Tag Archives: airplane

Swell, Sea Lion, Sooth

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knots N, later down to 5-10 N
  • Sky: overcast, then a rather sunny afternoon.
  • Water: 1′ waves, 3′ swell on the rocks

Ecological

  • A rather large sea lion encroachment today.
  • I think the powerful swell against the rocks was driving them inland.
  • 5 elephant seals on Great Race.
  • One of them spent the day lying in the mud on the NE part of the island.

e-seal-29-10

Maintenance

  • The sea lion encroachment caused major fence discombobulation.
  • Spent 1 hour resetting the fence.
  • The usual chores as well.

Boats

  • A few eco-tours came by today.

Other

  • A float plane flew over Great Race just after 15:00.

March 16 – Camera, Crane and Coruscating Sun

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Sunny
Wind: 5-16 knots from the SW and S in the early morning, NE until 17:00, SE for a few hours and calm after 20:00
Air Temperature: Low 6.6°C, High 10.3°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.9°C

The underwater camera is back up and running, after a few weeks offline. The power issue has been solved. Algae on the dome around the camera is partially obstructing the view, but it will be cleaned soon by divers from the college.

This afternoon, there were two low flying aircraft: a floatplane and a Search and Rescue Helicopter.

Three fishing boats passed through the ecological reserve today. One boat spent an hour fishing within the Rockfish Conservation Area, which is prohibited by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The Rockfish Conservation Area is within the 40m depth contour of Great Race Rocks and Rosedale Reef, marked by the green buoy to the southeast of Great Race Rocks.

The crane needs to be run and serviced once a month. Today, it was used to lift a 12m log from the jetty beach to the boardwalk, where it will be chopped into firewood. In hindsight, it would have made it less challenging to cut the log in half while it was on the beach. Although, 6m sections wouldn’t have been as much fun to manoeuvre with the crane.

During the low tide in the afternoon, there was a large number of harbour seals and sea lions hauled out on the rocks. Two branded steller sea lions were seen on the South Islands. Both sea lions were branded as pups at Rogue Reef, Oregon. 524R was branded in 2007. 365Y was branded in 2013.

maintenance work

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At 1111hrs PDT a Prince of Whales vessel was spotted entering the Reserve at high speed in close proximity to West Race.
A CCG helicopter did a reconnaissance flight around the tower this morning.
Erik and Evgeny arrived to install the cable for the new underwater camera. Two techs from Environment Canada arrived to work on their weather equipment.
There were 4 visitors to the island today
California Sea Lion: 8

Fishing illegally

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At 0840hrs PDT a floatplane flew low from W to E over the south side of the Reserve.

At 0930hrs PDT a OBMG rental boat was spotted maneuvering carelessly near the SW side of Great Race.

At 1000hrs PDT the United States Coast Guard Cutter Swordfish entered the E side of the Reserve and approached Great Race. A launch boat with three persons on board was deployed and began to maneuver carelessly and at excessive speed along the E and SE side of Great Race and over Rosedale Reef. VHF contact with the captain of the USCG Cutter Swordfish was made and the vessel left shortly thereafter.

At 1030hrs PDT a recreational vessel was spotted fishing near North Race. The license number 13K115028 was recorded and reported to DFO. The station vessel was launched and the violators were spoken to.

At ~1400hrs PDT a vessel was observed speeding through the channel between North Race and Middle Rock.

In the late afternoon a vessel drifted in and out of the Reserve on the current while fishing. The incident was reported to DFO.

adamjuly162011Pam Birley took this photo on remote control camera 1 of Adam and an assistant pouring concrete to reinforce the base for the boat rail while the tide was out.

Airplane and helicopter flights under 305 metres ( 1000ft)

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111009patbay

A float plane, hired by a Fisheries and Oceans Creel Survey flight over the reserve on November 10, 2009.
patbayair

Shortly after 11 AM, Oct. 18/2009, a float plane over the reserve at very low altitude (well under 305 metres, (1000 ft.): reported by a kayak tour group.

 
harbairtower

A low flight by a local airline company in 2004

harbairm3s

For a Creel survey, the fisheries observer on board knows which are the restricted fishing areas and if he sees a vessel that appears to be engaged in sport fishing in a restricted area he tries to get the vessel’s license number or name to pass along to enforcement. It has a defined route that includes going by Race Rocks, usually at 500′. UPDATE: The flight on Oct.18 2009 was also a DFO Creel survey flight which went to 300’ to check out a vessel which appeared to be involved with sports fishing.

The Problem with Airplanes and Helicopters.Sea lions and harbour seals are especially wary of low flights by helicopters and airplanes usually leading to stampeding into the water. helicopter landing kills gullsA helicopter landing on the island at the wrong time of year can cause havoc among the seabird colony. This video shows the aftermath of a landing by a coastguard helicopter in August of 2003. At that time, the Glaucous winged Gull chicks are able to move around within the envelop of their nesting area but leaving that area means certain death by being pulled apart by other adults. This territorial behaviour has evolved as a mechanism to prevent overcrowding of nesting areas. The helicopter landing the tower resulted in an high mortality rate.
From the DFO Consultation Secretariat: Updated draft of the Marine Mammal Regulation Amendments (5) (a) No one shall operate an aircraft for purposes of aerial marine mammal observation at an altitude of less than 1000 feet.; (b) For purposes of subsection (a) “aerial marine mammal observation” means any alteration of course of an aircraft in flight which is designed to bring the aircraft closer to the marine mammals.Comment: Aircraft (fixed wing & helicopter) are handled separately because of the demonstrated disturbance of aircraft when flying over marine mammals and the risk associated for the marine mammals and the aircraft when landing on the water. This proposed regulation is currently being reviewed by Transport Canada to ensure consistency with existing aviation regulations.NOTE: As of November 12, 2009, the regulations of Transport Canada still do not reflect the 1000 ft distance. We understand they are working on this to harmonize the policy between departments. Further note: In the regulations for flying in Alaska a greater elevation distance is required.
From: “How to View Marine Mammals from an Airplane or Helicopter
• Maintain a 1500-foot (457.2 metres) minimum altitude when viewing marine mammals from the air.
• Buzzing, hovering, landing, taking off, and taxiing near marine mammals on land or in the water is likely to harass the animals.”It would be useful if the US and Canada could have some agreed upon figure.
Return to the Environmental Impact and Disturbances Index:

Airplane disruptions again

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‘Disruption’, ‘Plane’, ‘PatBay Air’, ‘I am guessing the same plane made it’s third low pass over the island today around just before 11:00.’, ‘Ryan’, ’20:35:41′

-2009-11-10′, ’10:43:09′, ‘Disruption’, ‘Plane’, ‘C-GHZP’, ‘A PatBay Air craft made it’s 4th or 5th low altitude flight directly over Great Race Island today. The first such incident was reported to us by kayakers who were here enjoying the reserve. They noted that the overflight caused a marine mammal disturbance, and the 3 that I have documented have all involved marine mammal disturbances. Last Sunday was the last time there was such an incident and as such these incidents are occurring with an increasing frequency.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:46:02′