Ecological Notes:
- 2 Adult Female Elephant Seals (Believed to be moms from this season)
- 3 Elephant Seal pups from this season
- 1 very near mature Male Elephant Seal
- 2 – 2to3 year old(?) Male Elephant Seals, one of which is not used to humans and was very vocal when anyone was near the ramp, then eventually moved to the sea lion haulout by the crane
- The tagged Elephant Seal yearling from the previous post has left the reserve
Visitors:
- 1 Alumni of Pearson College visiting and volunteering until Friday this week
- 2 colleagues (and friends) of the Eco-Guardian also visited for 3 days
- Seafront Coordinator brought extra help to remove and old Composting unit, empty propane tanks, items for recycling and disposal. Also delivered a spare gas engine to replace the one on the fire pump (used to pump sea water into the cistern)
Facility Work:
- Cleaning and pressure washing of all sidewalks
- Floor cleaning and washing of outbuildings
- Deep cleaning of the Eco-Guardian house, including all window sills, screens, fridge, stove, and inside cabinets
- Changed filters in the desalinator unit, gave us more consistent pump and pressure readings
- Replaced engine on the firepump
- Collected lots of recyclables from the tank shed
- While bucking up firewood for splitting, introduced the Alumni guest/volunteer the basics of chainsaw maintenance and handling
Thanks to the guests for all their help!
DND events:
- Ongoing, near daily, detonations
Noted Vessel Traffic:
- A dramatic increase in Eco-Tourism vessels, all following park guidelines.
- Many private vessels also doing wildlife viewing
- A group of 2 kayakers, and also 2 outrigger canoes visited as well.
Noted Infractions:
- 3 vessels fishing in the Rockfish Conservation area, 2 were politely reminded by me over the VHF radio and pulled up lines without responding when they saw my camera. 1 was spoken to by an ecotourism Captain when they didn’t respond or react to my calls.
- Was a bad week for private vessels in the reserve area at higher speed, some slowed down when they saw my hand signals, at least 2 were again encouraged by Eco-tourism vessels
** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **
Weather – Current:
http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72
Weather – Past: