New Ecoguardian at Race Rocks

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We welcome Courtney Edwards to Pearson College campus. Courtney will be assuming the position of Eco-Guardian at Race Rocks, on rotation with Alex Fletcher. She will be starting (officially) Monday Sept 9/13 and be stationed at Race Rocks until December. She will return in March 2014 for the Spring rotation.
courtney

Courtney is a native islander who studied at UVIC and holds an MSc in Geography.
Her research and field work centered primarily on Aquaculture and bio-fouling. Courtney has extensive experience with field work in areas as diverse as invasive seaweed study, Aquaponics and greenhouse operation, GIS and surveying. She also worked as an outdoor guide and naturalist, and holds kayaking and scientific diving credentials.

Sept 2/13

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Morning Wx: wind – N 7kts, sky – Ovrcst

  • 1045hrs – morning wash down of the solar panels and
  • Recreational Fishing Activity count; during which we observed 4 boats fishing within the Reserve; all were reported to the DFO hotline.
  • Also performed marine mammal count within the Reserve:
    Sealions: 450
    Harbour seals: 125
  • Marine traffic transiting through the Reserve:
    eco-tours vessels: 23
    private vessels: 9

Photos from the Remote Cameras

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I was just looking at the recent postings on the Flickr site of Pam Birley of the UK. Pam does an excellent job of recording the events at Race Rocks on almost a daily basis using our remote controlled cameras.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66339356@N00/sets/72157632533500094/page3/

We now have photographic records of hers dating back to November of 2007

A continuous record such as this of the seasonal changes in wildlife over several years on an Ecological Reserve is a rare and valued asset. Thanks  Pam!

 

Macoma sp. — The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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rmmollusc

Macoma sp. Photo by Ryan Murphy

 

We are not sure of this classification of this bivalve but just had to use this image that Ryan took at Race Rocks, as it shows association with two other classes of Molluscs,  the chitons and the gastropods.

Here is a possible classification from ITIS Report
Animalia: – animals
Subkingdom:  Bilateria
Infrakingdom:  Protostomia
Superphylum: Lophozoa
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Subclass: Heterodonta
Order: Veneroida
Superfamily: Tellinoidea
Family: Tellinidae
Genus: Macoma (Leach,) 1819
Species: Macoma brota Dall, 1916 – heavy macoma

 

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The 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. Dec 2005–Ryan Murphy

 

Change of Ecoguardian

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I’m very grateful to have spent another wonderful summer out here at Race Rocks but today is my last day on the island. Tomorrow, Max will take over for a week and will be training the following person who will be here for the fall.

Collecting salinity and temperature measurements with the new YSI instrument off the jetty

Collecting salinity and temperature measurements with the new YSI instrument off the jetty

The DFO has sent out a new YSI instrument which means we can take salinity measurements now which will be posted that the end of the month with the temperature and density readings.

 

Weather has been very calm with low winds with the exception of yesterday when the wind picked up and we got some rain.

Weather Data: Daily Wind Speed , from Environment Canada April to August 2013

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This data is  from the Environment Canada Anemometer at the top of the tower. at Race Rocks.  Compare these Wind speeds with that recorded by the Davis Instruments at ground level

Other archived weather data is being made available in the “weather -archive category”

You may copy and paste into an excel spreadsheet in order to do further analysis and graphs.

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