Tag Archives: red sea urchin

Sea Otter Facts and Facility Work

Posted on by

Today was a cloudy and drizzly day but I managed to get a good chunk of work done, all while hanging out with Ollie the sea otter. I think that’s one of the things that makes this place so special is that you can be scrubbing bird poop off solar panels in the rain and look down and see this fuzzy little otter staring up at you. I’ve spent a lot of time working on and around the ocean and never have I experienced wildlife like this.

Since Ollie has been around so much lately I figured I’d make this post a sea otter specific one (since you might find that more interesting than hearing about the fire hoses I rolled).

Sea otters are a keystone species, meaning that other species within the ecosystem largely depend on them and without sea otters there would be drastic changes to those ecosystems. Sea otters predate on sea urchins who graze one kelp. The sea otter’s urchin heavy diet keeps the kelp forests from being decimated by urchins, and as a result kelp forests flourish in the presence of sea otters.

A new otter (not Ollie) with a large red urchin.

 

Ollie wrapped up in the kelp he helps protect

Urchin’s aren’t the only thing sea otters eat, you’ll also find them munching on clams, crabs, mussels, and other marine invertebrates. Adult sea otters need to eat a quarter of their weight in food a day. To put that into perspective – if you weigh 150 pounds, you’d have to eat almost 40 pounds of food PER DAY!

Picking out his next snack

Sea otters do not have blubber like other marine mammals do, instead they have the densest fur of any mammal, with up to one million hairs per square inch! If they aren’t busy eating, then they are busy grooming. That much fur takes a lot of upkeep and is their only source of insulation. The constant grooming traps air and heat next to the skin, preventing the skin from getting wet and keeping them warm in the process.

Ollie grooming his hind flippers

Ollie, Race Rock’s resident sea otter, is one of few sea otters seen this far south in BC. He is easily recognized by his light blonde head and by the pink scar on his nose. He’s adored by many, and any day I encounter him I consider to be a great day!

Now onto the less adorable items…

Facility Work:

  • Filled cistern, fresh water flushed the pump, rolled and stored fire hoses
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Cleaned windows of both houses
  • Chopped firewood
  • Ran an equalization charge of the batteries
  • Mopped basement floor

Vessel Traffic:

  • 1 ecotourism vessel
  • 3 private vessels

Infractions:

  • 1 rental boat fishing within the reserve despite multiple communication attempts. Informed the local marina and reported to DFO

Weather:

    • Sky: Overcast, on/off rain
    • Wind: High of 4 knots, Low of 19 knots
    • Sea: Calm
    • Temperature: Low 9, High  11oC

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

April 13 and 14 – End of Shift

Posted on by

Wind: yesterday variable 2-28 knots, today W 7-38 knots
Sea State: yesterday calm, today rippled in morning and up to 1 m chop in evening
Visibility: both days 15 NM
Sky: both days clear
Temperature: yesterday 7-13 °C, today 8-11 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 415.81 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Today is my last full day on the island before the shift changeover. Tomorrow morning, Mara and Kai will arrive to take over as Ecoguardians. They were here last year from May to September.

I spent the past two days finishing up some tasks around the island and cleaning. I also took time to walk around the island and get a look at all of the incredible species, land and shoreline that make up this ecological reserve.

There were no boats in the ecological reserve.

See the photos below for some views from around the island.

  • The combination of clear water and low tide make it easy to see lots of colourful seaweeds, surfgrass, urchins and other intertidal species.
  • Two swallows were fluttering around the island yesterday. This one landed on the a cable on the winch long enough for me to take a photo.
  • At first I thought it was barn swallows, but then with the help of a field guide realized it’s a violet-green swallow.
  • The sun peering over the horizon at 6:20 this morning.
  • The lighthouse just after sunrise this morning. The moon, in its third quarter, can be seen to the south.
  • A thayer’s gull with a Canada goose egg in its beak.
  • Can you spot the juvenile elephant seal in the middle of the photo, amongst the group of california sea lions?
  • A beautiful sunset on the edge, where the land meets the sea meets the sky.

Solaster dawsoni :Morning Sun star– The Race Rocks Taxonomy

Posted on by

Description

Solaster dawsoni, named after its finder is an eight to sixteen armed starfish. Ranging from grey, yellow, brown or red with light patches covering the upper surface of its body, this sea star looks very much like a “sun”. It can grow up to a radius of 25cm (10″) with the central disk in between the arms a third of its total radius. It has radial symmetry and an endoskeleton like most other starfish and again, uses the normal water vascular system. It moves around on tube feet and therefore is a very slow moving animal. It breaths through skin gills.

Habitat

Solaster dawsoni resides in the cold, rocky intertidal and subtidal costal waters of the west coast of America, ranging from Alaska right down to California. It lives on a variety of bottom types, and can survive from the low tide line to around 420 metres (1200 feet) deep.

Feeding

Solaster dawsoni, unlike other species, preys on other sea stars. It is the “feared” predator of the orange cucumber and other starfish have been known to flee when touched by it. It will even prey on its own kind including its very close relative Solaster stimpsoni. This sea star also eats sea cucumbers and diamondback nudibranchs. Solaster dawsoni has to either overlap or grasp its prey before it can secure it and because of its slowness this may be the only way it can catch its prey. Because of sea stars’ “blindness”, a large sea star will sometimes flee when touched by a small one. In this way, Solaster dawsoni has been known to kill larger sea stars than itself.

ReproductionThe sun star spawns in the period of March to June when the ovaries contain the full sized oocytes (eggs). It releases large yolky eggs which float to the surface, where they are fertilized and develop into pelagic non-feeding larvae which are also buoyant. At this stage the larvae can not feed but can swim around. From here they then develop into sea stars.Defences and PredatorsAs the most fearsome of all the starfish, Solaster dawsoni is almost completely safe in the water. As mentioned already, one of this sea stars only predators is in fact, its own species.Biotic interactionSolaster dawsoni is a very passive organism. Living on its own, the only interactions it has are with its prey. Also during reproduction, the male and female are much closer together.

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Asteroidea
Order Spinulosida
Family Solasteridae
Genus Solaster
Species dawsoni
Common Name: Morning sun star

 

Other Members of the Phylum Echinodermata 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.

 February 2002 Joe Downham(PC year 28)