Tag Archives: humpback whale

Wild Weather

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Today felt like fall. I woke up to pouring rain and otherwise quiet morning. It seems as though the sea lions would rather be in the ocean than lay in the rain because about half of them were gone this morning.

The most vibrant rainbow I’ve ever seen!

The fence required minimal repairs which meant I could spend longer inside with my coffee. I did find one intruder – a California sea lion on the wrong side of the fence who thankfully meandered back over with a little encouragement. The contractors arrived by 8:30 to continue work on the student building, lucky for them most of their work was inside today.

The rain stopped briefly so I was able to tackle my to do list before it started up again. By mid afternoon the sun was out but the wind picked up rather fiercely.

The weather didn’t stop the humpbacks from breaching just outside the reserve, as usual there seemed to be one in every direction. I spent my evening watching them from the kitchen window as I did some baking and started a fire – truly the perfect evening!

The whales in question

The baking in question

Facility Work:

  • Took specific gravity readings and topped up batteries
  • Fence repair
  • Topped up generator
  • Solar panels (the rain really helped with this one)

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 9

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy/Rainy, turned to blue sky in the afternoon
  • Wind: Low of 8 knots, High of 15 knots
  • Sea: Calm morning, whitecaps in afternoon
  • Temperature: Low 9•C, High 15•C

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

 

Golden Hour

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Today was jam packed!

My morning started the same way it will start every day for the next month – fixing the fence. I also moved the sea lions off the boat launch so its clear yet I swear the SECOND I turn my back they just pile right back up. 

Not a bad view to start the day!

The windows on the student building are being replaced so the contractors were out bright and early to get started. Throughout the day we had 2 groups of Pearson students come out which is always fun because I love to show off this little island. They also never seem to mind when I talk about marine mammals which is more than I can for most people in my life who have to listen to my yap about them!

There were humpbacks in every direction, big blows in the distance, pectoral fins in the air, and splashy breaches on the outskirts of the reserve. I felt even luckier when a massive killer whale passed by!

Humpback at sunset

A second female elephant showed up today, she had some trouble getting past the sea lions but finally made it to the grass outside the house. The Calis don’t seem to mind her but the Stellers don’t like her at all.

I don’t think she likes the Stellers either

I finished the day off outside watching the sun set as the sea lions basked in the final rays.

Facility Work:

  • Topped up battery electrolytes for those that were low
  • Repaired electric fence (about 50 times over)

DND:

3 blasts today all with varying reactions, only the initial blast caused some sea lions to flush into the water.

Water Woes

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Friday, September 27, 2024

Unfortunately for us, the levels of water in the massive cistern beside the house are low, so we have not been running the desalinator lately, and despite our best water saving efforts we need more …

Until the sea lions (and the massive amounts of poop that comes with them) clear out we aren’t able to fill the cistern with seawater. So…  today, Greg came out with a massive tank of freshwater on the back of the Second Nature to top up our reservoir.

This was a bit of a production as we had to lay out ~ 75m of fire hose from the reservoir to the dock, but we did it, and now we won’t be leaving the next eco-guardian in a lurch.

On another note, we have a returning Elephant Seal. This lady is untagged, and definitely knows her way around the island. We first saw her at 11 am on the jetty, and by 2 pm she was in the grass by the main path to the house.

I hope she sticks around for the weekend!

Weather: Sunny all day, Wind at around 16knts SW all day.

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 0

**Loads of Humpbacks close to the Island today 😊

Elephant Seal!

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Friday September 20th

Last night while we were fixing the fence on the South Side of the Island that had been knocked over….Again.. we spotted a seal looking a little different than everyone else

Looking a little closer, we realized it was an elephant seal! Looks like a small female, and she is tagged, though we couldn’t get a good photo of it. We reported it to the biologists from California who implement that specific tagging study.

Also saw a couple more branded Sea Lions who we also reported, as well as a dead sea lion we spotted along the south side of the island at low tide.

Scott has worked his way through the pile of wood piled down near the Jetty, so the next Eco-Guardians will def be warm for a while.

Whale Watching Vessels: 10

Private Vessels: 0

Weather: Mix of Sun and Cloud. Pretty Calm day, wind pretty consistent around 5knts W.

And like everyday this month lots of humpbacks feeding all day!

The Journey of #444X

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Wednesday September 18, 2024

Not a huge day facilities wise. We did our daily repair of the electric fences, and chopped a little more wood.

However, we did receive some cool news from Brian Wright, the NOAA scientist who we reported the branded sea lions to. He told us that number 444X, was first tagged in Astoria all the way back in 2016, and he has not been reported since.

This information is super valuable to scientists and managers because it shows what areas are being used by these animals, the extent of their ranges, and how long they can live. (Which for a California Sea Lion is 15 – 25 years!).

Mark and recapture studies are also very important for estimating functional population size, and this type of study design is used for lots of fundamental ecological work. This infographic from FishBio, nicely explains how a mark-recapture study can work in an open environment! Again, this is a good reminder to report any tagged animals you encounter!

Whale Watching Vessels: 20

Private Vessels: 0

Weather: Mix of Sun and Cloud.  Calm during the day, wind picked up to 12kts W

The Fence is up!

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There is now a perimeter around all the facilities! Now, Scott and I just need to make sure that they keep standing…

We also did the census this morning at low tide. There has been a dramatic increase in sea lions since last week!

Birds:

  • Gulls: 1454
  • Cormorants: 42
  • Oystercatchers: 3
  • Canada Goose: 15

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lion: 360
  • California Sea Lion: 933
  • Harbour Seal: 127

Animal Tracking and Injuries: Noted one California sea lion with Salmon Flasher. Will report to DFO Tomorrow.

 

Whale Watching Vessels: 15

Private Vessels: 5

Weather: Clear and Sunny all day. Winds W 10knts

Census Day!

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Sunday September 8th

Today we spent a lot of time on the fence again. We painstakingly went through each section to ensure that charge was being held the whole way through. This was a very tedious process and we still don’t have the voltage up to where we want it to be…. but there have been no pinniped breaches yet, so fingers crossed!

Today, Scott and I climbed the lighthouse tower to complete our first wildlife census. As a marine ecologist, I have a lot of experience counting fish underwater. However, counting over 600 Sea lions that all look like overlapping brown logs or trying to count birds that keep on flying away or are hidden between all the sea lions was way harder. With that said, being a top the tower made everything much easier to see and to conceptualize on a greater scale.

While we were up there we also got to enjoy a couple of humpback whales engaging in tail slapping or “lobtailing” behaviour for well over 30 minutes. It is thought that the sound and force generated by the slaps frighten the bait fish into tighter schools making them easier to hunt. Based off gull activity, there were definitely a lot of bait balls around, so hopefully we will get to see more of this behaviour in the coming days!

  • Water Sample
  • Ran Generator
  • Washed Solar Panels
  • Patched and checked new electric fence
  • Island animal census

Whale Watching Vessels: 25

Private Vessels: 7

Census Results:

Birds:

  • Turnstones: 15
  • Killdeer: 1
  • Gulls: 528
  • Cormorants: 70
  • Oystercatchers: 2
  • Canada Goose: 6

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea Lions: 115
  • California Sea Lions: 497
  • Sea Lions (Too Far for confident ID): 205
  • Harbour Seals: 63

Weather: Slightly Hazy/Overcast. Wind NW Building all day to ~ 15knts

September Eco-Guardians are Here

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Neha And Scott

Thursday, September 5 – Day 1

Hey! We are Scott and Neha, the next Eco-Guardians for the month of September.

Bit of a whirlwind first day, we got paid a visit by the Canadian Coast Guard who were here to check out the foghorn that has been having some issues. They also sent an engineer to check out the lighthouse and dock crane. Had a nice cup of coffee with a couple of the guys, learning about different ways people work on our amazing coast!

We spent the rest of the day getting accustomed to the house and grounds and we are slowly introducing ourselves to the 800 + Sea Lions we are currently sharing the rock with. We ended the day watching the sunset on the top of the tower, joined by a couple of feeding humpback whales in the strait.

  • Water Sample
  • Ran Generator
  • Chopped Wood

Whale Watching Vessels: 11

Weather: Hot and Sunny, Calm and Glassy, <5knts

Porpoises, Killer Whales, and Humpbacks, Oh My!

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Another gorgeous day on this rock! The gulls are laying eggs faster than I can count them and they seem to range from 1-3 per nest. Lots of nests still without eggs though and lots still being built. I got to see both humpbacks and killer whales not too far out of the reserve today and yet I think I was most excited about the porpoises. I see harbour porpoises nearly every time I go to the beach when I’m home yet I rarely seem to see them here. The water today was so glassy they were impossible to miss!

Facility work:

  • Topped up battery electrolytes
  • Cleaned solar panels

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 24 vessels
  • Private: 1 vessel

DND Blasting:

  • 10:30am – Birds fled, pinnipeds aware but remained hauled out
  • 10:32am – Birds still hadn’t returned from first blast, sea lions sat up, harbour seals went in the water
  • 10:45am – Was in the midst of battery maintenance, did not note disturbance
  • 12:50pm – Birds fled
  • 12:52pm – Birds still gone from previous blast 
  • 1:10pm – Birds fled but quick to return

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue sky and sun
  • Wind: Low of 4 knots, High of 9 knots
  • Sea: Glassy
  • Temperature: Low 10•C, High 24•C

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

A Whale of a Day

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Happy Sunday! The sun is shining, the air is calm (finally!!!!) and I spotted my first baleen whale of the season!

My favourite days here are ones like this – I can get a lot of work done but also pause between tasks to soak up the warm weather and experience the wildlife. Today’s wildlife involved a humpback whale and I couldn’t be happier about it. The humpbacks have been making their way back into the Salish Sea for a while now so I’ve been not so patiently waiting for one to come by. With the wind being so strong this past week its been nearly impossible to spot the spout of a cetacean, but today was perfect for it and I even got a little fluke shot.

Hopefully more days like this to come!

Facility Work:

  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Cleaned main house windows
  • Repaired breaks in electric fence
  • Started bucking/chopping remaining wood in the outside pile

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 5
  • Private: 4
  • Dive boat: 1

Infractions:

  • No infractions, I did remind one private vessel to keep their distance from sea lion haulouts but no animals were disturbed. Tons of fishing vessels near/around the reserve but none came in.

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue sky and sun
  • Wind: Low of 4 knots, High of 16 knots
  • Sea: Calm, small whitecaps in afternoon when wind picked up
  • Temperature: Low 7•C, High 16•C

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