norther sea lion: 2
  • California sea lion: 1257
  • Female California Sea lion: 1
  • Harbour seals: 53
  • Black oystercatchers: 14
  • Cormorants: 127
  • Glaucous-winged gulls: 334
  • Juveniles Glaucous-winged gulls on Great Race Rock: 5
  • California Gull: 48
  • Hermanns Gull: 5
  • Harlequin Duck: 1
  • Black turnstones: 41
  • Fox Sparrow: 4
  • Surfbirds: 2
  • Raven: 1
  • Elephant Seal (female): 2
  • Humpback Whale: 4
  • Orca (T109As): 6

Visitors:

  • Students from Marine Sciences at Pearson College visited throughout the week.
  • Greg and Cedric delivered water along with another.
  • Dan from IT with another, worked on our internet connections (Sept.30)

Facility Work:

  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Cleaned windows
  • Electric fence repairs has become 3 times a day.
  • Rewired sections of electric fence
  • Built some bracing for electric fence posts
  • Ran Generator for a few hours to top up batteries.
  • Treated stairs
  • Removed 2 Flashers that had been entangled on sea lions and got stuck in rocks.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby and heading through the waters of the ecological reserve. Cruise ships are going by daily.
  • Many small recreation fishing vessels drift through observing wildlife.