Tag Archives: E135

March 24 and 25

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Wind: yesterday variable 1-11 knots, today mostly W 2-17 knots
Sea State: both days calm
Visibility: yesterday 5-15 NM, today 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday overcast, rain then clearing in early afternoon, today partly cloudy then clear from mid morning onwards
Temperature: yesterday 5-6 °C, today 5-10 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.34 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

I heard back about more information on the recently arrived female juvenile elephant seal pup, with green tags E103 and E135. Dr Patrick Robinson, the Director of the Año Nuevo Reserve and Lecturer at University of California Santa Cruz, sent a report of the history of the seal’s sightings and said, “It’s always great to get these updates… we greatly appreciate it!” The seal was born in the 2018 winter season, which makes her just over two years old. She was seen a lot during the winter and spring of 2018 at Año Nuevo Reserve. Researchers took two blubber samples to study bioaccumulation. The seal wasn’t seen again until the fall of 2019, when she spent a month at Race Rocks between September 7 and October 11. Fast forward a few months, the seal came back to Race Rocks two days ago, on March 23. She appears to be in the early stages of her catastrophic moult of her fur and skin, judging by the patches on her sides.

The youngest elephant seal pup returned yesterday morning from her one day adventure in the sea. She spent the whole day sleeping by the wood pile. The oldest pup has been gone for the past two days. A new adult female elephant seal arrived yesterday. She is most likely one of the four mothers that was here in January and February. So far the three have come back a month and a half after they each weaned their pups, which happened on January 21, February 4 and February 9.

At today’s 16:31 high tide, after recording the salinity and temperature of the water, I hooked up the hoses and pump to top up the seawater in the cistern. The gas powered water pump sucks water through a hose with a strainer dropped off the end of the jetty. The water is pumped through 76 m (250′) of fire hose up to the cistern. Over a couple hours, tens of thousands of litres of water were pumped into the underground cistern, which should feed the desalinator for the next month and a bit.

Yesterday, there was one pleasure boat that zoomed through Middle Channel and stopped by the rocks to take photos of sea lions. This afternoon, the Canadian Coast Guard lifeboat Cape Calvert, appeared to be out for a cruise around Race Rocks from the base in Victoria. They came in for a closer look and a couple of the crew appeared to be snapping photos of Race Rocks with their phones. This is a very photogenic place. This afternoon, Guy, Corey and Christine from Pearson College delivered a new fridge and took away the old one that recently stopped working. They also brought some fresh food from the Pearson kitchen, which is closing down for a while.

Here are a few photos from the past two days:

Newly Arrived Elephant Seals

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Wind: yesterday W 7-31 knots, today W 6-26 knots
Sea State: both days calm in morning, 1′ chop in afternoon
Visibility: both days 8-15 NM
Sky: yesterday clear, today rain overnight then partly cloudy with rain in evening
Temperature: yesterday 6-8 °C, today 6-7 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.34 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

The population of elephant seals is increasing on Race Rocks. The boat ramp, their preferred haul out spot, is getting a lot of traffic. Yesterday morning, an adult female arrived and quickly made her way up to the centre of the island. She could be one of the females who left in January or February, based on her size and scars on her back from mating.

I realized this morning the adult female elephant seal I have been seeing on and off for the past three weeks was in fact the first mother of this winter. In the month the seal and I were both here on this island from December 21 to January 21, I never realized she had two flipper tags. I only ever saw the ones marked T562 on both sides of one of her flippers. This morning I saw two sets of different tags, one on each flipper. Perhaps the mud and snow of the early winter concealed the tags. I also did not have as many opportunities to read the tags when the mother was spending most of here time either nursing her pup or mating with the alpha male.

Now that I know she’s the mother of the male pup, it could explains why that pup came towards her when she first arrived on March 3. The other pups moved away from her. Although, I haven’t seen the male pup interact closely or vocalize with its mother.

A juvenile elephant seal arrived this morning with two green tags, E103 and E135. There is something about today that made all the tags very visible. The seal looks to be very well fed for the upcoming moulting. This seal was here in the fall. She was born and tagged in Ano Nuevo, on the coast of California between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. I haven’t been able to figure when she was born. See the log post from September 30, 2019 for ecoguardian Mara and Kai’s details of the seal they called Eric. A few weeks later, Ecoguardian Laas revealed this seal was a female and named her Erica in the log post from October 11, 2019. Naming the seals can get confusing.

While not all elephant seals are tagged, some are studied for all kinds of factors from movements to genetics to bioaccumulation and generally understanding more about this fascinating species. I am realizing as the seals move around Race Rocks, how difficult it is to tell them apart. The pups are starting to look more alike as they lose the last of their pup fur. It’s a fun game as I try to track their movements as best I can, while I move around the island doing my daily routine.

With the arrivals of seals, there was also a departure today. The youngest seal pup was outside the house last night when I went to turn off the generator and desalinator, but nowhere to be seen this morning. Perhaps she ventured out a little to far from the shallow end of the jetty bay where she has been practicing her swimming. I am curious if she will return, as two months old is a bit young to leave for good. The other two pups are still here.

There were no boats seen in the ecological reserve over the past two days. I heard a solo kayaker by the name of Travis paddled around the islands yesterday.

Here are some photos from the past two days: