Tag Archives: coast guard helicopter

Helicopter Visitors

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It seems as though the strong wind is here to stay! At least for the next few days that is. Thankfully the sky was blue and sunny which made the wind a little less nasty and allowed the batteries to charge fully on solar.

Spot the imposter

  • 4 Ecotourism vessels today, I hope they saw lots – it looked like a very bumpy ride!
  • 2 technicians and a pilot from Coast Guard stopped by via helicopter this afternoon to work on the fog horn. It’s the first time I’ve heard it the fog horn go off and its actually far less alarming than what I made it out to be in my head.
    • Coast Guard gave me heads up that they would be coming today to ensure the helipad was clear of any wildlife. Their arrival did spook the sea lions near the jetty as I expected it would even though they didn’t pass directly overtop of them. They did pass over the 3 elephant seals on the grass and being the giant slugs that they are they raised their heads to look up for a couple of seconds and were back asleep before the helicopter even landed. Overall there was far less disturbance than I assumed their be which was great!

Ollie spent the day in the middle of the channel and only left the area when a large Steller swam past flinging around an octopus. Fair enough Ollie, I wouldn’t want octopus guts flying my way either!

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

July 22 and 23 – End of Shift

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Weather for July 22:
Wind: W 11 to 34 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Foggy in morning, Partly Cloudy after 09:00
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-18 C

Weather for July 23:
Wind: W 12 to 32 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Fog patches in the morning, Partly Cloudy after noon
Sea: up to 1′ chop in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-16 C

Maintenance:
I did the routine tasks of cleaning the solar panels and house windows, topping up the water in the 24 deep cycle batteries, fixing the electric fence, sampling the salinity and temperature of the seawater, and running the desalinator with solar power to produce freshwater.

End of Shift:
I have enjoyed reacquainting myself with Race Rocks over the past two and a half weeks. The solar power was a sufficient source of energy each day to charge the batteries, power the island, and produce freshwater from the desalinator. I got out in the station boat, which is always a highlight to see the island from the perspective of a sea lion. Most importantly, for the second summer in a row I learned to live harmoniously with the very territorial nesting gulls.

This is my sixth shift I have done as Ecoguardian over the past nine years, for a total of almost nine months. My shifts have ranged from two weeks to four months. I have visited here in ten months of the year, with the exception of June and September.

Tomorrow I am heading home to Vancouver to get ready for two weeks in the Northwest Territories, where I will be canoeing in Nahanni National Park Reserve.

I look forward to returning to Race Rocks sometime soon to explore the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of this amazing place.

Photo highlights from the past two days:

Helicopter Visit

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1-2 female Elephant Seals, 1 still nursing her pup, the other coming and going. Mom #1 has been gone over a week now
  • 3 Elephant Seal pups, 1 nursing and 2 weened
  • Still no Adult Male elephant Seal
  • Bald Eagles, both mature and juvenile, continue to visit daily for hunting

“Not much, but good enough for breakfast”

Visitors:

  • 2 Coast Guard techs visited via helicopter to trouble shoot tower electronics.

  • 3 student groups of 6 to see and learn about the Elephant Seals and pups
  • A VIP group, with students, visited for a quick overview or the reserve, with particular interest in the Power System

Facility Work:

  • Replaced all pier fencing, hoping the worst of the combination king tides and storms have passed

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Several visits by Eco-tourism vessels

Weather Events:

  • Friday, February 10:
    • Sky: Overcast, with occasional light rain
    • Wind: S 5- 15 knots, veering to W 20 kts later in the afternoon
    • Sea: Waves to 1 Meter
    • Temperature Low 6oC, High 8oC
  • Saturday, February 11:
    • Sky: Mostly clear with occasional overcast skies moving through
    • Wind: W 5 – 10 kts
    • Sea:  light chop
    • Temperature Low 6oC, High 9oC

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Weekly Census

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Wind: yesterday 3-32 knots from NE to S to W, today 3-45 knots from W to S
Sea State: yesterday rippled with chop up to 1 m in evening, today chop up to 1 m, then rippled in afternoon
Visibility: yesterday 5-10 NM, today 10-15NM
Sky: yesterday overcast and rain, today clear
Temperature: yesterday 5-9 °C, today 7-9 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.11 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Results of weekly megafauna and bird census from Saturday, February 8:
9 elephant seals (2 female adults, 4 male adults, 2 female pups, 1 male pup)
169 steller sea lions
202 california sea lions
29 harbour seals
41 bald eagles (37 adults, 4 juveniles)
1 raven
19 brandt’s cormorants
138 pelagic cormorants
65 double-crested cormorants
4 canada geese
412 gulls (most are thayer’s gulls)
20 black oystercatchers
2 surf scoters
20 harlequin ducks
35 surfbirds
26 black turnstones
1 snow bunting
1 fox sparrow

Yesterday in the morning, three members of the Coast Guard came in a helicopter to do a routine check on some equipment on the island. The pilot phoned ahead to confirm the best place to land to try to avoid disturbing the animals. They landed on the helicopter pad. Sometimes they land on the grass at the base of the lighthouse. The Coast Guard guys were excited to see the elephant seals, which they hadn’t seen before. Usually when they fly into the lightstations up the coast, they see a lot of sea lions.

In the afternoon yesterday, three visitors from Pearson College came to the island to have a tour.

The only other boats that were seen in the ecological reserve were two tour boats this afternoon.

See the photos below for some views from the last two days.

Coast Guard visitors, entangled sea lion and Sam

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 20-25 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • A coast guard helicopter brought technicians this morning to work on the lighthouse electronics
  • Guy, Jeff, Travis and my friend/Pearson alum Sam Unger came to the island later in the afternoon. Travis was getting trained on docking the boat at Race Rocks, while Jeff and Guy came to have a look at the broken laundry machine. Sam came to visit me and he’ll be staying here until Monday.

Marine mammals

  • The last elephant seal left the island yesterday, leaving harbour seals and sea lions as the only mammals on the main island.
  • I received a report from Vancouver Aquarium about an entangled steller in the area. I’ve informed the various whale watching companies, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for it myself.

Helicopter Generator Swap

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots North
  • Sky: mostly overcast, some rain in the evening.
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • There were eight elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • That is the most I have seen out here during this current shift.
  • Three of the younger males enjoyed a spirited bout or two.
  • The rest of them snoozed off in pairs or alone.
  • The birds and sea lions were definitely disrupted by the helicopter.

Maintenance

  • Kyle and four men from the Coast Guard removed the old Generator B.
  • A Coast Guard helicopter then dropped off a new generator, and took away the old one.
  • They then placed the new generator in its spot.
  • I helped out with various auxiliary tasks, but mostly just took photographs.
  • Tidied up loose tools after everyone had departed.

Boats

  • Second Nature.
  • A few eco-tours.

Visitors

  • Kyle, the four Coast Guard men, and Ian and Stephen.
  • They all departed in the early afternoon.

Other

  • Coast Guard helicopter overflight.

 

Orcas, Penis, Helicopter

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Ecological

  • Elephant seals: Chunk has appeared to be trying to mate since before the pups were born but today it was the first time I have observed successful copulation with the mother of first pup.  In the photos he seemed keen to go again but she didn’t seem very interested.
  • Orcas: what appeared to be a family of 4 orcas passed through race passage in the morning heading East.  A “Whale Research” vessel can be seen in the photo following them.
  • Fishing: several sports fishing boats with buoys were around the reserve today,  a sure sign that the halibut fishery has reopened for the season.

Other:

  • took measurements for camera mounting housing and hardware
  • Coast Guard Helicopter pilot Captain David Ferguson paid a visit to Race Rocks with 2 crew to do routine maintenance on the light and fog signal.  They came in one of the Coast Guard’s new, shiny Bell 429 machines, which apparently cost about 8.3 Million dollars apiece.

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.

Feb 1-5

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Feb 1: Cloudy with rain, wind N 10-15 knots.  1 dive boat and 2 kayaks in the reserve. The dive boat was observed with an anchor in use in the reserve which is not allowed except for in emergencies.  Cut and chopped fire wood.

Feb 2: Rain, wind NE 10-15 knots in morning switching to West in afternoon, up to 30 knots.  I went off island in the morning and attended the Pearson College staff meeting. Picked up Virginie at airport and groceries along the way back.  Returned to island late afternoon as wind was starting to pick up.

Feb 3: Wind light, low visibility in the morning. Worked on month end report and DFO seawater data entry.

Feb 4: Cloudy, wind NE 15-20 knots.  A coast guard helicopter landed on the pad before noon to do maintenance on the tower light.  The pilot, Mike, and technician, Derrick, were on their way back from the Carmanah station.  While waiting on the maintenance work I invited the pilot in for tea and heard some stories from his nearly 40 years of service including his experience piloting a helicopter out to the drilling rig the Ocean Ranger the night it sank in 1982 on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. They flew out knowing they didnt have enough fuel to make the return trip and would have to land on another drilling rig, in the storm, in order to re-fuel.  By the time they arrived there were only bodies floating in the sea, all 84 crew members on the rig died.

Feb 5: Rain, wind NE becoming variable, 4 foot swells coming in from the NE in the morning, low visibility. Worked on finishing month end report and preparing guest house for visitors.  At night, on my way to check the generator, I could hear elephant seal pup vocalizations coming from West rock.  I hadn’t seen or heard any sign of the pup for several days, since last reported in the log.

 

 

NE wind, temperature below zero

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There has been a fairly steady 20-35 NMPH NE wind blowing since Sunday which has meant pretty constant white caps and waves breaking along the jetty, the sky has been mostly clear. This has made any transport to/from island difficult. On Monday Erik brought out an electrician and apprentice to remove the failed inverter. He wasn’t able to stay tied up very long on the jetty. We got the inverter off and it is now in Vancouver for servicing.

On Tuesday one eco tour vessel passed through the reserve. There was also a government barge and tug boat that seemed to have some trouble while going through Race passage. With a strong tail wind and current the barge seemed to pick up speed and get ahead of the main tug. Between here and Church Rock, I watched them maneuvering in what appeared to be efforts to regain control. Eventually they got it under tow again and reversed direction, with main tug pushing the barge from behind going backwards, and they tucked in behind Christopher point for protection. Several hours later they pulled out and returned in the direction from where they came, apparently having abandoned their original destination. Navy exercises most days this week with large vessels and several zodiacs trailing.

Bertha and Chunk continue mating, pup continues putting on fat. Bertha seems ready to leave any day now, she is visibly thinner, paler in colour and seems more passive and lethargic. The female eseal that had been in S bay has left, I assume to get out of the cold wind which has been below zero plus wind chill while sea temp is currently around 7 degrees C. The younger male e-seal is visible out on Middle Rocks today and has been there the past few days.

A coast guard helicopter arrived today for maintenance on the light and fog horn. They landed next to tower as usual which was pretty close to elephant seals, Chunk took off around the other side of the house but returned soon after to mate. While clearly bothered by the sound, wind/debris and proximity of the helicopter the mother and pup didnt or couldnt really move away.

-Checking heating coils on exposed water lines
-cut, chopped, stacked fire wood
-cleaned panels
-running some heat in main house in the evenings to keep it warm
-worked on wiring/lights in whaler
-communications for wood stove/inverter/solar
-entered data and submitted DFO boat count and Seawater samples
-made parts list for plumbing in main house
-month end report fuel inventory