Tag Archives: divers

Archived Video : Pearson College Diving Activity at Race Rocks

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Underwater Webcasts by the Divers

David,Satoshi,Victor and others do the first Johan Ashuvud week at Race Rocks Testing of the underwater to surface DIVELINK communication system  Underwater Video at West Race Rocks.
Live underwater webcast to New York using underwater communication system
(Spring 2001)		 Bluewater Diving- or tether diving, 2002. An initial test for the live webcasts in the June,2000 at Race Rocks.
Sea lions Visit Divers Video

The Underwater Environmental Data Sensor Bar.

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In December 2000, the students and faculty of Pearson College install the first of the underwater environmental data sensors  Fouling -or succession– depends on how you look at it.

Underwater Work for the Tidal Energy Project

ADCP deployment for the Tidal Power Project Deployment and Retrieval of the ADCP from the Bottom of the Channel Succession Study of coatings and materials Chris Blondeau and Juan Carlos video the substrate at the site of the piling installation, and test the depth of the overburden.
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Turbine site hydroid survey by Chris Blondeau and Juan Carlos Yabar, 2006

 

 Pam and Jason from Archipelago Marine do their underwater survey of the location of the Piling Drilling for the Current Energy Project. Video on the Pearson College, EnCana, Clean Current Tidal Power Demonstration Project at Race Rocks

 

 In December of 2007,The Pearson College Divers installed a set of junction boxes as part of a materials testing experiment for the tidal energy project.

Substrate with Invertebrates at the Tidal Energy Site

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Chris Blondeau and Juan Carlos do another video of the substrate at the site of the piling installation prior to the pile drilling operation for the Tidal Current Energy Project. They document some of the species of hydroid, colonial ascidian and sponges which grow on the giant barnacles in the area. March 29, 2006.

Note: The video pauses on each clump in order to have a better view.

 

Invertebrate Scenes from the video:

Turbine Site Hydroid Survey- 2006

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Chris Blondeau and Juan Carlos Yabar, did this survey to document the Invertebrates, particularly hydroids,sponges and colonial tunicates in the are where the turbine Piling was to be installed later in the year.

See other archived video with Pearson College Divers

Ecological Monitoring for the Tidal Energy Generator

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Pam and Jason from Archipelago Marine do their underwater survey of the location of the Piling Drilling for the Current Energy Project. They monitor area at ~18 meters depth. October 26, 2005Frequent visits from sealions frequently distract Juan Carlos as he takes the video.

See other archived video with Pearson College Divers

Blue water Diving — Pearson College Divers

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Henry Steinberg, Julia Clarke and Laura Verhegge do their first tether dive with Chris off the shores of Race Rocks in Race Passage. The apparatus for the dive was constructed by Henry Steinberg, a Pearson College diver, as part of a project in his PADI Divemasters course. This type of diving is useful for research purposes when one wants to sample jellyfish, salps or other macro-planktonic life forms which may otherwise be damaged if collected in a towed plankton net. It is also necessary as a safety measure for drift diving when the bottom is beyond safety limits, and there are currents involved such as here in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Installation of Succession plates for the Tidal Energy project

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This video shows the installation process for the tidal energy generator research project. This was carried out by Chris Blondeau and the Pearson College Divers in order to determine which surfaces discouraged growth in the waters at Race Rocks. As a result, Titanium was used in the construction of some parts of the generator as it was one of the metals most resistant to fouling.

See other archived video with Pearson College Divers

Link to the Integrated Energy Project

Deploy and Retrieve ADCP Instrument 2005

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In order to predict the best location for the installation of the tidal power generator, an ADCP ( Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) supplied by ASL Environmental Sciences was deployed. This instrument will collect current regime information for a period of one month. Rita Santos did the video and Angie Karlsen helped Chris Blondeau lift and position the concrete weights used to secure the device on the sea floor..

See other archived video with Pearson College Divers

Underwater Transect at Race Rocks

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The most difficult transects to do at Race Rocks Ecological reserve are those underwater. Through the years we have done a number of these, mostly in training sessions with the Pearson College Divers.  We experimented with various types of spools for laying out a line, types of weighted line, measuring tape, quadrat sizes, types of underwater paper on clipboards, types of pencils or writing devices  etc.  The best arrangement was using a 30- 50 metre long tape which could be attached to the peg on shore  and then taken out by the diver in a predetermined compass direction. The biggest problem other than the narrow window to get the work done was always the kelp cover, making the process very difficult in the later part of the year when the Nereocystis, (bull kelp) cover would make it impossible to access some areas.   The divers working in pairs would then proceed along one side of the line producing a record of the belt transect.  

Laura Verhegge and students of Pearson College doing an underwater transect off peg #1 at Race Rocks.

 


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Return to the Contents page for Environmental modelling with Transects..

A Turkey Vulture was flying about in the strong winds,

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Thursday, June 06, 2002
TEMPERATURE: Max. 12.0 C  Min. 11.0 C  Reset 11.0
MARINE LIFE: Early this morning one Bald Eagle flew around the Gulls nests, spending around 10 minutes looking for prey, despite the constant harassment by the Gulls. The eagle flew of to the west, and was out of site. Perhaps an hour later two Bald Eagles were spotted hunting together, they brought down a Glaucous-winged Gull and one eagle was seen carrying a Gull wing away. There was also other interesting bird action mid-morning. A Turkey Vulture was flying about in the strong winds, attempting to find food. The winds were a challenge for the vulture, with the bird struggling in the gusts. It was particularly noteworthy that the Black Oyster Catchers made a great effort to harass the vulture. This was caught on video just before the divers entered the water and can be seen at http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/archives/vidbenmovie.htm The divers reported an abundance of sperm and eggs in the nutrient rich water off the docks.
HUMAN IMPACT: No whale watching activity within the reserve today. Indeed the strongs winds, 25-35 knots, kept most vessels away. Hyaku docked twice, bringing equipment and materials for the web-cast and conduit repairs. One major disturbance was the Defence Forces Blasting on Bentinck Island which clearly frightened the Sea lions into the water, Around 10 of the 12 Sea lions disappeared within the first two blasts, approximately 10:30am, and have not yet returned. (Note: As of June 18- they have not returned- will not be back until August now. ) .The three blasts with only a few minutes spacing sent shock waves that rattled the house and were not at all pleasant.
posted by at 9:45 PM
Good MorningWEATHER: Sky Partly Cloudy  Vis. 12miles  Wind West 25-30knots Sea 2-3 foot chop and rising posted by at 6:42 AM

a pod of 5 Orcas spotted about 1-2km south of Race Rocks.

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Sunday, June 02, 2002
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Clear  Vis. 15 Miles  Wind West 15 Knots Sea 1 Foot Chop
Good Evening TEMPERATURE: Max. 13.5C  Min. 8.5C  Reset 12.0
MARINE LIFE: We were treated to a brilliant spectacle today with a pod of 5 Orcas spotted about 1-2km south of Race Rocks. The Sea lions were either unconcerned or unaware of their presence. The Divers found a large bed of sea anemones, urchins and coral while diving amongst the Bull Kelp in front of the docks. The Oystercatchers were quite agressively chasing the Crows away from their nests in what looked like an aerial dogfight.
HUMAN ACTIVITY: Again, we had fishermen within the reserve, using lures just off West Race. They moved off only after a repeated radio announcement notifying their breach of MPA regulations. The Orcas brought out a large number of eco-tourism boats, 10 moved throughout the reserve during the day. 5 recreational boats also cruised through the park, often not adhering to the no wake rule through Race Passage
posted by at 5:41 AM