Tag Archives: jellyfish

A Very Soggy Sunday

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Today was a very soggy, rainy day. The birds all appeared drenched and disheveled, the elephant seals spent the day in the water, and Ollie was nowhere to be found.

One lone humpback passed by just on the outskirts of the reserve, sending a big spray into the air each time it surfaced. The ocean was calm all day which is the very best for spotting whales. On a much smaller scale I ended up with some small jellyfish in my water bucket when I was taking today’s salinity/temperature sample. There must have been hundreds in the water around the jetty!

The sun finally peaked out around 6pm, just in time for me to watch a gull harass a juvenile bald eagle. It blows my mind how savage and fearless these gulls can be.

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 8 vessels

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy/Rainy
  • Wind: Low of 1 knot, High of 11 knots
  • Sea: Calm
  • Temperature: Low 11•C, High 13•C

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

Eagle Visit, Watching For Injured Sea Lions

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Weather:

  • Visibility 10 NM
  • Sky overcast
  • Wind 5-10 knots SW
  • Sea state: calm
  • Temperature 21°C

Visitors/Marine Traffic:

  • Today Laura visited to do some surveying of intertidal species
  • Greg did not come to land, as the tide was very low (jetty not accessible)
  • Today we saw one whale watching vessel pass through very respectfully with the current. No animals were disrupted- well done!

Ecological:

  • The goose nests continue to change- a few new ones this week, and a few have been ransacked by seagulls.
  • No significant seagull changes- a few new nests scattered around the island.
  • This morning a juvenile eagle landed on the lawn! It had been chased out of the air by seagulls, and they continued to swoop overhead until the eagle managed to find an opening and fly away.
  • We have been contacted by a few different folks regarding a sea lion that was spotted in the San Juan Island area with a cross bow bolt in his face. We haven’t spotted this animal but there’s a chance that we may over the next few days. We have also been asked to keep an eye out for another sea lion with fishing gear entangled in his face.

Notes:

  • This afternoon there was blasting/ammunition detonation on the Department of National Defense land. There were only 3 blasts but the birds all lifted into the air, or in the case of the sea lions, fled into the water.

Jellyfish and Crow

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind in the morning: 10-15 knots North East
  • Wind in the evening: 20-25 knots East
  • Sky: mix of clear and clouds
  • Water: 1′ chop

Ecological

  • The weaner was gone today, so just the 2 e-seals on Great Race.
  • A couple of adult bald eagles were around today.
  • One crow was poking about the island.
  • I saw a bunch of tiny jellyfish in the water beside the jetty.
  • It was impossible to get a good photo of them though.
  • Perhaps they were Mitrocoma cellularia?

Maintenance

  • Some goose work.

Boats

  • A few eco-tours came by today.

Birds and Boats

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots NE
  • Water: rippled
  • Sky: clear
Sunset

Sunset

Ecological

  • Chunk and Chuckles still on Great Race.
  • Saw a northern sea lion branded with 354Y.
  • Saw a northern sea lion with a cooker cutter shark scar.
  • Noticed at least 50 harbour seals out on the south islands today.
  • Saw a common merganser wash itself on a rock close to shore. Apparently it is quite uncommon to see them at Race Rocks. Later some harlequin ducks swam nearby.
  • Saw a jellyfish floating around near the jetty. Not sure what variety it was.
  • Noticed some grape hyacinth for the first time today. By my estimate there are least 6 different species of flowers now in bloom out here.

Bald Eagles and Snowy Mountains

Maintenance

  • Stacked firewood until there was no remaining space. Will have to restart stacking once some of the stores have been burnt up to create space.

Boats

  • Jeff and his two Belgian volunteers came by with food supplies this morning. Eggs, milk, and bread. Surprised the Belgians didn’t bring me any Jupiler.
  • Quite a bit of traffic today out in the straight. Documented the more interesting looking ones with photographs.
  • One fishing boat went through the middle channel of the reserve.

Other

  • Heard 5 DND blasts today from Bentinck Island. A small one at 12:47, and then 4 medium blasts at 12:50, 12:55, 15:04, and 15:06. The animals didn’t make too much of a fuss.

One of today's DND blasts

Equinox

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Today was a quiet day, weather-wise, with none of the drama of yesterday. We are slipping quietly into autumn with light winds. The wind has gone almost full circle today, from southeast and rain in the early morning to light westerly in the afternoon and now light to northeasterly breezes as the sun sets. The barometer climbed a little out of its slump and is beginning to fall again as day ends.

There was quite a bit of traffic in the reserve today with whales to the west. A total of 17 tour boats were noted, stopping by to view seals and sea lions. Many more went by fast, well on either side of the reserve.

rmbroodinanem

A field of Epiactis prolifera, showing the high variability in colouration– photo by Ryan Murphy.

Few ecological observations were made today, although I did notice Cross-jellies in the water off the jetty when I was sampling seawater. Cross-jellies or Microcoma cellularia, have four radial canals which make an X on their fairly flat bell which is why they are called cross-jellies. They are one of a few hydromedusae that have been shown to seek out food by smell or chemosensory reception. They were in the very smelly, sea lion “gack” water and probably pulled in here by the tidal currents but it is cool to contemplate that an animal with no brain can make choices and behave in certain ways to achieve things.

The marine invertebrate life at Race Rocks is really rich. Even the inter-tidal is spectacular and the sub-tidal has even more species and layres. Even though it is fairly close to Victoria, the marine ecology of the Reserve is more like the wave-exposed open coast habitat that I am used to in Nuu-chah-nulth-aht territories. A lot of the productivity and diversity here has to do with the amazing currents and the upwelling they produce.

Today was a day of small projects including getting the EPIRB information off of the Whaler, stowing gasoline, doing radio checks and radio watch for CAS, fixing the fence and trying to fix the wind direction indicator input. I am really looking forward to working with three first year Marine Science classes from Pearson College this week and the first students arrive tomorrow. I hope they enjoy observing the sea lions and adding to their journals with new species entries.

Aequorea victoria, crystal jelly : The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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aequorea

Aequorea in a kelp bed at Race Rocks, photo by Chris Blondeau

Kingdom: Animalia Subkingdom: Eumetazoa Phylum: Cnidaria Subphylum: Medusozoa Class: Hydrozoa Subclass: Leptolinae Order: Leptomedusae Suborder: Conica Family: Aequoreidae Genus: Aequorea Species: A. victoria The following quote  is from Wikipedia.. noted here because of the reference to Dr. Anita Brinckmann-Voss.

“Aequorea victoria, also sometimes called the crystal jelly, is a bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish, or hydromedusa, that is found off the west coast of North America. This species is thought to be synonymous with Aequorea aequorea of Osamu Shimomura, the discoverer of green fluorescent protein (GFP). Shimomura together with Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry[1] for the discovery and development of this protein as an important biological research tool. Originally the victoria species was supposed to designate the variant found in the Pacific, and the aequorea designation was used for specimens found in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The species name used in GFP purification was later disputed by M.N. Arai and A. Brinckmann-Voss (1980),[2] who decided to separate them on the basis of 40 specimens collected from around Vancouver Island. Osamu Shimomura notes that this species in general shows great variation: from 1961 to 1988 he collected around 1 million individuals in the waters surrounding the Friday Harbor Laboratories of University of Washington, and in many cases there were pronounced variations in the form of the jellyfish. “

 An interesting account by Claudia Miils about the misidentification of the bioluminescence in Aequorea in various scientific journals and magazines  can be found in : Bioluminescence and other factoids about Aequorea, a hydromedusa See this link for other hydroids:  https://www.racerocks.ca/tag/hydroid/ 

This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by the students, faculty and staff and volunteers of Lester B. Pearson College
 originally published 2006, updated: 2014 Garry Fletcher

Aurelia aurita: Moon Jellyfish–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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ESMoon-jelly

Moon Jellyfish Aurelia aurita photos by Eric Schauff

ESMoon-jelly2

From the log February 05, 2002
We counted 7 Moon Jellyfish( Aurelia aurita) floating amid the logs and debris in the tide wash east side of the boat dock.Most of them were 15-16 cm wide. In the sea they looked bluish -white and translucent.Unfortunately they were somewhat battered as they washed towards shore and Garry said that they were on their last legs so to speak.
Mike and Carol Slater.

From the log February 05, 2002
There were 19 Moon Jellyfish along the east side of the dock this morning and we saw quite a few more just off shore when we left in the boat.
Mike and Carol Slater.


Scientific classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Semaeostomeae
Family: Ulmaridae
Genus: Aurelia
Species: A. aurita

Aurelia aurita
Linnaeus, 1758

Other Members of the Phylum Cnidaria at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 

Pam and Dennis Visit the Ecological Reserve

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 ‘Garry took Pam and Dennis Birley out to the Island today. Pam does the monthly photo diary from camera 5 from her home iin Leicester England .

Pam took the following images when she was out on the island and on the boat. See her gallery here.

Chrysaora fuscescens: West Coast Sea nettle–Race Rocks Taxonomy

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In October of 2011, Ryan Murphy reported many of these at Race Rocks. This coincided with a large infestation in Puget Sound at the same time.

rmoct811

Image by Ryan Murphy

chrysaora

Two individuals of this species were observed at Race Rocks in 1980, Photo by Pearson College Divers

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Cnidaria
Sub-Phylum Medusozoa
Class Scyphozoa
Order Semaeostomeae
Family Pelagiidae
Genus Chrysaora
Species fuscescens
Common Name: West Coast Sea nettle

Link to the Race Rocks Taxonomy:

Link to other jellyfish specimens from Race Rocks:

This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by the students, staff and faculty of
Lester B. Pearson College, Ryan Murphy.