Tag Archives: shift change

Summary of Sea lion brands and entanglements and Shift Change

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Reflection: Race Rocks grows on you. It encourages wonder and awe. You are constantly stopping to catch a glimpse of whales, check out a new scent on the wind, a new sound from amongst hundreds or to stand mesmerized by the moment. It is a complex physical operation, keep going by amazingly dedicated staff. It is a living, breathing treasure.

Facility Work: Fence repair as required, cleaning of solar panels, sea and temperature measurements in the morning now. Plans in place to fix desalinator.

Vessels: Pedder Explorer for pickup.

Photos:

Eight branded California sea lions were observed from September 01 to 15, 2025 at Race Rocks.

Three sea lions, one Steller and two California, were noted with current or healed neck injuries.

August 20

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This is my last log post, as I am heading home tomorrow. This evening, I am packing my things and tidying the house for the next ecoguardian.

I have enjoyed my time at Race Rocks over the past three weeks, as well as my many shifts since 2014 and visits since 2012. Over those years, I have been the resident ecoguardian here for varying shifts of two weeks to four months, during every season and all months except June. There have been so many special moments to witness such as watching storms, elephant seal pups, moulting elephant seal, sea otters, orcas, humpbacks, pelicans, as well as learning how to run the off grid systems. I would also like to think that I have done some work around the island to contribute to things not falling apart.

I plan to pursue other adventures next summer. When I visit Pearson at some point in the future, I hope to hop on a boat for a reminder of the familiar sights, sounds, and strong smells of Race Rocks. In the meantime, I look forward to following along with the log and checking out the webcams every once in a while.

Thank you to the staff team at Pearson College who keep this place running so well (despite the best efforts of the harsh elements) and have let me come back to spend more time on this unique island. I am truly honoured to be a part of the long list of ecoguardians, students, faculty, staff, volunteers, and lighthouse keepers who have stewarded this ecological reserve since its inception in March 1980.

Wildlife Notes:

  • On my last full day here, I was treated to seeing two Bigg’s killer whales (AKA transient orcas) pass very close to me this afternoon. I was talking to a colleague on the phone when I saw the orcas passing east through the channel in front of the house. They then swam around the island where I saw them pass through the South Channel (about 50m from the back porch) between the South Islands and South Seal Rocks. Right after I snapped a few photos of them, a heavy fog rolled in obscuring the whole island.
  • I heard back about the resighting history of the Steller sea lion branded 460Y that I saw on August 13. I spotted him again today hauled out on the South Seal Rocks.
    Bryan, a biometrician from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, sent me this full history of this 12 year old Steller sea lion:

Resight history for Steller sea lion branded 460Y

Facility work:

  • Clean the solar panels
  • Tidy the house and put away all the tools I moved around to different buildings
  • Fix sections of the electrical fence between the house and tower. I had been avoiding that section due to the gull chicks and my dislike of getting pooped on by protective gull parents. Now, many of the chicks have flown away so the area is easier to access. I will fix the last part by the tower tomorrow morning and hopefully come away unscathed.

Vessels:

  •  Ecotourism: 19
  •  Private: 2

Weather:

  • Sky: fog at sunrise, then clear until 3:30 when fog obscured the island for an hour, then back to clear
  • Wind: W 12-28 knots
  • Sea: rippled
  • Air temperature: low 11 °C, high 15 °C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 11.1 °C

Photos from today:

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

Shift Change

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I am excited to be back on the Rock for three weeks. I arrived early this afternoon taking over from James. He was here for the last ten days since Christine finished her shift.

I never get tired of seeing the view of the Race Rocks Lighthouse as the boat leaves the mouth of Pedder Bay. I first saw that view in 2012 and have been hooked ever since.

Approaching Race Rocks in the Pedder Explorer

Most recently, I was here at the beginning of August last summer for a few days before I left abruptly after falling and breaking my ankle. In all of the years I have been coming here I have never so much as cut my finger, so it came as a big surprise to me when I slipped on my way up to clean the solar panels. I am grateful as always to Greg for his seafront support, especially on the day of my accident when he plucked me off the island and took me to the hospital.

Fast forward 12 months, after a surgery and a lot of physiotherapy, I am glad to be back here moving around freely, climbing up the 117 stairs to the top of the lighthouse, and reacquainting myself with this wonderful island’s marine mammal and bird neighbours.

The weather this afternoon was clear sky with a distant fog bank to the south which obscured most of view of the sea level of Washington State, but not the Olympic Mountains towering above. The wind picked up from 19 to 39 knots from the west, with gusts reaching 44 knots. The air temperature ranged between 12 to 19 °C. The sea temperature was 11.6 °C during the max flood at 19:30.

The Pearson College boat Pedder Explorer made two more visits out here this afternoon to show alumni the ecological reserve. Several other ecotour boats passed through.

As I reacquainted myself with the various buildings, I collected the water and fuel tank levels to add to the month end report.

Here are some photos of sights from around the island.

A Wonderful Welcome to The Rock!

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It has been a year and seven days since I was last here at Race Rocks. This evening, Greg drove me out from Pearson’s maintenance dock at 17:00. Christine greeted us on the dock. After, we quickly switched food bins and bags in the boat before hauling my stuff up the ramp to the house. We did a short walk around and chat to catch me up on the happenings on the island.

Forty minutes later, Greg and Christine set off towards Pearson, but not before having a round the ecological reserve tour.

I have big shoes to fill from the ecoguardians over the past year who have kept this place running smoothly day to day. Every ecoguardian does different tasks as called upon by the season’s elements, needs of the infrastructure, neighbouring species, and projects they take on to better the place. Some ecoguardians are even excellent landscapers, TikTokers, tinkerers, photographers, and so many other things.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to continue fighting the good fight to keep entropy at bay on Race Rocks :) I am going to frequently exercise the winch and station boat, continue to document the other than human (and some human too) species who visit the ecological reserve, do a little scrubbing of windows and solar panels, as well as whatever other tasks might come up.

 

Facility work:

  • Christine left the house and everywhere else very tidy. She also left me notes of today’s vessel traffic and weather before I arrived.
  • There was plenty of sunshine for the solar panels to run the island and top up the batteries. Between 13:00 and 15:00, the average solar input was 5 kWh out of the maximum of 7 kWh.

Vessels:

  • 32 Ecotourism
  • 5 private

Weather:

  • Sky: fog bank in the morning, clearing at noon to be partly cloudy. Clear skies after 14:00.
  • Wind: west 11-19 knots
  • Daytime air temperature: low 14°C, high 17°C
  • Seawater temperature at max flood: 10.7°C

July 22 and 23 – End of Shift

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Weather for July 22:
Wind: W 11 to 34 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Foggy in morning, Partly Cloudy after 09:00
Sea: rippled in morning, up to 2′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-18 C

Weather for July 23:
Wind: W 12 to 32 knots
Visibility: <1-15 NM
Sky: Fog patches in the morning, Partly Cloudy after noon
Sea: up to 1′ chop in morning, up to 3′ chop in afternoon
Air temperature: 12-16 C

Maintenance:
I did the routine tasks of cleaning the solar panels and house windows, topping up the water in the 24 deep cycle batteries, fixing the electric fence, sampling the salinity and temperature of the seawater, and running the desalinator with solar power to produce freshwater.

End of Shift:
I have enjoyed reacquainting myself with Race Rocks over the past two and a half weeks. The solar power was a sufficient source of energy each day to charge the batteries, power the island, and produce freshwater from the desalinator. I got out in the station boat, which is always a highlight to see the island from the perspective of a sea lion. Most importantly, for the second summer in a row I learned to live harmoniously with the very territorial nesting gulls.

This is my sixth shift I have done as Ecoguardian over the past nine years, for a total of almost nine months. My shifts have ranged from two weeks to four months. I have visited here in ten months of the year, with the exception of June and September.

Tomorrow I am heading home to Vancouver to get ready for two weeks in the Northwest Territories, where I will be canoeing in Nahanni National Park Reserve.

I look forward to returning to Race Rocks sometime soon to explore the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of this amazing place.

Photo highlights from the past two days:

Gull Chicks Everywhere

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It is great to be back as the Ecoguardian at Race Rocks. I have been lucky enough to spend a total of almost seven months here between 2014 and my last shift which ended on September 1, 2020. I have been spending the past three and a bit days reacquainting myself with the island and infastructure. I have not stayed here before in July, so it is taking some adjustment to live in harmony and not disturb hundreds of nesting gulls. It drastically limits where I can go on the island.

Ecological Notes:

  • The glaucous-winged gull population is increasing everyday with lots of chicks hatching. I do my best to avoid getting close to the nests. I move quickly by the ones near doors and pathways on which I need to travel to get to the energy building, jetty and lighthouse.
  • A pod of orcas swam westward through the ecological reserve on Saturday, July 2, then went eastward in Race Channel. The orcas continued to head eastward, with at one point 14 ecotour boats viewing them from a safe distance.
  • A juvenile male elephant seal, tagged D018/D019, has been hanging around here for a while this spring and early summer. I noticed the tags this weekend, so I could confirm it was the same seal that Ecoguardian Joan spotted on the seal’s arrival on the island on May 19. Here is a link to the tagged resight histories, when I spotted this seal in April 2020 and reported the details to the Director of the Año Nuevo Reserve, in California. The brief version is he was tagged in February 2017 as a pup in Año Nuevo. He was first observed at Race Rocks in April 2018. He was again spotted here in April 2019, December 2019, and April 2020. His proboscis (nose) and body has grown a lot in the past couple years. I wonder what adventures he has gone on in that time.
  • I know of two black oystercatcher chicks that I have seen through the binoculars and  long lens of the camera. One is hanging out near the jetty with its parents. The other is hanging out near east bay with its parents. The dark grey fluff ball chicks are hard to spot, as they blend in well with rocks.
  • See the photos below for these and more ecological sights.

Weather:

  • The wind has been consistently coming from the west over the past four days that I have been here.
  • Friday and Saturday were part cloudly with lots of sun to fully charge the solar panels by 17:00 both days.
  • Sunday and Monday were overcast with periods of rain and fog.
  • The temperature in the past four days has ranged between 11 to 14 oC.

Visitors:

  • Greg drove the boat on the afternoon of Friday, July 1 to do the shift changeover between Jillian and I. Thanks, Jillian, for leaving the place in such great shape.

Vessel Traffic:

  • Many Canadian and American ecotour boats have been nearby throughout this long weekend.

Here are photo highlights from the past few days. Click on the photos for a larger view.

Shift Changeover

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Wind: 0-20 knots NE
Sea State: 0.5 m chop
Visibility: 15+ NM
Sky: overcast clearing to sun in the late morning
Temperature: 8 C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.73 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Yesterday, Laas’ shift ended after being on Race Rocks for the past two and half months and a big chunk of the past two and a half years. I came out to the island at noon on Second Nature with Guy, Corey, two students, a family visiting the college and a friend of Laas. It was great to share in the excitement of all on the boat. I also appreciated their help carrying my many bins of food. I always get excited when the boat rounds the corner out of Pedder Bay and the lighthouse comes into view. The cacuphony of seal lion barks and belches was overwhelming when the boat pulled up to the jetty. Thanks for the great welcome home, my pinniped pals. I had a run through of the energy systems with Laas, Guy and Corey, as the equipment has changed completely since I was here almost five years ago. It’s great to be back on the Rock. Thank you Laas for leaving the place so tidy. Best of luck on your new adventures.

After the group left, I climbed the 99 steps inside the lighthouse to get a bird’s-eye view of the island. I spend the rest of the day reacquainting myself with the place and unpacking. I welcomed the slow down, as I settled into the island that I will call home for the season, watching the changes as the days become longer. I will be here for all of winter and depart soon after the vernal equinox.

Today, I continued to check out more places and do the regular tasks like monitor the energy levels, wash the solar panels, turn the composting toilet and sample the salinity and temperature of the water at high tide. On one trip up the lighthouse, I counted 336 sea lions on the rocks. There are also six elephant seals on the main island: three large males spaced apart from each other, one pregnant looking female in the centre of the island and two juvenile males.

Approaching Race Rocks

Waving goodbye

Lighthouse and elephant seals

Climbing to the top of the lighthouse

A bird’s-eye view

Solar Panels charging the batteries on a sunny day

Elephant seals

Sunset from halfway up the lighthouse

Sunset over the Olympic Peninsula

 

My Final Day: Seal Show

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West during the day, 20-25 W in the evening.
  • Sky: clear and sunny
  • Water: calm

Ecological

  • Ten elephant seals on Great Race.
  • Three elephant seals on Middle Rock.
  • A few of the seals put on a good display of water battles.

Maintenance

  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • Swept loose debris off the pathways.
  • Ran the desalinator.
  • Cleaning etc. in preparation for shift change tomorrow.

Boats

  • Several eco-tours, pleasure craft, and fishing boats came by today.

Farewell to Race Rocks, and good luck to Laas!

Riley Strother

Ecoguardian Changeover

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Weather

  • Guy et Christine’s 8am weather report.
  • Visibility: 13 miles
  • Wind: 5-10 knots West
  • Sky: overcast
  • Water: 1′ chop

03-13 Waves

Ecological

  • The elephant seal weaner was back on the grass between the buildings.
  • One juvenile male spent the day sleeping by the tower.
  • A second young male appeared in the afternoon and pestered the weaner.
  • I was pleased to spy several oystercatchers, a pair of harlequin ducks, two bald eagles, and a raven, amongst the usual seagulls, cormorants, and black turnstones.

03-13 Weaner and male

Maintenance

  • Guy, Christine, and Kyle gave me a tour of the facilities.
  • Various little changes here and there, but overall no massive differences.
  • Unpacked and settled in to the house.

Boats

  • Kyle and Second Nature brought me out around 12:30.
  • They departed at 1:20 with Guy et Christine.
  • 3 eco-tours came by in the afternoon.

03-13 Eco-tour 1 03-13 Eco-tour 2

Visitors

  • Kyle

Other

  • I am excited to be starting my fourth lengthy shift out at Race Rocks.
  • This is Riley Strother signing off and wishing you a goodnight!

Last Full Day of the Shift

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knots W, later 10 knots E, then 20 knots N
  • Sky: sunny in the morning, cloudy in the afternoon
  • Water: calm
  • Too cloudy to see the large moon tonight.

Ecological

  • 3 elephant seals on Great Race.
  • The little female did not return with the others.
  • I observed two armadas of cormorants in the afternoon.
  • Then they all flew away!
  • Also one young seagull is wandering around with a broken wing.
  • I think it is the same gull that I saw a couple of weeks ago.

Maintenance

  • Added one 55 gallon barrel of diesel to the tidy tank.
  • Finished hauling the various unused pieces of the electric fence back to the tank shed.
  • Stacked some firewood.
  • Cleaned the house for Guy.
  • Published the July, August, September, and October seawater data sheets on the website.

Boats

  • One boat appeared to be inspecting the Rosedale Rock buoy.
  • Two eco-tours came by.

Other

  • This is my last log post out at Race Rocks, until next time.
  • Hopefully I will be back out here in the springtime!
  • Signing off now. Good luck Guy (and Alex)!

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