Tag Archives: students

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

Birds and Rescue Efforts

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NE
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Some swells this morning, now its more choppy but under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • A team from DFO and the aquarium came out yesterday to try help out a couple of the neckbanded sea lions, the sea lions were uncooperative and left before the team got here, so hopefully next week the sea lions will be where we want them to be there is one here with fishing line around his head and it looks awful, i hope we can help him soon
  • An advisee group is here for the night with their advisor Clint
  • also the electrician came today, hopefully get that automatic start on the generator soon

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator a bit but its still not operating very well, makes less water in a longer amount of time
  • would like to do more pressure washing but need to be able to replace the water being used

Ecological

  • Sea lions are still slowly making their way out
  • There were quite a few oyster catchers around today
  • Ravens and eagles around as well
  • Also a single snow bunting has been hanging around

Project/CAS Week

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Weather

  • Visibility: 0 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Blanket of fog the last 22 hours, it is finally gone
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours braved the limited visibility today
  • I have a group of 7 students along with the Marine Science teacher Laura here for their CAS/Project week, in my year we called it project, now they call it CAS

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance
  • The students helped me pick up all the garbage that had been washed up or fell off the buildings in the wind or fence pieces, the island is litter free

Ecological

  • Nothing unusual, no elephant seals, roughly the same amount of sea lions and no interesting birds lately

Students, pups, humpbacks and a dead sea lion

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-20 SW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy, under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours
  • Guy came by with a little tour group this morning and then again in the afternoon with a group of students that will be spending their CAS week here

Maintenance

  • Fence maintenance, some pressure washing

Ecological

  • Counted at least 8 humpbacks throughout the day
  • there is a big dead stellar on the south west part of the island, I don’t usually go down there so I havent seen it until now
  • There are also about a dozen oyster catchers near the generator room
  • The sea lion pup is back and i got some great photos of it, even got some shots of it nursing which is very unusual to have such a young pup on the island

Marine Science and Humpbacks

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • A few ecotours and sailboats going by
  • Laura’s marine science came by yesterday to see all the different species we have on the island and off the island we were lucky to see quite a few humpbacks around

Maintenance

  • Very minimal fence repairs which is a nice surprise, the sea lions are starting to avoid it more
  • Some pressure washing around the guest house, should be getting students for overnight trips soon

Ecological

  • I counted about 8 different humpbacks around yesterday, also saw about 4 today
  • Haven’t seen the sea lion pups around
  • also still no elephant seals

New Students

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 NW
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Flat Calm

Boats/Visitors

  • Quite a bit of boat traffic, many ecotours, fishing boats and sailboats
  • Guy brought by a couple boat loads of the new first year students, as he did yesterday so we could give them a little tour of Race Rocks, its great when the students get to come out here and see another aspect of Pearson College, they don’t come out here that often and you can’t see it from the college

Maintenance

  • having some camera issues lately, will need to order a new SD card for the Race Rocks camera and the one in personal camera is not cooperating either, but hopefully we will be able to get more photos up soon

Ecological

  • still around 300 sea lion, mostly californias around the island.
  • plenty of harbour seals on the outer rocks, a few on the main island
  • also a few whale sightings, I saw two humpbacks by north rock yesterday morning and Guy said he also saw killer whales near there when he came he around 9:30am yesterday.
  • Also one of the younger seagulls I posted a photo of last week is dead, not quite sure what happened, just its body by the pathway
  • there are still about 4 of the younger ones all together

Its been an eventful week and hopefully I can start taking pictures again soon :)

Final Exam

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Waves under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • Lauras marine science class had their final exam here today which was about 45 students so that was fun

Ecological

  • about a dozen elephant seals, one male still here, the rest female
  • I am so sure I got the final goose nest today and am hopefully done addling

 

Beautiful Weather

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-10 W
  • Sky: Clear and sunny
  • Water: Flat calm

Boats/Visitors

  • many boats going by today, ecotours, sailboats, fishing boats
  • Guy also came by to pick up the students that stayed in the student house lastnight

Ecological

  • about a dozen elephants, one male and the rest female
  • not too many sea lions around though

More visitors

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 15-25 NW
  • Sky: Cloudy
  • Water: A bit wavy less than a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • a few ecotours went by today
  • Guy picked up the visitors from lastnight and a dropped off a new group of overnight visitors

Ecological

  • 10 adult female elephants all together
  • hardly any sea lions around

 

More Visitors

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NW
  • Sky: Partly Cloudy
  • Water: Choppy, under a metre

Boats/Visitors

  • quite a few ecotours went by today
  • Guy brought some people by to work on the coastal radar system and he also brought some students from the college for a tour

Ecological

  • 10 adult female elephant seals, all lying around the front yard today soaking in the sun