Tag Archives: sealion

Over-Wintering birds arriving

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-237, ‘2011-09-15’, ‘Other’, 0, ‘Sea lion populations have stabilized in terms of numbers. With just ~250 California ”s and ~150 Steller ”s. Ever since the earthquake on 09/09/11 -which was not felt by me here), the sea lions have moved up from “the arena ” and East bay on Great Race to surround three sides of the Keeper ”s residence. They have blocked 2 of 3 entrances! They can be shooed away, but return during the night. The cool winds and overcast days permit them to sleep comfortably during the day only to be particularly raucous during the night. The transition between Glaucous winged gulls and their winter replacements the Thayer ”s gulls has begun. Some Heerman ”s gulls are present now as well. It appears at least one oystercatcher clutch was successful as an adult pair and their two fledged chicks are still present on Great Race.’, ‘Ryan’, ’10:03:54 ,

Slow death thanks to a Fisher’s discarded fish net-binding hoop.

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Ryan has more images of injury on his Flickr site:

rmslowdeath2010See this link to the log pages with injured marine mammals.

Ryan titled this one Slow death.
Something could be done about these entanglement injuries. DFO just has to have the determination to counter the Commercial Fishing lobby and insit on regulations to ban the disposal of fishing gear at sea or make biodegradable releases on these fish net hoops.

 

Branded sea lions

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>
>> I have three more brands to report today (I saw at least two more but couldn’t get a good visual on them unfortunately):
>>
>> #984, a California. At first glance, this one appears to be #934, but it’s definitely an 8 when you get a good look at it.
>>
>> #1052, a California.
>>
>> #1032, a California.
>>
>> All were spotted hauled up on the NE corner of Great Race. See attached photos. Again, any information you can provide about these individuals is greatly appreciated.
>> Thanks a lot!
>> Adam Harding
>>
>> —
>> Adam Harding
>> Relief Eco-Guardian & Resident Marine Scientist
>> Race Rocks Ecological Reserve
On 2010-08-16, at 13:04, Pat Gearin <Pat.Gearin@noaa.gov> wrote:

> Hello Adam and thank you for reporting these observations of California sea lions.  All three of these individuals were marked as part of my research program in Washington State at Shilshole Bay, Seattle, WA.  Below are further details of each.
>
> #984- marked on 5/16/06 weighed 355 pounds (6-7 years old).  This animal has 6 previous resights including 2 at Ano Nuevo Island, CA in 2007, one at San Miguel Island, CA in 2007, and 3 at Race Rocks in September 2009.
>
> #1032-marked on 5/8/07, weighed 350 pounds (6-7 years old).  Yours is the first and only resight of this animal since capture.
> #1052- marked on 9/13/07- weighed 575 pounds (8-10 years old).  This animal has 5 previous sightings including one from Seattle in 2007, one from San Miguel Island, CA in 2008, and 3 from Manchester, WA in 2009.  Thank you once again for these valuable observations.
>
> Pat Gearin.

 

Sealions return

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Hello all, I realise that it has been a little while since I last wrote in the daily log. Things have been busy. Ocean Educations, a three week summer diving program at Pearson College just finished this week and I’ve been busy with that, as well as keeping a German film crew of four from German public TV busy -you may have noticed Tom, Christian, Florian and Michael on the Island this week). They were busy shooting two documentaries at Race Rocks. They left this morning and I’m pleased to say that they acquired some stunning footage, above and below the water, during their stay. Things have quieted down a bit now though, so I hope to be a bit more regular in my entries for these last few weeks of my stationing at Race. Many of you will be pleased to hear that camera 5 has been repaired. Apparently there was a problem in the electrical board inside. I have it on the Island and am planning on re-installing on its mount tomorrow. If all goes to plan, it should be up and running by tomorrow afternoon. Over the last week or so, the sea lions have made quite a return. I ‘d estimate that there are probably around 100 individuals in the Reserve right now, with an equal split between northern sea lions and California sea lions. Their numbers will continue to grow as the summer draws slowly to a close. Slash is still hauled up on Great Race these days, as always. I’ve not seen Misery for a while now, although it ”s possible he’s out on Middle Rock as I saw a couple of elephant seals out there a few days ago. I suspect that Misery got a bit sick of Slash and decided to seek out some peace and quiet. There was also a mature female here for a few days late last week and early this week, but she has since left. The gull chicks are now getting quite large. Many have started to fledge and are beginning to ”test their wings ”. I ‘ve not seen any in the air yet, although I ”ve seen many flapping their limbs energetically as they try to see how their wings work! This week I also found quite a large number of dead and/or injured chicks. I think they are often attacked by other adults from outside their territory. There is actually a chick right outside my basement door that has been there for four days now; my best guess is that it wandered or ran off far from the nest then couldn ‘t find its way back. On the third day -yesterday), I woke up to find it with a broken wing. It ”s quite sad to see it huddling in the damp grass with a broken wing, while a couple of metres away, a mother feeds her three healthy chicks. Quite a stark division. I expect this chick will soon die from starvation or predation. I saw the otter several times this week. I haven ”t seen as many eagles around this week as I have in previous weeks. I ”ll keep you updated to this poor little gull over the next few days. That ”s all for now. Adam’, ’21:20:54 ,