‘Harbour Seal’, 150
California Sea Lion’, 5
Northern Sea Lion’, 2,
Other’, 1, ‘One ruddy turnstone reported to be near the docks in the morning.’, ‘Garry’, ’01:52:25 ,
Hatching Glaucous-winged gulls
The gulls are hatching now at Race Rocks. G.Fletcher photo
Slash Body Parts July 2006
Slash in July 2006
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- This left eye isblind
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- Genital Pore.
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- Anus
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- The five digits of a pentadactyl limb
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- Carol Slater and Slash
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- Slash and another male on the ramp while work goes on around them.
Ode to Slash: Up close and personal with an elephant seal
We were getting so many pictures of our favourite elephant seal, “Slash” that I thought I might as well open up a page just for him. Slash has provided an excellent opportunity to study this very large marine mammal. In January 2003, two male elephant seals were hauled up on Great Race island. One was suffering from severe injuries.
This elephant seal we eventually name “Slash” and he became a docile elephant seal that hung around the main island for many years.He first sought shelter on the main Island, Great Race Rocks back in January of 2003. A boater had run over this elephant seal leaving large gashes on his head and spiral-like cuts along his body. Mike Slater, our guardian at the Rocks saw him hauled out at the end of the boat ramp and recorded the first video below. During all of 2003, he spent most of his hours sleeping up on the grassed areas of Great Race Rocks. He became very used to humans as long as one kept a respectable distance of at least 2 meters, and was prepared to move out of the way when he decided to change locations, he is very tolerant of people.
See MPA Guardian Carol Slater’s comments on these animals in the Daily log of Jan19, Feb 11, Feb13, Feb 14 and Mar 1, 2003
Here is Slash in July and August of 2003. Fortunately he has recovered well as can be seen here in this video taken by Mike Slater in July 2003Â
In July 2008, I took the video clip above of our resident elephant seal “Slash” asleep in one of his favourite spots behind the boathouse at Race Rocks. At 8:00 am he was in a deep sleep, interrupted only by the kelp flies on his face and a few itchy spots on his body. What was remarkable was the recurring pattern of breath holding. I made this video as a study of this aspect of what appears to be intentional sleep apnea. Since the filming was uninterrupted, one can time the various phases of a breathing cycle. Labels on the video point out the beginning and end of one such breath-holding cycle. I observed that he repeated a similar pattern for at least 15 minutes, the length of time I as was able to observe. GF.
Listen for the sounds and watch for the flaring nostrils.
You can see more elephant seal images and videos in the Elephant Seal Taxonomy.https://racerocks.ca/mirounga-angustirostris-taxonomy-and-image-file/
| “From a scientific point of view I know its bad form to anthropomorphize when considering animal behaviour. So perhaps just say that we are reserving this page for any and all aspects of the human experience with an elephant seal. |
| I thought about opening a new page after spending several days in July 2008 at Race Rocks relieving for Mike and Carol Slater when they were on holidays. I spent some quiet time with Slash, took video and many pictures and then when the spouse of faculty member Arno Dirks, Laurie Tomin took over at Race Rocks for a few days to get caught up on some writing, her e-mail provoked me to action as it had a rather nice message: ” GF
“So, back to Slash. He’s my rock star here. Not a dude of action, but of mystery and suspense. I gave up, had some lunch, and later returned to see 2 eco-tour boats ca. 10 meters off the dock and Slash–well it seemed as though he was waiting! I sat quite close, had a chat with him–for he did not seem to mind my presence at all. He looked at me occasionally, sometimes he breathed heavily through his nostrils (was he exercising them for a swim?), yep, thats all about he did. When the boats left, he moved down a bit more…and a bit more…(lots of waiting and suspense in between starts and stops). The longest and most fascinating stretch was a blubbery inch-worm movement to the water’s edge. There he sat, half in half out of the water and splashed some water on his back with his left fin. He hung out like this for about 15 minutes. Again, I sat close to him on the dock. Always with a little scramble distance–though I can’t say I was afraid at all. Wouldn’t want to scare or annoy him though! Then Slash gently slipped into the water. He looks enormous and prehistoric when he swims–also very slowly. Sometimes stopping, clearing his nostrils, looking at me. Then he swam slowly to the other side of the dock, doing much the same until he decided to swim off. Big day. I feel very lucky to be here!
 Slash on middle Island December 2009 where the entangled sea lion was trapped. See this and other pictures of Slash on Ryan Murphy’s Flickr site.
In the following years Slash failed to return in the winter. . We can assume he met his end, but we are gratefull for the many years of good memories of his presence at Race Rocks |
The Male Elephant Seal : Slash
SLASH : Up close and personal with an elephant seal.
We were getting so many pictures of our favourite elephant seal, “Slash” that I thought I might as well open up a page just for him. Slash has provided an excellent opportunity to study this very large marine mammal. We think these pictures by Angus Matthews in December of 2002 are the first we have of Slash at Race Rocks:
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- Slash on South Rocks Dec 2002
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- Photos by Angus Matthews.
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- Note he has not been impacted yet by the boat as the next images show.
He first sought shelter on the main Island Great Race Rocks back in January of 2003. A boater had run over this elephant seal leaving large gashes on his head and spiral-like cuts along his body. Mike Slater, our ecoguardian at the Rocks saw him hauled out at the end of the boat ramp and recorded this first video. Because of his injuries, Mike named him “Slash” During all of 2003, he spent most of his hours sleeping up on the grassed areas of Great Race Rocks. He became very used to humans and now as long as one keeps a respectable distance of at least 2 meters, and is prepared to move out of the way when he decides to change locations, he is very tolerant of people.
Slash receives some serious injuries when a motor boat runs over him.
Slash
Slash recovered with scars a year and a half later .
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“From a scientific point of view I know its bad form to anthropomorphize when considering animal behaviour. So perhaps just say that we are allowing this page for any and all aspects of the human experience with an elephant seal.
I thought about opening a new page after spending several days in July 2008 at Race Rocks relieving for Mike and Carol Slater when they were on holidays. I spent some quiet time with Slash, took video and many pictures and then when Laurie Tomin was out at Race Rocks for a few days to get caught up on some writing, her e-mail provoked me to action as it had a rather nice message: ” Garry Fletcher
- “So, back to Slash. He’s my rock star here. Not a dude of action, but of mystery and suspense. Finnegan Slash (as I call him sometimes for I think there’s a refined side to him) jelly-ambled-blubbered down to his other favorite spot–just like you said. I happened to be around when he decided to move past the boat house clearly heading for the water. But then he slipped into his typical coma again, moving only his nostrils from time to time. Durn. I gave up, had some lunch, and later returned to see 2 eco-tour boats ca. 10 meters off the dock and Slash–well it seemed as though he was waiting! I sat quite close, had a chat with him–for he did not seem to mind my presence at all. He looked at me occasionally, sometimes he breathed heavily through his nostrils (was he exercising them for a swim?), yep, thats all about he did. When the boats left, he moved down a bit more…and a bit more…(lots of waiting and suspense in between starts and stops). The longest and most fascinating stretch was a blubbery inch-worm movement to the water’s edge. There he sat, half in half out of the water and splashed some water on his back with his left fin. He hung out like this for about 15 minutes. Again, I sat close to him on the dock. Always with a little scramble distance–though I can’t say I was afraid at all. Wouldn’t want to scare or annoy him though! Then Slash gently slipped into the water. He looks enormous and prehistoric when he swims–also very slowly. Sometimes stopping, clearing his nostrils, looking at me. Then he swam slowly to the other side of the dock, doing much the same until he decided to swim off.Big day. I feel very lucky to be here! L. A. Tomin
In July 2008, I took this video clip of our resident elephant seal “Slash” asleep in one of his favourite spots behind the boathouse at Race Rocks. At 8:00 am he was in a deep sleep, interrupted only by the kelp flies on his face and a few itchy spots on his body. What was remarkable was the recurring pattern of breath holding. I made this video as a study of this aspect of what appears to be intentional sleep apnea. Since the filming was un-interupted, one can time the various phases of a breathing cycle. Labels on the video point out the beginning and end of one such breath-holding cycle. I observed that he repeated a similar pattern for at least 15 minutes, as that was the length of time I was able to observe. Listen for the sounds and watch for the flaring nostrils.
In 2006 I took a set of photos of various parts of his body. This file has a gallery of those photos :
July 20, 2008
Slash was so docile, one could approach closely without disturbing him. These images are from an afternoon in July , 2008,
Ryan took this image and added it to his Flickr site in December 2008 Â
March 1, 2010: Misery after the fight with Slash Murray Sager Photo
Slash still had an important role to play however. In both the 2009 and the 2010 breeding season, he sent the younger suitor Misery off the island.
You can see more elephant seal images and videos in the Elephant Seal Taxonomy.
Slash the Male Elephant seal in July 2008
On one of my visits to Race Rocks in 2008, I took a series of photos of Slash as he lounged on the lawn up behind the boat house.
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- July 20, 2008
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- July 20, 2008
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- July 20, 2008
Limited Habitat of Purple star at Low tide
West Coast Wildlife Adventures approached to view the elephant seal also within 10 meters of the seal. I advised him he was too close since slash was there basking in the water. He had moved in to get a close look from a few metres. Images were placed on ecotourism page on web.
I found another black oystercatcher nest down in front of the Winch House, so moved camera3 over to it. (Update note on July 17–2 young were observed near the nest). In the morning I went out on the intertidal for the minus tide. Excellent long exposure of the surge channel and the cave on the South west side. Also got onto Anita’s intertidal island down from the helipad. I was looking for the large ( 45 cm diameter Purple star. Which I saw there two years ago, and at that time I thought he was the only one on the island. This time I found another smaller one– 30 cm diameter in a similar protected channel only 2 metres from the other one. Since these sea stars inhabit the lower intertidal zone, they cannot withstand the heavy wave action that occurs in that area without these deep channels which are protected by a rise on the seaward side to the west. As far as I know these are the only two purple stars occurring at Race Rocks. They are very common however in other sheltered inland coastlines in BC and are frequently the first sea star that visitors to BC shores notice. I also made note of a large number of very colourful brooding anemone exposed on the same protected mussel-covered wall on that island. There was an unusual abundance of blue ones which I remember to be rather rare when seen by diving in that area previously . One gull nest close to the science centre has chicks hatching.
Black Oystercatchers hatch today
On June 22, 2008, the Black Oystercatcher nest which was located on the rock just above the docks produced two chicks. They hatched in the morning and this set of clips was taken from a screen capture of camera 3 in intervals between 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM. They returned to spend the night at the nest, and left the next morning.
Video of Black Oystercatchers nesting today June 22,2008: by Garry Fletcher[/caption]
Camera on Oystercatcher
(‘2008-06-12’, 2, ‘Erik delivered Oil to RR in Second Nature. Garry installed new temp/humidity sensor, and changed cameras on nesting oystercatcher.. now camera 3. ‘Garry,07:45:12
Female Elephant seal: Scarlet
Scarlet , the often reported “Entangled” female Elephant Seal at Race Rocks.
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| This photo was taken at Race Rocks, middle Island, May 2, 2008 by a visitor on a whale watching vessel. | Photos taken on June 12 , | Close up of June 12 photo 2008. photos:Erik Schauff. |
| Return to the Elephant Seal Page. | June 2- 12- Staying on Middle Island, no evidence of change. It left shortly thereafter. |
 On January 29, 2009, an elephant seal looking much like the one from last year appeared, looking very pregnant. We believe she proceded to have her pup in the following week. It did not survive, and may have been still born. This page tells the story of the second and third pups born on Middle Island in February 2009.Pam Birley sent us this image which she took from the remote camera for the daily log. She gave the name “Scarlet” to this female. |
 Ryan had shot this image on January 24th 2009 of the female, showing the scars clearly on her stomach side only. |
 We also think now that this may have been the same female here back in 2004 when these pictures and video were taken. |
 Pam Birley has taken a few images on the remote camera that are included on her June 2009 gallery |