Tag Archives: ecoguardian

I’m Back

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I am back on Race Rocks, this is my third year but I’m only staying for 3 months this time. I am very happy to be back and look forward to a beautiful and productive autumn.

Today I plan to take a good look around the island and see if any of the sea lions have any injuries and just do a good once over.

I’ve spent the last 5 months with the whale watching community and here are some things I have learned. The whale watchers care about these animals as much as I do and our goal is education. We enjoy sharing this beautiful ocean and our knowledge of these animals with other people. The observations I’ve made during this summer are that many commercial boats do keep a respectful distance. The whale watching boats actually help me out as an ecoguardian. There are plenty of areas in the reserve that are out of my sight and if they see an injured animal they notify me and tell me where it is so I can monitor it and let marine mammal rescue know. If someone is doing activity within the reserve that shouldn’t be like fishing or snorkeling in a dangerous area they let that boat know that they can’t do that. I have a very difficult time trying to get a hold of pleasure crafts because they are always on different radio channels so this really helps me when others look out for the safety of the reserve and others within the reserve.

This island is a special place for many people and so much goes into protecting this ecological reserve and I just wanted to acknowledge a group of people who have helped in many ways to protect Race Rocks.

 

Christine and Guy end the summer term at Race Rocks

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Our thanks to Christine and Guy Ouradou for serving as Ecoguardians at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve through July and August.  They have worked at many aspects of keeping the island system up and running and leading on maintenance  and repairs. We would like to send a few of their favourite barking sea lions with them as they leave for home in France, but luggage restrictions are getting tough these days.

2015-08-24-guy-and-christine

 

Part 7: Ecological Integrity for Race Rocks: The Problem with Destaffing

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Carol and Mike Slater, formerly the light keepers and presently employees of Pearson College as Ecoguardians at Race Rocks attended the meeting. They will continue to live at Race Rocks until the end of June at which time there is no further funding available from Lester Pearson College. (Funding was provided and they stayed on until retirement in 2008). They were able to add their concerns to the possible problems that will come when surveillance of the island is not being done.

The Race Rocks ecosystem was given token protection in 1980 with the creation of an ecological reserve, and that protection strengthened in 1990 with a total closure on commercial fisheries and a partial closure on recreational fisheries. However, the ecological integrity that the place retains today would not be possible without the watchful eyes of the past light keepers and assistant keepers. We first met Trev and Flo Anderson in the late 70’s and started to work in this area as an outdoor laboratory. These individuals who were on location because of a job with the Coastguard became the eyes and ears in the area, looking after the ecosystem at Race Rocks. The following lightkeepers in the ensuing years have all welcomed us warmly, assisting with our educational programs and helping to facilitate outside researchers on the islands. In addition they have performed a valuable role for the ecology of the area. They regularly stop poachers and commercial harvesters and advise boaters not to anchor in the reserve. They have even been known to hand out information pamphlets, help in the arrest of fishermen who were shooting at sea lions and rescue our own students as well as countless others in the past twenty years. They have also contributed to the daily weather records and reports and daily seawater data recording. Carol Slater’s daily logbooks over the past two years are valued records of the daily changes in the birds and mammals as well as the increase in human impact on the reserve. They are included in the database as the best record of what has been happening in terms of reserve management over the past two years. To think of Race Rocks without these guardians in place is to accept that there will be a considerable human impact on this unique resource.

Return to the Contents page of the Workshop Garry Fletcher, April, 1999