Tag Archives: ecotour

Marine Science and Humpbacks

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by
  • Laura’s marine science came by yesterday to see all the different species we have on the island and off the island we were lucky to see quite a few humpbacks around

Maintenance

  • Very minimal fence repairs which is a nice surprise, the sea lions are starting to avoid it more
  • Some pressure washing around the guest house, should be getting students for overnight trips soon

Ecological

  • I counted about 8 different humpbacks around yesterday, also saw about 4 today
  • Haven’t seen the sea lion pups around
  • also still no elephant seals

Rain and Sunshine

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 SE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by
  • Guy and Greg came by today to check out a few things

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, and ran the desalinator for a little while
  • the fence needed major repair this morning, the sea lions broke through it a bunch of them ended up right in front of the house

Ecological

  • Saw about 3 humpbacks around today, there was probably more, there have been so many lately

Rain

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Weather

  • Visibility: 10 -15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-30 NE
  • Sky: Overcast and raining
  • Water: Swells about a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Not a lot of boat traffic today but there were still a few ecotours braving the weather

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, and running the generator because I didn’t get a lot of solar today

Ecological

  • There are a few sea lion pups around, still no elephant seals
  • Not as many sea lions around today, going to do the census tomorrow to hopefully get higher numbers, because there have been a lot of sea lions around lately just not today

Visitors and census

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy came by with Garry and David a Pearson alumni for a little visit
  • There are still plenty of ecotours around, also a lot of whales, I don’t think the ecotours are giving them enough space when they are cruising by

Maintenance

  • The fence is holding up very well, I still need to extend it though

Ecological

  • No elephant seals at the moment, haven’t seen any for a few days
  • saw two humpbacks today and an eagle so that was nice
  • the geese are also back today, they come and go day by day
  • not as many californias but even more stellars

Census

  • California sea lion – 311
  • Stellar sea lion – 264
  • Harbour seal – 70
  • Elephant seal – 0
  • Cormorants – 44
  • Seagulls – 297
  • Black turnstones – 12
  • Fox sparrows – 6
  • Geese – 8
  • Eagle 1
  • And I suspect 1 sea otter is in the north kelp bed

A lot of Whales

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-20 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • Plenty of ecotours around today
  • Guy also came by, we moved more of the old batteries out today

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator and the generator when the clouds came in, late afternoon
  • moved out some of the old batteries

Ecological

  • saw a small pod of killer whales around north rock, about 7 of them late morning, early afternoon
  • saw another pod around sunset, south of the island but not too far out
  • also saw humpbacks, one or two near both pods
  • there have been killdeer hanging around and the geese came back today

Blasting

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, many ecotours, fishing boats and sailboats
  • Guy came by, we junked out the generator room a bit and he gave me a training session on the winch, soon I should be able to take the whaler out by myself

Maintenance

  • Had to repair the fence a couple times today, hope to extend the fence all the way to the helicopter pad as soon as I get more stick and pegs

Ecological

  • The Geese were around today
  • no elephant seals in sight
  • the blasting from the DND base was scaring the sea lions
  • also there were quite a few killdeer puttering around

Census and so many sea lions

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Overcast
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Guy, Greg and Travis came by to help finish putting up the fence and also fix a couple things in the house
  • Still a lot of ecotours cruising by each day

Maintenance

  • The fence is up and working better than the old fence for keeping the sea lions out of certain areas
  • the washer is now also working, which is great for me
  • had to run the generator quite a bit today, the batteries have been running low

Ecological

  • About a hundred more sea lions than there were last weak
  • also seems to be more gulls and harbour seals
  • havent see the geese around today
  • also a sea lion with garbage wrapped around its neck, will contact the right people and keep an eye on him

Census

  • California sea lion – 371
  • Stellar sea lion – 184
  • Harbour seal – 77
  • Elephant seal – 1 female , there was another female but she left a couple days ago
  • Cormorants – 30
  • Seagulls – 486
  • Black turnstones – 25
  • Fox sparrows – 12

More Sea Lions

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 10-20 SW
  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Mostly ecotours going by
  • Guy and Travis also came by today to help me with the fence, which is almost completely set up

Maintenance

  • Had to run the generator for quite a while today, the batteries have been getting low with lack of solar input, its been pretty foggy on and off lately

Ecological

  • I will have a better idea tomorrow of how many sea lions there are but I would guess around 500 right now, about 100 more than last week
  • only one female elephant seal around today, havent seen the smaller one since last night

River otters and Fences

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Weather

  • Visibility: 0-15 Miles Foggy until noon
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • There were still plenty of ecotours even through the fog that covered the island all morning
  • Guy and Greg came by today and we put up the electric fence to keep the sea lions away from the generator room and the guest house

Maintenance

  • Putting up the electric fence and running the generator a bit to make up for the lack of sunlight this morning
  • Guy also brought me fuel today so we topped up the diesel tank

Ecological

  • Found the body of a river otter today near the tank shed, it doesn’t look very old but it was definitely squished
  • Still two female elephant seals but no others have shown up
  • Seems like there is more and more sea lions everyday

Another Elephant

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 SW
  • Sky: Cloudy, patches of fog
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Some boat traffic around, mostly ecotours

Maintenance

  • had to run the generator for a few hours today because there was no sunlight coming through those clouds

Ecological

  • the sea lions are taking up that area between the guest house and the generator room, seems to be more and more of them everyday
  • there is another female elephant seal, shes bigger than the first one that showed up and more calm, she doesn’t look like she is molting as bad as the first one