Tag Archives: sea lion

A Busy and Beautiful Day!

Posted on by

Today was the definition of perfect! Not even the smallest amount of wind, clear skies, and animals everywhere!

Tomorrow is supposed to be quite windy so I took full advantage of the good weather and barely spent any time inside.

I also got a visit from the Coast Guard helicopter when they came to check in on a few things, that’s always a fun visit! And because it’s a small world, I just so happened to know the pilot!

Animal Notes:

  • The Red-footed booby is still here! Has most recently decided to hangout on the main island, just in front of the house.
  • I did not see the sea otter or the fur seal today but I did manage to get some better photos of the otter, well…at least photos where you can tell it’s actually an otter!
  • Still plenty of humpbacks around but not as many as I’ve had previously.
  • I saw a heron today, not exactly a rare bird but I haven’t seen them here before, and never standing on a kelp bed! I also saw a kingfisher yesterday but it was much too fast for a photo!

Our recently disentangled sea lion looking GREAT.

 

The new sea otter in town…I’ve been calling him Oswald.

Facility Work:

  • Cleaned main house windows
  • Topped up batteries
  • Cleaned algae off side of main house
  • Fence repair

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 11
  • Private: 3

DND Blasts:

  • 4 throughout the day, animals alert but minimal disturbance

Marine Mammal Rescue!

Posted on by

It has been a fantastic few days out here! The team from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society came out with DFO to disentangle the California sea lion that I first spotted last October.

He was sleeping up high on the boat launch with made landing at the jetty tricky because we didn’t want to scare the sea lions and risk him going in the water. Instead, DFO dropped the rescue team off the south side of the island. The current was strong so we weren’t sure it would be possible, but they were able to safely nose the rhib into the rocks behind the generator building and the team came up the rocks. This ended up being great because we could approach the entangled sea lion without scaring him, and there are significantly less sea lions on the south side lately, so the disturbance was minimal.

For those who don’t already know, when I’m not at the lighthouse, I work full time as a Registered Veterinary Technologist with the Marine Mammal Rescue Society. This was my team coming out, and disentanglements are one of my favourite parts of the job. Doing this work at Race Rocks is especially meaningful: I can help save an animal, and I’m often the person who finds and monitors them, coordinates with the team, and supports the rescue. Afterward, I’m able to continue monitoring the animal in the following days, which is incredibly rewarding.

The rescue itself was straight forward, Dr. Haulena darted the entangled sea lion with a sedation protocol that allows us to approach and work with the animal, but doesn’t sedate them so deeply that if they end up going into the water they won’t drown. Thankfully, after the initial shock of the dart, the sea lion only moved a few feet before settling back down on the ramp. The sedation takes about 12 minutes to take effect, at which time we moved in. We quickly discovered that the entanglement material was a thick industrial rubber band, these bands have a wide variety of uses in the marine field and can often be found on commercial crab traps or used in other pot fisheries. Once the band was removed, we place a flipper tag on each of his fore flippers, these are not satellite tags, but they can help us identify the animals in future sightings.

A great example of this is the animal Eva helped us with in August. He is still here and I was able to determine that by taking a photo of his tags and then comparing them to our spreadsheet. Each tag has a unique number on it that allows to ID the animal when resighted. I’ll insert a photo of the animal we rescued in August below:

Once we were done, we gave him an injection to reverse the sedation and then we watched from the top of the of the boat launch as he woke up, stretched out, and then entered the water and swam off. He later hauled back out on the rocks to the left of the jetty and is currently still there as I write this. I can’t imagine the relief he must be feeling and I’m already excited to see him here again next year!

You can watch the rescue video here: https://youtu.be/EJJ7pKWvKIY?si=JR4Ft_c99E8h6POc

 

The team was gone by 12:30, and with them they took my dad whose been here this first week with me. It’s been so special having him here and spending time with him, he is the one who taught me my love for the ocean and he enjoys it out here just as much as I do!

Aside from the excitement of the disentanglement, things have been quite calm around here. The weather has been incredible, glassy seas and no wind, full sun and whales everywhere! Today is supposed to reach 40 knot winds (close to 80km/hr) and raining, so today I’ve be battening the hatches and making sure everything is securely put away and I have everything I need in the house. The generator is being run manually at the moment so I will need to make a couple outside treks to turn that on and off but other than that my plans include a fire and storm watching from inside. I’m very curious to see how that affects Saturday’s census!

And lastly, we have a young female elephant seal back at Race Rocks! She has been hanging out with the Stellers on the South rocks but hopefully she comes up to the grass soon!

Facility work for the past couple days:

  • Ran the generator
  • Cleaned main house windows
  • Topped up batteries
  • Fixed the main house kitchen sink (thanks dad!)
  • Lots of fence repair
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Storm prep: lowered the flag, secured the electric fence as best as possible, general site clean-up.
  • Oil change in Honda generator
  • Ran the last remaining line of electric fence tape behind the main house

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: average of 15 per day
  • Private: average of 4 per day

Visitors:

  • DFO team: 4 people
  • VAMMR team: 6 people
  • Greg/Richard for supply drop off.

Sept. 19, 2025 – Animal Census Day

Posted on by

Luckily for me it was a clear morning for the day of my first animal census. With coffee and binos in hand I headed up to the top of the lighthouse tower and began the count of every seal, sea lion, whale, and bird in sight… needless to say it took me much longer than expected! The sun was quickly heating up the tower and by the time I was finished counting the hundreds of sea lions, beads of sweat were dripping down my brow. Despite the heat, it was plenty worth the effort as I spotted some interesting animals – most notably, a Northern Fur seal! This little fellow was hiding in amongst the Cali’s and Stellers on the East corner of the island, not making many friends as it was crawling overtop the sea lion’s bodies and getting consistently yelled and snapped at.

Animal Census Report:

* Note the animal census was time limited to the morning only. Due to bright sun & shadows, cormorants were not distinguished by species.

Mammals:

  • Steller sea lion: 371
  • California sea lion: 906
  • Harbour seal: 89
  • Northern Fur seal: 1
  • Humpback Whales: 6

Birds:

  • Glaucus-winged Gull: 201
  • California Gull: 1
  • Western Gull: 6
  • Cormorant Spp: 701
  • Black Turnstones: 8
  • Surfbird: 14
  • Savanah’s Sparrow: 1
  • Western Sandpiper: 1

Facility work:

It was a busy day trying to fit in all my tasks on top of the animal census, as I was leaving the island for the weekend. Thankfully Richard was patient with me trying to get packed to go last minute.

  • Electric fence repairs – corner post on jetty snapped and got replaced.
  • Cleaned solar panels
  • Water sampled – just in time!
  • Batteries filled (early as I would be away on Saturday)
  • Animal census
  • Compost and tidying of house

Weather:

  • Sky: Mainly clear and sunny
  • Wind: 5-10kts
  • Sea state: calm
  • Air temp: 23C

I was sad to be leaving for any time at all, given the excitement of the animal census. Thankfully, Bella and the students were incoming to keep an eye on the place in my absence. I’ll be back to it Monday morning!

 

Wildlife Census

Posted on by

BOOM! With the nice weather improving, a huge cohort of Steller Sea Lions showed up, and took over South Islands. This is a change from the typical South Seal Rocks haul-out next to the generator shed. I’ve attached a Reserve Map for those interested.

South Islands got COVERED in Steller Sea Lions this week.

Race Rocks Reserve Map

 

Bull Stellers had to figure out the pecking order for the summit.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 250
  • California Sea lion: 150
  • Harbour Seal: 22
  • Sea Otter: 1 (Ollie?)

Birds

  • Gulls: 50
  • Cormorants: 55
  • Eagle: 4 Adult, 6 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 30
  • Canada Geese: 7 – 3 breeding pairs
  • Oystercatcher: 44
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 73
  • Harlequin Ducks: 4

Pigeon Guillemots taking over the NW bluffs of Race Rocks.

Harlequin Ducks on South Seal Rocks

Double-crested Cormorant

Harbour Seals love that low-low tide.

I was recently reminded that Trans-Mountain is now operational, and we’re seeing an increase in tanker traffic in the Juan-de Fuca Straight.

PIGU!!! On a good day the Pigeon Guillemots can almost drown out the sea lion barking.

Black Oystercatchers are used as an indicator of good coastal ecosystem health.

Probably Ollie, lurking on the edge of South Islands for a few days.

I was trying to decide if Ollie was carrying around an old River Otter again. Your guess is as good as mine here.

Black Turnstone love foraging around the edges of the footpath and outcropping rocks.

 

Census + Spring has sprung!

Posted on by

Pearson Students coming out to see the wildlife!

This week Second Nature made a trip out with some students to see the Sea Lions! It’s always great to see just how excited students are to see Race Rocks!

California Sea Lion loving that cozy sunshine.

Canada Geese can eat up to up to 2kg of grass a day. It noticable.

Weather has been fantastic, with new Pigeon Guillemots and Oystercatchers showing up.

Mammals:

  • Stellar Sea lions: 64
  • California Sea lion: 87
  • Harbour Seal: 14

Birds

  • Gulls: 55
  • Cormorants: 25
  • Eagle: 2 Adult, 2 Juvenile
  • Turnstones: 14
  • Canada Geese: 5 – 2 breeding pairs
  • Oystercatcher: 15
  • Pigeon Guillemots: 52

Ocean swell coming up the Juan de Fuca onto the jetty.

Sea Lion VS Fence

Posted on by

The never ending battle of sea lions vs electric fence continues!

They behaved themselves overnight with only a couple posts knocked over which in their defence…could have been the wind.

However today was not remotely windy and every time I went outside the fence needed some level of repair. Down by the jetty was jam packed with California sea lions, a few stellers, and even two elephant seals. Throughout the day they continued to rip down lines and tear out the screws, but I managed to keep up with it (or so I thought).

I had just come inside and sat down with a cup of tea when I looked out my window to see a giant steller lounging on the jetty with the electric fence resting on his back….a good indicator that it was grounding out somewhere.

Something tells me the fence isn’t very hot…

Back outside I went and found the source of the problem – a piece of fence so frayed it was hanging on for dear life and it was clear that no current could run through that. I fixed the fence with fresh fencing material and adjusted the other area around the jetty so that nothing was touching the cement.

Fixed!

I plugged the fence back in and crossed my fingers. No one was back on the jetty by the time it got dark so we’ll see how the night goes!

As per usual, whales everywhere today!

Facility Work:

  • Topped up battery electrolytes
  • Repaired electric fence

Vessels:

  • Ecotourism: 7
  • Private: 0

Weather:

  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Wind: Low of 1 knot, high of 7 knots
  • Sea: Mostly calm
  • Temperature: Low 9•C, High 15•C

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

Friday Fun

Posted on by

Today was another gorgeous day with little to no wind and temperatures reaching 25 degrees celsius! I spent the morning puttering around the site and completing tasks like the weekly battery top up. The usual animals are around today, all 4 elephant seals, a handful of sea lions, and of course – Ollie.

In the afternoon, Cedric brought two groups of Pearson student’s over for visit, most of whom had never been to Race Rocks before. It’s always nice to have visitors and I thoroughly enjoy answering questions about the reserve and my job.

Only a few ecotourism vessels today but I expect I’ll see plenty over the weekend if the weather stays like this.

The water around jetty is crystal clear, it’s so fun to watch the sea lions swim and play beneath the waters surface. As I type this now, I am watching a young California sea lion leap out of the water as if it’s having the time of its life.

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

Chaos and Creatures!

Posted on by

Today was so action packed I’m not even sure where to begin!

I woke up just after sunrise as I knew today was going to be busy and I wanted to get a few tasks out of the way. At 6am it was already warm out with barely a breeze. The ocean was glassy as I cleaned the solar panels – which were yet again decorated by the birds.

Around 8:30am the first group of Pearson students were dropped off for their marine science exam which was taking place here at Race Rocks. By 9am we had 46 humans on the island which is a lot after not seeing anyone for a whole week. Today’s tide was one of the lowest I’ve seen since being here and its neat to see the rocks and small islands that are usually well below the surface.

Halfway through the exam we had a surprise visit from Coast Guard via helicopter to continue working on the fog horn. Thankfully all of the students were safely tucked away working on their exams down in the tide pools when it arrived. This time they had a smaller helicopter so they actually landed on the grass next to the tower rather than the helipad. Overall disturbance was limited aside from birds leaving the area (but immediately returning) and the minor panic exhibited by me. 

If that wasn’t excitement enough, we saw 3 passing transient killer whales shortly after! Once again, they were quite far in the distance but always nice to see. One of these days I’ll see them up close!

On return to the school, one of the boats found a deceased harbour porpoise floating on the surface. I reported this to DFO and the animal was collected and brought back to the college where it can be stored in a freezer until the DFO team and veterinary pathologist are able to perform a necropsy.

The afternoon slowed down once it was just me and the animals alone on site. Ollie was relaxing in the kelp beds, the sea lions were quiet, and the sun was toasty. I ventured down to the rocks behind the student house to soak up some sun when something shiny caught my eye. Partially sticking out in the dirt I picked up what originally looked like some sort of bivalve or calcified shell, almost something you’d expect to see on a tropical beach. Upon picking it up I realized how heavy it was and that it actually appeared to be man made, with grooves that seemed as though they would hold rope or line. My next guess was that it was a lead fishing weight of some sort or maybe a piece of similar equipment. I rinsed it off and sent some photos to colleagues to further inquire. One of the other Eco Guardians, Derek, helped me to ID it as an “open-end strain insulator” and it supports guy wires/cables by working under compression. Through a page on the Maine Historical Society website I was also able to learn that this porcelain egg like tool was made in 1900. How wild is that! I know this island holds more history than I’ll ever know, but never did I think I’d stumble across a little piece of it among the dirt and the goose poop. I’m going to have a read through some books here tonight and see if there are any photos or mention of it!

Wow, okay I think that is everything for today! Race Rocks will never cease to amaze me.

…I guess I spoke/posted too soon! Shortly after publishing this blog post I spotted a brown pelican circling the reserve and figured it deserved a mention! 

 

Additional info:

Ecotourism vessels: 10+ busiest day I’ve seen so far!

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue skies and sunny
  • Wind: High of 8 knots, Low of 2 knots
  • Sea: Glassy
  • Temperature: Low 8•C, High 22 •C

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

Helicopter Visitors

Posted on by

It seems as though the strong wind is here to stay! At least for the next few days that is. Thankfully the sky was blue and sunny which made the wind a little less nasty and allowed the batteries to charge fully on solar.

Spot the imposter

  • 4 Ecotourism vessels today, I hope they saw lots – it looked like a very bumpy ride!
  • 2 technicians and a pilot from Coast Guard stopped by via helicopter this afternoon to work on the fog horn. It’s the first time I’ve heard it the fog horn go off and its actually far less alarming than what I made it out to be in my head.
    • Coast Guard gave me heads up that they would be coming today to ensure the helipad was clear of any wildlife. Their arrival did spook the sea lions near the jetty as I expected it would even though they didn’t pass directly overtop of them. They did pass over the 3 elephant seals on the grass and being the giant slugs that they are they raised their heads to look up for a couple of seconds and were back asleep before the helicopter even landed. Overall there was far less disturbance than I assumed their be which was great!

Ollie spent the day in the middle of the channel and only left the area when a large Steller swam past flinging around an octopus. Fair enough Ollie, I wouldn’t want octopus guts flying my way either!

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

Another Windy Day

Posted on by

Today was another blustery day and the weather couldn’t seem to make up its mind. The wind remained around 30knots throughout the day but the rest was a mix of blue sky and sun to dark clouds and pouring rain, and everything in between.

The sea lions don’t seem to mind the wind and looked as cozy as ever on their rocks. The gulls hunkered down with their heads tucked under their wings, the rest of the birds seemed to continue as normal. That includes the one goose that hangs out near the crane and stalks me whenever I walk in that general vicinity despite not having a visible nest (or mate) nearby. I also watched the same goose chase an elephant seal this morning but she seemed rather unbothered by it. I am still learning about birds and their behaviours but this particular goose seems to be holding a grudge!!

I didn’t expect to see Ollie today. With the wind and current being as strong as it is, I assumed he’d be tucked somewhere sheltered or asleep in a bed of mussels. Nope! I spotted him in the most exposed area possible, snoozing in a kelp bed – dead centre in the middle of the channel. I could barely see him between waves but he was completely unbothered by the weather. 

Despite the poor weather I did count 4 ecotourism vessels within the reserve today.

Nothing else to note today! 

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