Elephant Seal Frustrations

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Tuesday September 24, 2024

This morning we woke up to fog lapping at the shores of the island. Its honestly very magical to be fully socked in on a rock that you know is completely surrounded by water. But also, this really throws the problem of a malfunctioning foghorn into sharp relief.

We were obviously not alone in this thought, as we read an 8am email from the Coast Guard team who will be out here tomorrow to take another stab at repairing it.

We spent the morning cleaning the solar panels, making the daily fence repairs, and doing some general tidying for the week.

We also tried to capture some more identification photos of the Elephant Seal who has been around. Last week we reported her with my best guess of her tag number based off a couple glimpses from when her tail was at just the right angle.

The group we reported her to responded right away with a bunch of interesting information about her life. She was born in Ano Nuevo California in 2013. She has been spotted there many, many times since then, during the winter months, and has even had two babies of her own!

But they have no sightings of her in other locations up until now! So that is super exciting!

From a Race Rocks perspective, she also seems to be a Newcomer. Elephant seals have full reign of the island, and the guys who visit here often know that, and take advantage of it….. as recorded in many previous blogs,

This gal, however, is hanging down on the rocks on the South side of the island amongst all of her Sea Lion relatives.

In addition, speaking with some of the previous Eco-Guardians, there is usually another seal (Beverly) who is the first to arrive. She has a pink tag.. so we know this is not her. Maybe there is new newcomer on the block….?

The previous eco-guardians also shared this neat image, that shows the tag color correspondence with animal birthplace!

What a cool and simple way to track such amazing animals!

Anyways, I will continue on trying to get a clear tag picture.

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 0

Weather: Foggy and Overcast Day, Winds SW picking up to 15 knts in the Evening

Census on a Cloudy Day

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Sunday September, 22

Census Day!

This morning, Scott and I headed up to the top of the tower for our weekly animal count.

We added the elephant seal to this week’s survey because she is still sticking around!

Yesterday we beefed up the fence on the West side of the island between the helipad and the generator shed. Since this one isn’t anchored into the bedrock, it has been taking quite a beating from the westerly winds.

Greg also dropped by yesterday and gave us some groceries for the week. The water cistern is quite low, so we have ceased using the desalinator, and are trying to be more conservative than normal with the water. Fingers crossed, Greg will be able to boat over some more water this week!

Today, we checked and topped up the batteries, and tidied up the basement in the main house. I can’t believe we only have a week left on the island!

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 4

Weather: Cloudy and Overcast Day, Winds SW picking up to 15 knts in the Afternoon

Animal Census:

Birds:

  • Gulls: 1155
  • Cormorants: 228
  • Oystercatchers: 3
  • Canada Goose: 6
  • Turnstones: 17 ** They are hard to see amongst all the sea lions

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lion: 397
  • California Sea Lion: 780
  • Harbour Seal: 85
  • Elephant Seal female: 1

Elephant Seal!

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Friday September 20th

Last night while we were fixing the fence on the South Side of the Island that had been knocked over….Again.. we spotted a seal looking a little different than everyone else

Looking a little closer, we realized it was an elephant seal! Looks like a small female, and she is tagged, though we couldn’t get a good photo of it. We reported it to the biologists from California who implement that specific tagging study.

Also saw a couple more branded Sea Lions who we also reported, as well as a dead sea lion we spotted along the south side of the island at low tide.

Scott has worked his way through the pile of wood piled down near the Jetty, so the next Eco-Guardians will def be warm for a while.

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 0

Weather: Mix of Sun and Cloud. Pretty Calm day, wind pretty consistent around 5knts W.

And like everyday this month lots of humpbacks feeding all day!

The Journey of #444X

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Wednesday September 18, 2024

Not a huge day facilities wise. We did our daily repair of the electric fences, and chopped a little more wood.

However, we did receive some cool news from Brian Wright, the NOAA scientist who we reported the branded sea lions to. He told us that number 444X, was first tagged in Astoria all the way back in 2016, and he has not been reported since.

This information is super valuable to scientists and managers because it shows what areas are being used by these animals, the extent of their ranges, and how long they can live. (Which for a California Sea Lion is 15 – 25 years!).

Mark and recapture studies are also very important for estimating functional population size, and this type of study design is used for lots of fundamental ecological work. This infographic from FishBio, nicely explains how a mark-recapture study can work in an open environment! Again, this is a good reminder to report any tagged animals you encounter!

Whale Watching Vessels: 20

Private Vessels: 0

Weather: Mix of Sun and Cloud.  Calm during the day, wind picked up to 12kts W

Tagged Sea Lions

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Scott spent some more time with the chainsaw today. He is putting a huge dent in the pile of logs down by the jetty, and the stacks of firewood in the basement are steadily growing for the winter.

As the numbers of sea lions on the island continues to climb we have been seeing quite a few tagged and branded individuals. These markings are implemented by researchers in Oregon and along the West coast of the US. They give the researchers an idea of animal movement, functional population size, and more. If you ever see a tagged or branded sea lion remember to report it!

Whale Watching Vessels: 18

Private Vessels: 4

Weather: Overcast all day. Winds W 6knts

As buck would have it!

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Today we tackled the pile of logs just waiting to be bucked into some grade A firewood. The rock is equipped with a beauty Husqvarna 450 rancher chainsaw that just purrs…those logs didn’t stand a chance. In the words of Buckin’ Billy Ray, ‘She cuts eh!” I think swinging an axe might have legs as the next fitness trend! We also made some minor improvements to the fence and touched up some of the auxiliary buildings.

We reported yesterday’s entanglement and unfortunately saw another one today.

Whale Watching Vessels: 20

Private Vessels: 6

Weather: Clear and Sunny all day. Winds out the SE then switching to West later in the aft. 6-12kts

The Fence is up!

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There is now a perimeter around all the facilities! Now, Scott and I just need to make sure that they keep standing…

We also did the census this morning at low tide. There has been a dramatic increase in sea lions since last week!

Birds:

  • Gulls: 1454
  • Cormorants: 42
  • Oystercatchers: 3
  • Canada Goose: 15

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lion: 360
  • California Sea Lion: 933
  • Harbour Seal: 127

Animal Tracking and Injuries: Noted one California sea lion with Salmon Flasher. Will report to DFO Tomorrow.

 

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 5

Weather: Clear and Sunny all day. Winds W 10knts

Back on Fence Duty

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Saturday, September 14, 2024

We made some improvements to our last stretch and started on a new section that has been totally wrecked by the sealions. We are again converting from the old-style block anchors to metal stanchions that are bolted into the rock. We chose a course that provided good anchor locations and uses the natural geography to work with the sealions preferred nap spots. We also cleaned the windows of the various buildings because with 715 gulls…well you get the idea.

While having our morning coffee we saw our first Orcas. 5-6 with a baby was a treat for sure. Another notable siting was three ocean canoes coming through middle channel around 2pm, pretty rowdy if you ask me.

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 5

Weather: Calm and overcast in the morning. Cleared in the afternoon with winds reaching 14-16kts.

Fog Horn not repaired..

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Friday September 13

So… the fog horn went all night… when it was not foggy….

We let Coast Guard know and they told us  how to disable it. So they will be back here in the next couple weeks to try again to get it fixed.

Today, did some organisation/cleaning of the main house.

We also saw the injured sea lion James and Christine noted in August, when we were doing our water sample. He isn’t putting weight on it at all.. but the wound itself looks a little better. Reported to DFO.

  • Ran Generator
  • Ran Desalinator
  • Chopped Wood
  • Water Sample

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 2

Weather: Clear Day (Visibility about 12 NM), Winds SW ~5Knts all day, Overcast, Rain in the afternoon

 

 

 

Fog Horn Repair?

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Thursday September 12

Today Coast Guard came back to fix the Fog Horn. It is very loud.

Scott chopped a lot of wood that will be stacked up in the basement for use in the winter. We also received materials from Greg to build the electric fence around the North side of the island. That will be the weekend project.

The sunset today was beautiful, and there were so many humpback whales feeding in the distance!

  • Ran Generator
  • Ran Desalinator
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Chopped Wood
  • Water Sample

Whale Watching Vessels: 17

Private Vessels: 3

Weather: Foggy Morning, dissipated in the afternoon. Winds W Built to 23 knts, 12 C