Tag Archives: flipper tag

GPS Tagged California Sea Lion

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I make maps for a living, so you better believe I was excited to find a sea lion with two telemetry tags pinned in its flipper-pits. I reached out to Kendra and our contacts at Oregon State and got an answer the next day!

California sea lion: branded X103

X103 is an animal they tagged (ODFW, WDFW, UCLA, and others) in Astoria, Oregon on August 29, 2024, as part of a research project looking at disease ecology and movements of California sea lions.  More information about the project can be found here: at this link  (X103 isn’t listed here yet but the 2023 cohort is)

For information on the whole research project: The Eastern Pacific Marine One Health Coalition https://marineonehealth.or

Maintenance:

Since talking with the Oregan taggers, I’ve been reaching out to our other animal reporting partners and getting updated emails and protocols. I’ll use this information to update in the SOP.

August 2

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I will contact NOAA and DFO to report the resighting of the California sea lion with the tag 13-2. The orange tags mean the sea lion was rehabilitated. The tag on the left flipper means the sea lion is a male. I will update the log when I hear back about his history. The rest of the California and Steller sea lions are currently hauled out on Middle Rocks. Perhaps this guy needs a break from the frat party.

Facility work:

  • Clean solar panels
  • Check guest house for supplies and cleanliness

Vessels:

  •  Ecotourism: 12
  •  Private: 3

Weather:

  • Sea: rippled in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon/evening
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Wind: variable light winds overnight; from 07:00-12:00 westerlies 8-20 knots; afternoon/evening westerlies 20-31 knots
  • Air temperature: low 12°C, high 21°C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 11.0°C

** All wildlife photos are taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

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~

First Official Day On The Job

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After training last weekend, and a general review yesterday, I, Riley Strother, have now taken over as Ecoguardian from Alex Fletcher.

Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knots NE
  • Water: 1’ chop
  • Sky: overcast

Ecological

  • The first female elephant seal to give birth left the island at 7:30 in the morning and did not return. As such the first pup has now become a weaner.
  • Chunk appeared to mate with the female who lost her pup.
  • The newest pup is quite vocal and seems to be doing well. Chunk and the other female went along the path after mating to inspect the new mother and pup.
  • Alex was able to identify the number on the yellow flipper tag attached to the newest mother: 5928
  • There was quite a disturbance of seagulls and cormorants today when a raven with a small fish in its beak was chased all around the island by two eagles. Eventually the raven managed to land and eat the fish.
  • Conducted a census.
  1. California Sea Lions: 88
  2. Northern/Stellar Sea Lions: 53 (many sea lions were swimming in the waves and thus impossible to count)
  3. Elephant Seals: 8 (Chunk, weaner, grieving mother, new mum and pup, Middle Rock: Chuckles, mum and pup.)
  4. River Otter: 1
  5. Cormorants: 615
  6. Seagulls: 512
  7. Bald Eagles: 9 (7 juvenile, 2 adults)
  8. Raven: 1
  9. Crow: 1
  10. Black Oystercatchers: 6
  11. Harlequin Ducks: 4
  12. Canada Geese: 6
  13. Black Turnstones: 29

Maintenance

  • Cleared logs off the ramp two times.
  • Lowered the boat trailer because the cable coil was quite criss crossed. Managed to recoil the cable in a more orderly fashion.
  • Vacuumed up hundreds of fruit flies in the basement near the composting toilet.

Boats

  • Alex and Virginie left in the morning.
  • Surprised to see no eco-tourism boats about on such a nice Sunday.