Tag Archives: fishing in rockfish conservation area

Strong Gale

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots W in the morning, by 14:00 it had jumped to 40+ knots.
  • The highest reading I saw was 48 knots, which is no longer a “strong gale” but a “storm”.
  • Sky: clear in the morning, dark clouds by evening.
  • Water: initially calm, but the wind kicked up massive waves!
  • Forecast: looks like more gale tomorrow.

48 knots winds! stormy waters!

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race.
  • A few California Sea Lions on the jetty today.
  • One lone crane fly was attached to a window for the second day straight. The gale blew it away.
  • The same elephant seal who blocked me outside yesterday tried the same trick again! Only this time I was already inside, so I wisely used a different door.

Maintenance

  • Goose work.
  • Weed eating. Or “whacking” if you prefer.

Boats

  • 6 eco-tours today.
  • 1 small pleasure craft had what appeared to be a family with young children fishing in the reserve. They departed very quickly before I could identify their boat, perhaps realizing their mistake independent of me?

 

Blocked out of the house!

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15+ miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots North, later 10-15 West
  • Sky: clear
  • Water: calm

Sunset last night

Ecological

  • 15 elephant seals on Great Race today.
  • For about an hour either side of noon, I was blocked out of the house by one elephant seal who insisted on sleeping against the door.
  • The two deck entrance doors to the house were both locked, and seem to require keys no longer on the main key ring.
  • One of the female elephant seals has a tag on her flipper: 980S (?)
  • Update 13 May 2016: the flipper tag was upside down. It actually says: 5086
  • A new flower has opened today, the beautiful red Gladiolus imbricatus.

Gladiolus imbricatus 2

Maintenance

  • Finished cleaning the outside of all the windows of the two dwellings.
  • Set up the new weed whacker.
  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • A bit of goose work.

Boats

  • At least 9 eco-tours came into the reserve today.
  • Didn’t get photos of them all, as I was blocked outside for some of them.
  • One small fishing boat was fishing to the east of Great Race; it looked like it might be just inside the borders of the rockfish conservation area?
  • Two fishing boats passed through the reserve at speeds that appeared to be too fast.
  • The first of these created a very large wake near the jetty; unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a photo of the peak wake.

Other

  • Two medium DND blasts today; 9:52 & 10:15~

Recovery of species and spaces at risk.

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Another glorious day at Race Rocks with westerly flow, basically a repeat of yesterday weather-wise. The barometer has dropped a bit over the evening and the wind has shifted to the southwest. Here is a graph of the atmospheric pressure that can be pulled up on the racerocks.com website. Tomorrow looks similar, windy with a chance of showers.

barometer

There were 33 tour boats today including a few that may not have been commercial. Some of the tour boats are really enormous and barely fit in the passage. There were at least 17 recreational fishers, again with some jigging by the rentals in the closed conservation area. Amazingly, a DFO patrol boat passed by and did nothing while these folks were slaying bottom fish in the reserve. I was up in the tower and couldn’t get the K-numbers as they are only painted on one side of the boat.

I did record another four sea lion brands in between chores and spotting killer whales travelling and feeding from the southwest to the southeast. There was one large bull, one little one with (probably) its mother and at least two others. I wasn’t close enough to identify them but if they were southern residents they are very endangered.

I was thinking about their chances of recovery when I noticed they were perfectly lined up with the Elwha River valley across the Strait in Olympic National Park. It reminded me of that Margaret Mead quote “Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” The recovery of the Elwha ecosystem is a remarkable story.

Not so remarkable, was the rest of my day; cleaning windows, killing flies, trying to learn how to use the camera, attempting to “train” the sea lions to get off the jetty and pursuing the regular drill of fighting entropy.

What’s your number?

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It was a day without fog at Race Rocks and as the westerlies continue, some serious clouds can be seen piling up on far horizons. The barometer rose all day, which bodes well for tomorrow but there may be a few needed showers.

It was a busy day on the water with 26 whale watching boats visiting the reserve. From the expressions on the tourists’ faces, they seemed to enjoy watching the sea lions. All the skippers were respectful except for two travelling together who did not heed the go-slow zone.

There were so many recreational fishing boats that I could only keep track of the ones who were in contravention of the DFO Rockfish Conservation Area closure which runs around the reserve at a 40m depth. Many of those fishing inside the boundary were in rental boats but some of the other speed boats were doing what they do best…speeding. The Pedder Bay Marina is really good about talking to folks who rent from them and informing them about the conservation area.

I looked for tagged and branded sea lions again today and can report another nine California Sea Lions and four Stellers’ Sea Lions bringing the total number of branded individuals sighted up to 29. Eventually we will know a bit more about their stories from those numbers they carry. There are also two Stellers with neck rings cutting into their flesh and one with a flasher hanging out of its’ mouth. There are individual Harbour Seals, as well as both species of sea lions with major wounds. Speaking of wounds, there were two new, (to me), very small Elephant Seals on the ramp today, probably young of the year, judging from the size.

A few Pigeon Guillemots are still carrying into fish into the large boulder area by the jetty. The chicks must leave for sea at night as I haven’t seen any on the water and most are probably fledged by now. Each day, there are more Pelagic and Double Crested Cormorants roosting on the southwest side of the island.

The desalinator worked for a couple of hours during the sunshine today, making fresh water thanks to the solar panels.

Month end inventory was conducted today with measurements taken of all the fuel, fresh water, and equipment run times recorded.

My other task was to try and stake out a small territory on the jetty so that I can come and go and do the sampling. The elephant seals are no problem, they just sleep as you pass, or open one eye. Keeping the more belligerent California sea lions off the jetty seems to be a losing battle and has made getting out to the end of the jetty to sample seawater, extra challenging.

Archive video: Fish Species of Race Rocks

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Kelp Greenling Hexagramos decagramos Pacific Herring in a feeding frenzy with Krill : Clupea harengus pallasi  Wolf Eel : Anarrhichthys ocellatus  Tidepool Sculpin eating a mussel Oligocottus maculosus
 There is a sports
fishing closure in the ecological reserve, however we still get people claiming ignorance of the fact .		  Ling Cod Ophidon elongatus  Cabezon: Scorpaenichthyes marmoratus  Black Rockfish: Sebastes melanops
 Tiger Rockfish Sebastes nigrocinctus