Tag Archives: Sea Otter

Orcas, Jan 11-13

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On the morning of Jan 11 a pod of at around 20 orcas passed by in the morning on both sides of the reserve heading NE.  Mid morning they returned passing by on the East side of the reserve.  The whales were spread out and some were breaching as well as lying on their back slapping the surface of the water with their tails.

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the sealions on the south islands seemed apprehensive as the orcas swam nearby

 

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beyond south island, Rosedale Reef buoy and bulk carrier in background

 

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off the south islands

 

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on its back tail slapping the water

 

 

 

Persistent NE wind 10 -20 knots with mostly overcast sky for the past days.

Jan 11: 1 private vessel, 1 dive boat, 2 ecotour

Jan 12: one sea otter seen circling the island and a female elephant seal came on the main island briefly.  There have been very few female elephant seals on the main island so far this winter.

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Jan 13: 2 ecotour

Jan 14: 3 ecotour

I haven’t seen or heard the elephant seal pup in several days, dont know if it still alive. Have been working on wood cutting and did some more work on the composting toilet install, levelling the chamber so it drains, plumbing the chute and fastening the seat.

Humpback

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Barometer continued to drop during the day to below 1005 hPa by nighttime. The wind was10 knots N in the morning and picked up to gusts over 30 knots in the evening.  There have been growing swells coming in from the North East.

Observed two river otters around the boardwalk in the morning and several eagles hunting and feeding in the reserve today.  Before dusk there was a lone humpback whale between West rock and Church rock.  Also around dusk I saw a sea otter off the south end of the island swimming on its back eating something off its chest.

Cleared the boat ramp twice of debris, harvested driftwood, cut and stacked firewood.

Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) appears again at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve

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This afternoon we observed a sea otter Enhydra lutris eating a giant red sea urchin Strongylocentrotus franciscanus  just off the south west corner of Great Race Rocks .  It was followed by several gulls, keeping an eye out for scraps. We were able to get a few pictures and some video of it which we will be adding to this post.

Previous sightings of sea otters at Race Rocks are recorded in these posts.

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Sea otter at Race Rocks Ecological reserve, February 27, 2014, G. Fletcher photos.

 

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Sea Otter at Race Rocks

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Misery has been off the main island and out of sight since about March 16.  A few female elephant seals have been around, there have been 4 or 5 on Middle rock for the past few days.esealsOn the 26th I saw a Sea Otter off the south side of the island.  It was mostly swimming on its back and at one point had a sea urchin it was eating on its belly. A few seals followed it as it swam towards middle rock.
See this file on one previous occurrence of Sea Otters at Race Rocks otter

Tomorrow is the last day of my 4 month shift at Race Rocks. Mike will be returning to take over.

Animal Census First Sea Otter at Race Rocks

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Sea Otter in race ROcks Kelp Beds, photo by Adam Bird

Sea Otter in Race Rocks Kelp Beds, photo by Adam Bird on June 10/2012

Things have been fairly quite lately regarding birds and mammals here, though one of the eco-tour boats reported seeing a Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) in a kelp bed on Monday! The percussive blasts from Rocky Point military testing range scared off most of the Sea Lions last Thursday and only a few have returned in the last couple days. A large pod of orca passed through and near the reserve on Tuesday. Thanks to Suna, Doris and Ishmael for the census.

Elephant Seals: about 10
Steller Sea Lions: 2
California Sea Lions: 2
Harbour Seals: 204
Glaucous-winged Gull: 246
Surfbirds: 18
Pigeon Guillemots: 108
Canada Goose: 13
Bald Eagle: 3
Black Oystercatcher: 12
Northwestern Crow: 1
Raven: 1
Sparrow: 4
Sea Otter: 1
Caspian Terns: 6
Herring Gulls: 20

Sea Otter, Enhydra lutris— Race Rocks Taxonomy

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abjune102012rrseaotter

Adam Bird, aboard a whale watching charter took this photo of a sea otter on June 10, 2012 at Race Rocks .

This is the first image taken of this species at Race Rocks .

This sea otter was observed over several days in the kelp bed off the Middle Rocks in Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. Sea otters were introduced to the Bunsby Islands, Checlesset Bay north of Kyuquot village on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in 1969, 1970 and 1972. Considerable research on them has been done over the years especially by Dr. Jane Watson, and it is archived on the Friends of Ecological Reserves website in the Checlesset Bay Ecological Reserve #109 archives:

Since then Ecoguardians have taken pictures of sea otters out in the lkelp and along the shore of Great Race Rocks almost every year, here are a few samples:

This tag will bring up other examples of observations of this species at Race Rocks

 

I also observed a sea otter and was able to get some pictures in 2014

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Mammalia
Order Carnivora
Family Mustelidae
Subfamily Lutrinae
Genus Enhydra
Species lutris ( Linnaeus,(1758)
Common Name: Sea Otter

Other Members of the Class Mammalia at Race Rock

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. Garry Fletcher, 2012