Census Day

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles throughout the day
  • Wind:  0-10 NW throughout the day
  • Sky: clear all day
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Mostly just whale watchers and other boats cruising by on this beautiful sunny day

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around but not as many as I thought there would be

Notes

  • DnD was blasting again today
  • I finally have a full fresh water tank so hopefully it rains soon so I can start pressure washing and cleaning the pathways and buildings off
  • Significantly less sea lions I expected I suspect many of them went for swim while I was doing the census because it was a rather hot day today but here are the numbers are I have right now

Census

  • Stellar Sea Lions – 68
  • California Sea Lions – 97
  • Harbour Seals – 72
  • Gulls – 153
  • Cormorants – 73
  • Black Turnstones – 21
  • Sparrows – 24ish, hard to see and fast to fly off

Sea Lion Rescue

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles throughout the day
  • Wind:  0-5 SW throughout the day
  • Sky: clear this morning, clouds rolled in around 3
  • Water: calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Fisheries along with a vet and people from the aquarium came by to help a sea lion who had a piece of rope or something like it wrapped around its neck

Ecological

  • plenty of sea lions around

Notes

  • DnD was blasting again today
  • It was nice to have those people come around to help the sea lion out, they first sedated it via dart gun and once it was safe to approach they removed the garbage that was wrapped around the sea lions neck and monitored it until woke up and swam away

Sept 3, 4, 5 and 6th

I am back on Race Rocks and am very happy to be here, I had some log in trouble so this post will be for the past few days.

Weather,

On the third it was nice and sunny with little breeze, it was so nice I could run the desalinator without the generator. Started getting cloudy the next couple days and this morning the fog horn went off for a few minutes.

Ecological

I will be doing the census tomorrow but so far the number of sea lions seem to be growing, I have not seen any elephant seals, the harbour seal are right in there with the sea lions and I saw a river otter or two running around last night.

Other

Plenty of whale watchers coming around everyday, a couple sailboats and other than that the DnD seem to be blasting consistently which the sea lions aren’t too happy about.

That sums up my first few days back, I will be doing the census tomorrow and here are a few pictures from the last couple days.

Wetter, cooler weather arrives.

There were definite autumn overtones to the weather today in spite of the westerly winds, which shifted over to the southwest a few times. First thing this morning a heavy fog came in and soaked everything. At dark there were ominous looking rainclouds to the west but the forecast actually looks like it is improving. After a week of sliding downhill, the barometric pressure actually rose today and that is a really good indicator of an improving trend.

There were only six whale watching boats noted in the reserve today and I couldn’t see any whales (for a change). The few recreational boaters left on the water stayed out of the reserve. The Oriole sailed past through Race Passage today, flying with the wind and tide.

A series of large military explosions rocked the island mid-day.

Oriole

Two Steller’s Sea Lions with Ring-necks were photographed today as was a Steller’s with a green flasher hanging out of its mouth. One of the ring-necked Steller’s is not yet badly wounded by the plastic strap, the other (see photos) has the strap cutting into the back of its neck but not yet the front. This animal likes to sleep about ten meters from my house and would be a good candidate for disentanglement.
ring-neck Steller's

ring-neck Steller's sep18

This plastic packing strap is digging into the back of this animals neck.

This plastic packing strap is digging into the back of this animals neck.

ring-neck Steller's sept 18 3

EuJu flasher

Today was animal census day and these are the counts.
Harbour Seal 179
Elephant Seal 8
Steller’s Sea Lion 184
California Sea Lion 287
Canada Goose 4
Brown Pelican 1
Double-crested Cormorant 22
Pelagic Cormorant 3
Cormorant sp. 2
Black Turnstone 7
Black Oystercatcher 4
Glaucous-winged Gull 76
Thayer’s Gull 75
Heerman’s Gull 21
California Gull 16
Mew Gull 21
Gull sp. 152
Common Murre 1
Common Raven 2
Savannah Sparrow 6

There were no visitors today. Maintenance chores, other than making fresh water and electricity included cleaning in the boat shed, mending both houses’ fences, and keeping the weed-eater going. The weed-eater makes really good compost mulch.

High number of whale watchers

West winds below 20 knots all day. Clear skies. Barometric pressure dropping since yesterday. Fifteen to 20 knot winds expected for tomorrow afternoon.

34 whale watching boats in the reserve… no whales, sadly.

1 recreational boat

About 5 blasts went off this morning from DND. Normally during blasting periods there are red flags but there haven’t been any today or yesterday.

Was off the island in the evening and dropped off a visitor.

month end

Calm this morning, with mixed weather all day. Started out SE, backed to Westerly. Periods of torrential rain. DND blasting: 1200, 1205. Both big, loud single bangs.

Tour boats: 9

22 Canada Geese
Keeping my eye out for Sooty Shearwaters, no sign yet

Mammal Count from tower at 1130
9 elephant seals behind boat shed and on jetty 47 harbour seals (mostly Middle Rocks)
129 Stellar sea lions (mostly along the North shore of the main island)
200 California sea lions (mostly along the South shore in front of the student house)
Seems like this bad weather compelled a lot of the sea lions to leave. Maybe they’re just out in the water waiting for the swell and surge to ease up.

I spotted the Stellar sea lion with the line around his neck again today and got a few pictures.

-entered and sent water sampling data to IOS
-compiled month end report
-photographed branded sea lions
-fixed electric fence after storm damage
-tidied keepers house

End of calm weather

Overcast all day, light ESE wind in the morning, dead calm in the late afternoon. Big storm forecasted for this weekend.

Single DND blasts: 0920, 0925, 1045, 1300
Tour boats: 7

Off station from 1430 to 1530 to drop Jamieson back at the College

Elephant seals were gnawing on the boat trailer while trying to get the boat on. They definitely are not concerned about humans while they are in the water.

-Got pressure washer running with help from Jamieson
-Put barrels below downspouts to collect water for pressure washing
-Ran desalinator

Partial List of DND Activity 2002 to 2011

This was taken from the Race Rocks Log database recorded before the new logging system was started, so it is a partial record and is here in raw data only.

remove first (number, ex (2,
INSERT INTO `dnd` (`id`, `day`, `time`, `action`, `notes`, `puser`, `ptime`) VALUES
‘2002-10-24′, ’23:36:00’, ”, ‘Blasting today — Islands cleared of sealions by noon. Mike Demaerchi and his team ( 4) were observing throughout the day from the tower. ‘, ‘Garry’, ’23:37:11′),
(2, ‘2002-10-07′, ’23:40:27’, ”, ‘DND blasting   two  blasts at 1:00 PM  5 minutes apart.  25% of middle island population vacated on second blast. ‘, ‘Garry’, ’23:41:58′),
(3, ‘2002-11-08′, ’15:57:27’, ”, ‘Mike Demarchi was displeased to find that we had moved a tripod from the lighthouse, especially as he thought that we wern”t allowed up there. He also didn”t want us to film his departure. We wait for his reaction to the interview tapes.’, ‘Rosie, Jeremias and Ahmad’, ’16:08:33′),
(4, ‘2003-01-10′, ’01:08:55’, ”, ‘There were 2 blasts,about 1 minute apart, at 13:40. As usual the first blast alerted the hauled out sealions and the second cleared the rocks except for the elephant seal and the sealion on southeast rocks and one California sealion hauled out by the east’, ‘Mike’, ’01:13:08′),
(5, ‘2003-01-23′, ’00:10:30’, ”, ‘There were blasting exercises in Whirl Bay but since they were under water did not expect much disturbance of the wildlife and did not observe any.’, ‘Mike’, ’00:12:20′),
(6, ‘2003-02-05′, ’00:43:13’, ”, ‘The blasting had the usual effect on the wildlife, the birds take flight and on the first blast at 10:05 the Sealions were alerted. The second blast about one minute later sent at least 50% of the approx. 120 Northern Sealions hauled out on the smaller of’, ‘Mike’, ’02:10:15′),
(7, ‘2003-02-20′, ’16:57:08’, ”, ‘Blasting started about 10:15 The first blast alerted the hauled out Sealions,the second blast cleared the rocks. As usual the birds took flight with each blast, flew around for a minute or so then set back down.At nightfall there were 4 Sealions hauled ou’, ‘Mike’, ’17:03:57′),
(8, ‘2003-02-22′, ’11:31:44’, ”, ‘The first blast this morning cleared the rocks, animals still nervous from the blasting yesterday. The Sealions did not attempt to haul out again until late afternoon.’, ‘Mike’, ’11:33:40′),
(9, ‘2003-04-14′, ’01:34:18’, ”, ‘At about 8:25 p.m. there was a fairly loud blast on Bentinck Island followed by 2 lesser blasts, too dark to see how the Mammals reacted but the birds all took flight.Still hear the California Sea Lions barking sometime close by, sounds like they are swim’, ‘mike’, ’01:41:58′),
(10, ‘2003-01-05′, ’00:12:44’, ”, ‘DND blasting at Race Rocks. \r\nAt 11:45 when first of three blasts went off , all the cormorants, about 50 left the West side of Great Race  and flew away. Also all the Pigeon Guillemots  (80) feeding in front of docks took off . \r\n\r\nSecond blast  scared t’, ‘Garry’, ’00:16:21′),
(11, ‘2003-06-03′, ’17:59:24’, ”, ‘Numerous navy ships passed by.’, ‘LBPC Student’, ’18:00:18′),
(12, ‘2003-10-09′, ’18:32:27’, ”, ‘5 Blasts’, ‘Carol + Mike’, ’18:29:50′),
(13, ‘2003-10-10′, ’14:24:20’, ”, ‘1 loud blast at 11:15 from Bentinck Island\r\n’, ‘Irena’, ’14:27:39′),
(14, ‘2003-10-11′, ’11:47:00’, ”, ‘Two blasts at Bentinck, after second almost all sea lions slipped to the ocean’, ‘Irena’, ’10:27:06′),
(15, ‘2003-10-11′, ’12:15:00’, ”, ‘2 more blasts from the Bentinck’, ‘Irena’, ’11:39:50′),
(16, ‘2003-10-01′, ’10:30:05’, ”, ‘One blast at Bentinck 10:30, second one followed 10:35’, ‘Irena’, ’10:09:43′),
(17, ‘2003-10-01′, ’11:17:00’, ”, ‘1 blast at the Bentinck island’, ‘Irena’, ’10:52:44′),
(18, ‘2003-10-02′, ’10:25:00’, ”, ‘1 blast at 10:25, second followed shortly afterwards’, ‘Irena’, ’10:08:45′),
(19, ‘2003-10-29′, ’10:25:00’, ”, ‘I blast at 10:25 at Bentinck followed by a second one shortly after. ‘, ‘Irena’, ’07:19:26′),
(20, ‘2003-10-29′, ’11:15:00’, ”, ‘2 blasts at Bentinck’, ‘Irena’, ’07:23:53′),
(21, ‘2003-10-31′, ’08:45:00’, ”, ‘3 blasts, 2 at 8:45 one shortly after the other, third blast at 8:57’, ‘Irena’, ’08:51:13′),
(22, ‘2003-11-01′, ’18:21:18’, ”, ‘blasting’, ‘Carol + Mike’, ’18:17:58′),
(23, ‘2003-10-31′, ’18:22:12’, ”, ‘blasting’, ‘Carol + Mike’, ’18:18:42′),
(24, ‘2003-11-07′, ’18:25:00’, ”, ‘Blasting’, ‘Carol + Mike’, ’08:50:19′),
(25, ‘2003-11-20′, ’18:21:45’, ”, ‘Blasting’, ‘Carol + Mike’, ’18:22:15′),
(26, ‘2003-11-21′, ’18:21:10’, ”, ‘day of blasting’, ‘Carol + Mike’, ’18:21:34′),
(27, ‘2004-03-11′, ’18:17:09’, ”, ‘Blasting’, ‘c’, ’18:17:36′),
(28, ‘2004-05-11′, ’18:41:52’, ”, ‘Blasting 09:05 to 14:30’, ‘Carol or Mike’, ’18:46:10′),
(29, ‘2004-05-13′, ’18:51:47’, ”, ‘Blasting 09:55 to 14:50’, ‘Carol or Mike’, ’18:53:18′),
(30, ‘2004-05-12′, ’18:53:40’, ”, ‘Blasting 09:15 to 13:00’, ‘Carol or Mike’, ’18:54:27′),
(31, ‘2004-05-10′, ’18:55:08’, ”, ‘blasting 09:15 to ??:??’, ‘Carol or Mike’, ’18:56:03′),
(32, ‘2004-06-25′, ’18:47:22’, ”, ‘blasting’, ‘Carol or Mike’, ’18:49:11′),
(34, ‘2008-07-28′, ’11:06:53’, ”, ‘DND detonations from Bentick isl.\r\nvery loud maybe due to atmospheric conditions.\r\nscared a lot pf the wildlife’, ‘chris’, ’08:26:06′),
(35, ‘2008-07-28′, ’11:33:00’, ”, ‘DND detonation Bentick isl’, ‘chris’, ’08:26:47′),
(36, ‘2008-07-28′, ’11:38:37’, ”, ‘DND detonation Bentick isl’, ‘chris’, ’08:27:19′),
(37, ‘2008-10-22′, ’17:23:13’, ”, ‘DND blasting occurred throughout the day. Between 5 and 6 explosions were heard.’, ‘lbpc’, ’17:24:00′),
(38, ‘2008-10-23′, ’11:11:22’, ”, ‘DND blasting took place through the morning, with three successive blasts taking place at 0923, 0928 and 0933. Successive blasts also took place at 1103, 1108 and 1114. Animal life on the island was very disturbed. The sea lions on middle and north rock took off into the water, and the gulls on great rock were very disturbed’, ‘lbpc’, ’19:10:58′),
(39, ‘2008-11-15′, ’15:26:24’, ”, ‘none’, ‘laurie’, ’15:26:30′),
(40, ‘2009-01-19′, ’15:00:06’, ”, ‘Blasting activity today, first since I arrived in December.  Louder than I remembered!’, ‘ryan’, ’15:01:58′),
(41, ‘2009-04-03′, ’11:21:19’, ”, ‘blasting at 11:15’, ‘Ryan’, ’11:21:27′),
(42, ‘2009-04-17′, ’10:06:22’, ”, ‘Blasting on Bentinck Island today and yesterday.  Some conducted on the southern shore facing the reserve, second one today so loud that ALL seabirds took to the air.  Now less than 1/4 as many Pigeon guillemots on the North side of Great Race as before blasting.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:08:41′),
(43, ‘2009-06-24′, ’09:50:55’, ”, ‘2 blasts 10 seconds apart.’, ‘Adam’, ’09:51:09′),
(44, ‘2009-06-24′, ’12:01:47’, ”, ‘2 successive blasts’, ‘Adam’, ’12:02:06′),
(46, ‘2009-11-09′, ’13:23:55’, ”, ‘Six blasts were heard between 13:00-14:30.  The first caught the sea lions attention with most heads shooting up, second only several stirred, and very little to no reaction to the latter blasts.’, ‘Ryan’, ’14:17:17′),
(47, ‘2009-11-10′, ’11:06:54’, ”, ‘More blasting that sound similar to those yesterday.  They are occurring more frequently than yesterday, some less than 2 minutes apart.  These frequent blasts are most likely to rouse and then agitate resting sea lions, making them much more prone to disturbance from other sources like boat traffic.’, ‘Ryan’, ’11:31:44′),
(48, ‘2010-01-06′, ’14:30:04’, ”, ‘There has been a lot of air traffic around the reserve this week, that had by and large kept above 1000\\” or has skirted the reserve boundaries.  Today at 14:25 a Sea King helicopter approached from the SE at around 100\\” and buzzed Great Race Island before heading towards Esquimalt.  This disturbance sent 90% of the birds in the reserve to the air, and all three species of marine mammals present reacted with Steller sea lions, harbour seals, and a female elephant seal taking to the water.  This disturbance was reported to DFO on the 1-800-465-4336 hotline.’, ‘Ryan’, ’14:33:25′),
(49, ‘2010-01-28′, ’16:01:17’, ”, ‘Helicopter 437 made two low passes through the reserve, including a very noisy pass directly over the mainkeeper\\”s residence.  This activity created a marine mammal disturbance and  scattered the several bald eagles in the reserve.  This activity was reported to DFO.’, ‘Ryan’, ’17:13:19′),
(50, ‘2010-03-25′, ’10:24:14’, ”, ‘One large blast on the near-side of Bentinck Island.  I certainly don\\\\\\”t envy the DND personnel in the zodiac in Race Passage!  ~90% of all birds in the reserve took flight, with most gulls landing back on the island in short order.  The pigeon guillemots left their perches and regrouped on the water.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:24:17′),
(51, ‘2010-03-25′, ’10:31:20’, ”, ‘Smaller blast in same location on Bentinck Island.  The Pigeon guillemots on the water scattered, but the gulls stayed put on the island.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:25:02′),
(52, ‘2010-03-25′, ’12:21:09’, ”, ‘Third blast in same location, intermediate size.  Gulls unaffected, pigeon guillemots scattered again.’, ‘Ryan’, ’12:15:46′),
(53, ‘2010-03-25′, ’12:27:33’, ”, ‘Fourth blast’, ‘Ryan’, ’12:20:43′),
(54, ‘2010-04-15′, ’10:42:06’, ”, ‘Very loud blast at 10:42, all pigeon guillemots and many gulls took flight.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:35:43′),
(55, ‘2010-04-15′, ’10:47:21’, ”, ‘Another blast from Bentinck Island, over 100 pigeon guillemots were seen taking to the water on the N side of the island alone.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:44:56′),
(56, ‘2010-04-15′, ’12:10:50’, ”, ‘Two more blasts by 12:10 for a total of 4 so far today.  Most cormorants and pigeon guillemots have left the island.  The last blast was unusual in that there were two explosions in quick succession.’, ‘Ryan’, ’12:04:52′),
(57, ‘2010-04-25′, ’06:45:26’, ”, ‘There isn\\”t a much more audible separation of church and state than military blasting beginning 6:45 on a Sunday morning.  The second blast came at 6:52.’, ‘Ryan’, ’06:52:50′),
(58, ‘2010-04-25′, ’07:13:41’, ”, ‘Two more blasts at 7:13 and 7:18.’, ‘Ryan’, ’07:26:21′),
(59, ‘2010-04-26′, ’11:05:20’, ”, ‘A medium-sized blast on the near side of Bentinck Island had its customary effect on the seabirds beginning to nest on Great Race Island and the surrounding rocks.  The gulls did show any response, while nearly 100% of the Pigeon guillemots in the North part of the reserve took flight.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:59:50′),
(60, ‘2010-04-26′, ’11:10:01’, ”, ‘Same location, smaller blast.  Similar effect on seabirds.’, ‘Ryan’, ’11:03:22′),
(61, ‘2010-04-26′, ’15:20:59’, ”, ‘Blasting continued throughout the day.’, ‘Ryan’, ’15:13:19′),
(62, ‘2010-04-27′, ’11:33:13’, ”, ‘DND has been blasting all morning, the last two have been some of the largest explosions all year.  Gulls and even geese take flight in response to these blasts and the last few Steller sea lions have dwindled in number as they take to the water after the biggest blasts.’, ‘Ryan’, ’11:34:22′),
(63, ‘2010-04-28′, ’10:02:05’, ”, ‘Blasting began at 10:02 with a large demolition, followed by just one other before the flags were taken down on Bentinck Island.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:10:44′),
(64, ‘2010-04-29′, ’09:27:08’, ”, ‘Blasting began before 9:30, with a very large blast at 9:33 that caused gulls to take flight.  With the incessant blasting, the Pigeon guillemots are now very scarce on the island with only a few individuals on the S side of Great Race.  There are small groups in the water on the SE side of the island; total in the reserve is less than 25% of the population 4 days ago.’, ‘Ryan’, ’09:29:31′),
(65, ‘2010-05-13′, ’16:26:05’, ”, ‘Low fly-overs through the reserve occurred in the morning and afternoon today.  A cargo plane well below 1000 feet buzzed Great Race Island going West causing a huge disturbance to both nesting shorebirds and marine mammals.  In the evening, a helicopter with \\”433\\” stamped on the tail flew N over sea lions hauled out on SE Rock.  These disturbances were reported to the DFO Marine Mammal Disturbance hotline.’, ‘Ryan’, ’16:30:25′),
(66, ‘2010-06-23′, ’13:40:21’, ”, ‘DND has been blasting today. The first blast was heard at 1052hrs, followed by a second blast at 1059hrs. At 1222hrs another blast was heard, followed by another at 1227hrs. In all cases, most of the birds took to the air. Guillemots were especially frightened.’, ‘adam’, ’13:42:21′),
(67, ‘2010-11-01′, ’11:30:00’, ”, ‘At least 5 blasts between 11:30 and 14:30’, ‘VirginieLP’, ’20:40:24′),
(68, ‘2010-11-02′, ’20:32:55’, ”, ‘Blasting between 10:00 and 15:00. Disturbed sea lions (photo documented by Raisa). ‘, ‘VirginieLP’, ’20:34:01′),
(69, ‘2010-11-03′, ’20:00:00’, ”, ‘loud explosions at:\r\n10:05\r\n10:08\r\n10:15\r\n11:31\r\n11:35\r\n11:40\r\n14:00\r\n14:01\r\n14:03’, ‘VirginieLP’, ’08:21:16′),
(70, ‘2010-11-04′, ’19:20:54’, ”, ‘blasts heard at:\r\n9:50\r\n10:00\r\n11:30\r\n11:33\r\n’, ‘VirginieLP’, ’19:21:21′),
(71, ‘2010-11-29′, ’00:00:00’, ”, ‘blasting throughout the day, check LGL monitoring report for details’, ‘AlexF’, ’09:46:12′),
(72, ‘2010-11-30′, ’00:00:00’, ”, ‘blasting throughout the day, LGL monitoring report for details’, ‘AlexF’, ’09:45:38′),
(74, ‘2010-12-08′, ’15:00:00’, ”, ‘Warship south west of the rocks gunning blanks.’, ‘AlexF’, ’09:26:49′),
(75, ‘2011-01-19′, ’09:00:27’, ”, ‘First blast at 9:05’, ‘Ryan’, ’08:59:33′),
(76, ‘2011-01-20′, ’11:40:11’, ”, ‘Blasting began at 10:00 today.’, ‘Raisa’, ’11:39:12′),
(77, ‘2011-01-28′, ’14:30:57’, ”, ‘Military exercises south of Esquimalt made for an unusually loud hour here this afternoon.  With low winds and flat seas the sound carried very far (one helicopter was just a spec above the horizon).’, ‘Ryan’, ’15:02:39′),
(78, ‘2011-02-03′, ’08:28:07’, ”, ‘Blasts at 11:20, 13:45, 13:47 and 14:30’, ‘VirginieLP’, ’08:29:04′),
(79, ‘2011-03-02′, ’16:10:22’, ”, ‘Canadian Forces helicopter flew low through the reserve twice today.’, ‘Ryan’, ’16:10:43′),
(80, ‘2011-03-08′, ’13:45:29’, ”, ‘Blasting by CFAD Rocky Point has been continuous today with the exception of a lunch break at noon.  It is very disappointing that the 5-minute interval designed to minimized DND\\”s impact on the ecological reserve has not been observed.  Most blasts come in clusters with ~2-minute intervals.  The blasting occurring around the time of this report ~13:54 had ~1-minute intervals.’, ‘Ryan’, ’13:47:33′),
(81, ‘2011-03-23′, ’09:16:27’, ”, ‘Blasting from Rocky Point has been heard all morning.  Small blasts have been heard in rapid succession with 3 or more explosions within 60 seconds.’, ‘Ryan’, ’09:17:26′),
(82, ‘2011-03-24′, ’09:06:01’, ”, ‘Blasting continued into a third day.  The rapid-fire blasts from Rocky Point come as frequent as 3 in 20 seconds.  No marine mammals are present north of Great Race.’, ‘Ryan’, ’09:07:09′),
(83, ‘2011-03-24′, ’10:42:35’, ”, ‘Blasting frequency has increased with the last 3 blasts over a span of 14 seconds.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:43:05′),
(84, ‘2011-03-30′, ’11:00:59’, ”, ‘The third low altitude flight came at 11:07 today.  The plane flew W to E through the N end of the reserve at an altitude ~300 feet.’, ‘Ryan’, ’11:05:18′),
(85, ‘2011-09-22′, ’15:22:32’, ”, ‘Small blasts were heard from Rocky Point throughout the day.  The barely audible explosions did not cause any stampedes that I saw.’, ‘Ryan’, ’08:23:27′),
(86, ‘2011-09-26′, ’12:03:39’, ”, ‘Blasting on Bentinck Island began today for the season.  Blasts can be heard over the howling wind.  The rough landing for the monitoring scientists had more of an impact on the sea lions than the blasting so far.  With 30 knot easterlies, I don\\”t envy them their return home.’, ‘Ryan’, ’12:04:41′),
(87, ‘2011-09-26′, ’13:55:03’, ”, ‘It is always puzzling why DND blasting does not space its blasts to the 5 minute intervals which have been proven to reduce impact on the marine mammals at Race Rocks. The two largest blasts of the day (and season so far) occurred within seconds of each other today at 13:55.  The first blast had almost no impact, the second disturbed the 50+ California sea lions on the N side of Great Race, many of those then took to the water.’, ‘Ryan’, ’13:57:33′),
(88, ‘2011-09-27′, ’13:26:08’, ”, ‘Blasting today is following yesterday\\”s pattern with many, frequent blasts.  The two largest of the day just occurred within seconds of one another and sent sea lions into the water from the N and E side of Great Race.’, ‘Ryan’, ’13:27:13′),
(89, ‘2011-09-27′, ’14:47:21’, ”, ‘Large paired blasts again at 14:05 and 14:46.  The intensity is now such that sea lions are taking to the water during the first blast and then large groups follow with the second blast.’, ‘Ryan’, ’14:48:42′),
(90, ‘2011-09-28′, ’07:43:14’, ”, ‘LGL personnel caused a stampede of ~50 sea lions on the N side of Great Race on landing.  Similar result as their landing the previous two days.  Today however, they caused a nursing Steller sea lion pup to be chased into the water.’, ‘Ryan’, ’09:24:08′),
(91, ‘2011-09-28′, ’09:24:11’, ”, ‘Blasting continues today without intervals between the larger blasts that had been requested.  No attempt has been made to reduce their impact on the species of Special Concern Eumetopias jubatus at Race Rocks.’, ‘Ryan’, ’09:25:28′),
(92, ‘2011-09-28′, ’10:18:29’, ”, ‘Only 25 seconds between the largest blasts of the season.  The strong shock wave from the explosions rattles the windows here and this latest volley knocked over items on the shelf in my bathroom.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:19:11′),
(93, ‘2011-09-28′, ’11:09:13’, ”, ‘The blasts are now so powerful and the sea lions already so agitated that the single massive explosion is enough to drive sea lions from the land.  This volley had 3 explosions in the span of 28 seconds.’, ‘Ryan’, ’11:10:07′),
(94, ‘2011-09-28′, ’13:19:12’, ”, ‘Large blasts 20 seconds apart.  The majority of the sea lions hauled out on the jetty took to the water, approximately 50 animals visible just from the front window.’, ‘Ryan’, ’13:20:01′),
(95, ‘2011-09-29′, ’09:21:37’, ”, ‘Two absolutely massive explosions that shook the house occurred only 10 seconds apart.  The glass panes in the windows rattled against their metallic frames.  At least 70 sea lions stampeded into the water, completely clearing out entire haul out areas.  About 20 sea lions stampeded through the area where the Steller pup was resting.’, ‘Ryan’, ’09:23:28′),
(96, ‘2011-09-29′, ’11:50:07’, ”, ‘The hourly volleys of large double blasts only seconds apart continues.  I have recorded audio of the second blasts for reference.’, ‘Ryan’, ’11:51:03′),
(97, ‘2011-09-29′, ’11:53:32’, ”, ‘A large single explosion just blasted; far fewer sea lions took to the water (~10 on the N side of Great Race).’, ‘Ryan’, ’11:54:42′),
(98, ‘2011-10-05′, ’10:21:10’, ”, ‘A single blast sent 40 Steller sea lions stampeding off the North end of Great Race.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:21:30′),
(99, ‘2011-10-05′, ’10:53:33’, ”, ‘Another single blast sent Northern and California sea lions stampeding into the waters.  An eco-tour vessel was present and smartly backed away from the island.  It is very unfortunate that military activities have a negative impact on both conservation of our natural resources and our local economy.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:54:48′);

Today was another day of blasting.

Good Evening
Temperature: Max. 9.1 ºC »» Min. 7.8 ºC »» Reset 8.0 ºC
Rainfall: 3.6mm
Today was another day of blasting. The first blast occurred at around 9.30 am and sent all the animals stampeding off their respective islets. We finished two of our video projects today, which only leaves one to complete. We had a visit from some scientists who were studying the impact of the blasts. We conducted an interview which should hopefully be available with the rest of the footage on this website.http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/archives/vidlionblasts.htm
posted by Race Rocks Relief at 6:13 PM

Good morning

WEATHER: Sky Overcast »» Vis. 5 Miles »» Wind North-East 7 Knots »» Sea Choppy/Rough
The storm has not yet materialised, but the blasting continues. Today the blasting is louder, and the seals and sea lions have already deserted their islet. Today there are some scientists visiting the island to study these effects. ( LGL)  If you want to see the blasting, you can track it on the remote control camera at racerocks.com.
Yesterday’s rainfall was 4mm. We are expecting more today.
TEMPERATURE: Max. 9.1 ºC »» Min. 7.8 ºC »» Reset 8.0 ºC
posted by Race Rocks Relief at 10:38 AM