Tag Archives: Steller Sea lion

Marine Science and possible blind sea lion

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 5-15 SE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • A couple visitors on island observing the elephant seal molt also Laura’s marine science class are doing transect studies in the intertidal zone, yesterday and today

Maintenance

  • Solar has been great lately so I haven’t had to run the generator too much and I have been able to run the desalinator periodically on solar power, still waiting for the new desalinator and once that is up running I would love to pressure wash all of the buildings, they have quite a build up of algae on them.

Ecological

  • A young stellar sea lion was acting strangely on the jetty yesterday, it wasn’t opening its eyes and it was the last one off the jetty, instead of diving off it carefully backed off the jetty tail first, it didn’t appear frail or injured but it was acting very strange which led me to think it was blind, it is branded so I am going to look for it to see if I can get a clear picture of the brand and maybe identify this sea lion and get it help if it needs it.
  • three goose nests were not able to be addled this year, so we will have some goslings running around, but the rest of the nests have been successfully addled
  • still 13 elephant seals, a few young males and mostly older females plus the male pup is still here, he seems to be doing pretty well although he does go swimming I’m not sure if he has started hunting yet

Census, new stellers and update on injured mammals

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 10-15 knts W
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Lots of ecotour boats between 12 and 1 pm, and a few private boats as well, making race passage quite crowded

Mammal Notes

  • Some steller sea lions have arrived on the northwestern rocks! It’s hard to get an accurate count from this distance, but I estimate 12-15 including one really big one (a webcam viewer informed me that the big bull is branded “76Y”). Photographed below.
  • I got a closer look at the injured californian sea lion that was hanging out near the guest house earlier, and it definitely has an injury on its hind flipper. I saw it try to get into the water yesterday and it was pretty much dragging itself.
  • The injured female seal has nestled itself by the boat shed. I don’t see any further injuries on it.

Census

  • Elephant Seals
    • Male = 4
    • Female = 1
  • Sea Lions
    • California = 2
    • Steller = 15
  • Seagulls = 480 adults (a big part of them remain on the smaller rock islands during low tide), ~100 babies (hard to estimate)
  • Pigeon Guillemot = 85
  • Eagles = 2
  • Oystercatchers = 12 adults
  • Harbour Seals = 25 adults, 2 babies
  • Geese = 0
  • Black turnstone = 55

Census

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Weather

  • Visibility: clear, 15 miles throughout the day
  • Wind: ranging from 9-22 knots throughout the day
  • Sky: overcast for most of the day
  • Water: calm, a bit choppy at times

Boats/Visitors

  • Didn’t notice much boat traffic today aside from the usual busy commercial freighters
  • No visitors today

Ecological

  • More failed mating attempts by the young male elephant seals with the one female on the island.

Census

  • Cormorants – 90
  • Gulls – 275
  • Elephant Seals – 6  (3 adolescent males, 1 adult male, 1 adult female and 1 pup)
  • California Sea Lions – 120
  • Stellar Seal Lions – 93
  • Black Turnstones – 10
  • Canada Geese – 4
  • Bald Eagles – 7

    Three males surround the single female currently on the island