Index of Articles Published on Race Rocks ER in the Friends of Ecological Reserves Log-1988-2023

ECOLOGICAL RESERVES — NEWS/ARTICLES: 

#97 Race Rocks: threatened loss of keeper — Fall 1996

#97 Race Rocks: marine protected area — Autumn 1998

#97 Race Rocks Marine Protected Area — Winter 2000

#97 Race Rocks news update — Winter 2001

#97 Race Rocks: ER to Marine Protected Area — Spring 2003

#97 Race Rocks: An Unusual Model — Winter 2004
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VISITS and REPORTS:

#97 Race Rocks — Spring 1988

#97 Race Rocks — October 1989

#97 Race Rocks — Spring 1997

#97 Race Rocks — Fall 1997

#97 Race Rocks field trip — Winter 2005

#97 Race Rocks field trip — Winter 2006

#97 Race Rocks field trip — Spring/Summer 2013

#97 Race Rocks: Pungent to Educational — Winter 2007

#97 Race Rocks Visited — Autumn 2008

#97 Race Rocks Re-Visited — Spring/Summer 2010

#97 Race Rocks Trip — Spring/Summer 2014
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ARTICLES:

Race Rocks ER: Marine Protected Area — Aut./Win. 2009

Elephant Seal Born at Race Rocks — Winter 2008

Race Rocks: Elephant Seals Born — Spring/Summer 2018

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PROFILES:

Trev Anderson — Autumn-Winter 2020

Pam Birley — Autumn/Winter 2010

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Link to the Index of publications on British Columbias other Ecological reserves 

 

EXISTING SHORELINE CONDITIONS STUDY EAO Condition 39

The full pdf of this report is contained in this pdf:
BC EAO Condition 39 Exisitng Shoreline Conditions Report – May 2023 – for engagement

The purpose of this posting is to reference the part of the report referring to Metchosin’s coastline including Race Rocks and to provide comment on it.

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From page 4 of the REPORT:
1 Introduction
As defined by the amendment to Trans Mountain’s BC Environmental Assessment Certificate (EAC) issued by the Province of British Columbia (the Province) on February 24, 2022, Trans Mountain must prepare an Existing Shorelines Condition Report and submit to the Province within 18 months (August 2023) as Condition No. 39.

Polaris Applied Sciences was retained to prepare a report containing shoreline baseline data for shoreline areas closest to spill scenario locations modeled along the marine shipping route and submitted in the Project application. The Province listed the specific scenario locations for the purpose of this study (Figure 1) as:

  • English Bay (Location B)
  • Roberts Bank (Location C)
  • Strait of Georgia (Location D)
  • Arachne Reef (Location E)
  • Strait of Juan de Fuca (south of Race Rocks) (Location G); and
  • Buoy J (Location H)

 

Page 25
Strait of Juan de Fuca (south of Race Rocks) (Location G);
Figure 18 shows the Location G – Race Rocks site with the available existing spatial data. Shoreline data are from the Shorezone mapping effort available from the BC Data Catalogue, which show the shore type consisting of rock cliff. Shore-zone Bioband data indicate the presence of barnacles, dark brown kelps, fucus, bull kelp, red algae, surf grass, and Verrucaria. Other data sources indicate offshore kelp beds and multiple seal and sealion haulouts. The Race Rocks Ecological Reserve (RRER) website (https://racerocks.ca/home/) provides more details on ecological resources documented and studied at the site, but not in a spatial format for mapping.

COMMENTS :  The exceptionally high Biodiversity of the area and high level of protection since 1980 as a Provincial Ecological Reserve  are not reflected at all in the map presented. If one were to look at the Race Rocks Taxonomy presented at https://racerocks.ca/race-rocks-animals-plants/taxonomy-image-gallery/ there may be a better appreciation of the natural capital of this area

  1. Rock Cliff  Beach designation is inaccurate.. there is a pebble beach and Intertidal areas with tidepools on much of the shorelines of the 9 islandfsd in the Archipelago.  Also several surge channels are located around the main island. 
  2. Bird Colonies :
    –no mentions is made of four species of nesting seabirds.
    –no mention is made of the fact this is a winter roosting area for thousands of seabirds.
    — no mention of the fact that the archipelago of islands are an important migratory stopover for marine and terrestrial migratory birds.
  3. Marine Mammals:
    –no mention is made of the fact this is the most northerly haul-out and pupping colony  for Elephant seals — no mention of the fact that California and Northern sealions haul  out in numbers over 1000 in the fall of the year. 
    —no mention  that the haul-out locations for harbour seals are also pupping colonies. 
    — no mention of the ocurrence of river otters and sea otters on and within the islands.
    – no mention of the fact that it is an important feeding area for Biggs killer whales. https://racerocks.ca/humpback-and-orca-sightings-race-rocks/
    –no mention of the fact that the surrounding waters have had a rapid increase in the past few years of Humpback whales 
  4. Invertebrates: 
    –The extremely high biodiversity of invertebrate species both inter-tidally and sub-tidally is not mentioned. 
    –Several rare species of invertebrates are found here and are not acknowledged
  5. Fish :
    –This is a rockfish protection area and all species of BC Rockfish are represented.– a high diversity of other fish are also represented here,  with even sitings of Sturgeon occurring.
  6. Marine Algae :
    –There is a much higher  species diversity of Marine Algae found in the ecological reserve than is n surrounding areas. 
    — the indication of kelp beds on the map presented here is totally inaccurate and insufficient.  Given the decline of kelp beds in our coastal water , this is highly relevant. 
  7. Indigenous and Historical Significance: 
    — the presence of archaeological sites and the significance of the historic structures cannot be minimized . All are sprayed with seawater and therefore subject to immersion in pollutants during intense winds  which occur regularly. 

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Page 26

 

 

Comments:
The reference at the Race Rocks website  from racerocks.ca which analyzes the Wind speed from observations of the hourly data provided by Environment Canada show a completely different picture . https://racerocks.ca/race-rocks-lightstation-weather-conditions-environment-canada-problems-for-oil-spill-cleanup/

 Some facts from the Environment Canada data:
1. In July of 2022  there were 11 days when the wind speed every hour was 28 km/hr or greater. and 69.5% of the hours in the month, clean up equipment could not be deployed due to high velocity wind conditions.
2. In March of 2023, the wind speed was 28 km/hr or greater  37% of the time.
3. In Februarry of 2023 , the wind speed was 28 km/hr or greater 43 % of the time
4. In January of 2023 , the wind speed was 28 km/hr or greater 36% of the time 

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Page 27

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The reality of current speed  is that there is a very small window of time during the day that the waters around Race Rocks are not over three knots. In the graph below only in the few hours a day not covered by the white arrows could any boom placement be established. WHen looked at from this perspective, added onto the small windows of time when the wind speed is under 28 km per hour could spilled oil containment even be possible. 

 

 

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From page 28 of the Polaris report

Field surveys were not conducted at Race Rocks due to the long lead time in acquiring a “research” permit from BC Parks to access the Ecological Reserve. Information detailed below comes from reviewing the existing data available, Google Earth, the RRER website, and a First Nations representative.
The shoreline at Race Rocks, specifically Great Race Rock, appears to be mostly bedrock cliff, ramp, and platform, possibly with some small pocket pebble/cobble beaches. Bedrock cliffs and ramps are observable in Figure 21 which show some example photographs from the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve website. The backshore appears to be mostly bedrock with some vegetation.
An active lighthouse along with several other buildings are present. Pearson College UWC conducts research and teaches classes at the site. Whale and sightseeing boats frequent the waters around Great Race Rock and are visible from photographs on the Race Rocks website and on Google Earth.
As mentioned before, Race Rocks is a BC Parks Ecological Reserve which are “areas selected to preserve representative and special natural ecosystems, plant and animal species, features and phenomena. Scientific research and educational purposes are the principal uses of ecological reserves”7. A wide variety of ecological resources are documented, tracked, and studied at the site. This documentation includes a weekly animal census, annual bird counts, and an entire list of species ever documented with photos/videos since 2000 (https://racerocks.ca/race-rocks-animals-plants/taxonomy-image-gallery/). Additional research conducted at the site can also be found on the RRER website. The extensive use of the site as a haulout location by pinnipeds is documented on the website and visible on Google Earth.
This area has historically been used by First Nations for harvesting food, as documented on the Race Rocks website, and a First Nations representative indicated that fishing is common in the waters around the site. Burial mounds/cairns have been researched and documented on Great Race Rock.
A helicopter pad is located near the lighthouse.
Based on the available data, and without visiting Race Rocks, the Shorezone mapping appears to be relatively accurate. The detailed observation of the flora and fauna on the Race Rocks website and other research conducted by Pearson College provides the most thorough documentation of the ecological resources present compared to any of the other sites visited.
7  https://bcparks.ca/eco_reserve/

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So much of what we are expected to do in response to the Trans Mountain EAO requests has been done before. 
However…. 
I am pointing out some information from work that Mike Fenger and myself did on the Board of Friends of Ecological Reserves the past for the NEB hearings . 
1. In this document, although it  lists species of several of the marine ecological reserves,  Race Rocks is included with examples 
page 48 -page 54 : Marine mammals
see page 52  
page 55-page 61 Birds 
page 63-67  fish (including forage fish on our beaches
page 67- page 71 .. Invertebrates
page 72- page  74  .. macroalgae
page 75-  terrestrial plants in upper foreshore areas
From this link ….
there is a lot of information of the biological resources along the Strait of Juan De Fuca also in section
3.5 SARA-Listed Species in Two Ecological Reserves and in appendix page 139
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Garry Fletcher.. Metchosin Environmental Advisory Select Committee 

 

Census

 

December 08, 2022

  • Bald eagle adult                          5
  • Bald eagle juvenile                     4
  • Black Turnstones                       14
  • Black Oyster Catchers                6
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western    56
  • Cormorants                                  64
  • Canadian goose                          14
  • Crows/ Ravens(?)                        4
  • Surf Scoters                                  9

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                          190
  • Harbour seal                                42
  • California sea lion                      124
  • Male Elephant Seal                      0
  • Female Elephant Seal  adult       1
  • Female Elephant Seal yearling   1
    • tag X188
  • Sea Otter                                      1

Several Humpback Whales visible from the reserve,occasionally venturing in

50th Anniversary of Ecological Reserves in British Columbia

Often when we visit special ecological areas our observations are restricted to a limited view. In this video, we visited six diverse Ecological Reserves  with the goal of revealing some of their special features from  a distant viewpoint as well as a close up one. Under a special permit from BC Parks, Jamie Frith used his drone and a macrophotographic camera to enable us to present a unique perspective on the reserves.

This video was made for the Friends of Ecological Reserves with the support of BC Parks. We started the project in March 2021 and originally were only allowed by  BC Parks to film in  6 Ecological Reserves in the southern part of Vancouver Island due to restrictions of COVID 19. Plans to include ERs from the interior of the province also were not possible   As those restrictions were eased mid summer, we were able to extend our range and travel North to include the Nimpkish River ER,  in order to include a  representative area of mature Douglas Fir forest.

Ecological Reserves which we were able to include were: 

  • Nimpkish RIver  ER#118   start time- 1:20
  • San Juan RIdge  ER #83   start time- 5:58
  • Oak Bay Islands  ER #94    start time-11:02
  • Mount Tzuhalem  ER#112    start time- 16:38
  • San Juan River  ER#141   start time-  25:01
  • Race Rocks  ER#97    start time- 25.03

 

One of the goals of the Ecological reserves act is to provide protected places for research and education. Some reserves, especially those with seabird colonies  are closed to the public and only accessible  with a permit from BC Parks. Since it is illegal to fly a drone over any provincial (or federal) protected area without a permit, the use of the drone was possible only with permission and precautions for no disruption to animals.  As mentioned in several of the interviews, because of the sensitive ecological nature of the areas, the public is not encouraged to visit Ecological reserves.

THE 50th ANNIVERSARY: 
On April 2, 1971, the Government of British Columbia became the first jurisdiction in Canada to pass legislation to protect Ecological Reserves, places set aside primarily for ecological research and education, not recreation. The Ecological Reserve Act led to an Order in Council that established the first 29 ecological reserves on May 4, 1971. Fifty years later, British Columbia has 148 ecological reserves across the entire province. This video features just a few of the ones on Vancouver Island. In 2021, the BC government proclaimed April 2nd as Ecological Reserves Day in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Ecological Reserve Act.

Protecting rare species and ecosystems is just one of the reasons to have an ER established. Equally important was protecting representative examples of natural ecosystems. See the wording in the Purpose section of the ER Act:
Garry Fletcher

Exciting Visitors shows the feed is here!

What a day it was! Overcast and a little drizzle and I do my regular morning routine of firing up the Generator, running the Desalinater all before breakfast. As I finish up restocking the fire, eating and my coffee at my now favourite spot the big living room window. I look out and scan the horizon, there towards the west I just catch a glimpse of that distinct hump. I think before it even finished going under I was up, boots on and cameras in hand running towards the west.

 

 

Sea lions chased after the 4 Humpbacks and the whales seemed annoyed by them, splashing at them. It was very entertaining to watch as the whales moved close along the western shore of the Great Race Rocks, and down to the south.

T041s Visit!

Then that afternoon, as I do my regular Electric Fence fixing and Sea Lion Wrangling, I noticed some of the whale watching tours lounging north of North Rocks. I head up to the Northern Shore (of course with cameras) to just catch a glimpse at a couple dorsal fins before they disappear. Many minutes later as I’m looking around, all of the sudden I hear the PUFF of one, directly below me in Middle Channel.

5 Orca cruise back and fourth throughout the channel for roughly 10 minutes (time stood still so that’s a very rough guess) Until they headed back out into the far north and vanished from sight. The 5 orca are identified as the T041s.

 

 

One of the most interesting parts about the day, was the way the sea lions acted when the Humpback were here compared to the Orca. The Humpback the sea lions were engaging with, playing or chasing, however when the orca arrived it was chaos and panic. The sea lions all congregated together while the orca were around, mean while when the humpbacks were near, they each just did their own thing.

 

Facility Work:

Generator

Desalinator

Fixed Electric Fences multiple times

Sea Lion Wrangling

Trial run of putting Ropes up around the lighthouse to slow the sea lions.

 

 

 Weather – Current: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past: http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Environment Canada forecast:

https://weather.gc.ca/marine/region_e.html?mapID=02

Fishing in a Rockfish Conservation Area

DFO Reference : https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/maps-cartes/rca-acs/rca-acs/south-sud/BentinckRaceRocksChart3461-eng.html

June 6, 2021

Vessel – Abigail fishing in Race Rocks RCA

First observed at location *F with binoculars at 0857, they saw me on the deck and reeled in lines. I returned to deck and took photo 1 as they jetted away. (high speed within the reserve)

They returned to the RCA at 0922, photos 2,3,4 taken for overview of location and ID.

After photo 5 and 6, I attempted to contact them on VHF 16 and 68 (was just going to politely suggest they check the regulations for Rockfish Conservation information). They were even closer to the North Rock by this time.

They looked up, reeled in lines fast, and again jetted off.

Reported to DFO Fisheries Violations Hotline – 1-800-465-4336

Emailed in this report to DFO, as requested during phone conversation

Grey Whale

Ecological Notes: Today, a grey whale passed by the South East side of island going west bound.
Animal Tracking and Injuries: California Sea Lion bad bite mark on his shoulder.
Elephant seal pups: 4
Visitors:1
 
Facility Work: The work to clean the buildings continues. I fixed the power washer, life is better now.
Vessel Traffic. Speeding in the reserve.

Snow and high winds at Race Rocks today

Snowy Race Rocks from the lighthouse.

Weather:

Well we got the same dump of snow on February 13th that hit Victoria, arriving with some 40-50 knot outflow winds blowing the crunchy snow all over the place. Estimated about 10cm of snow, but due to the high winds it was moving around lots.

Visitors/Traffic:

No visitors in the last week besides the future Eco-Guardians coming out to do some training. The weather has been consistently >30 knots from Febryary 10th onwards.

Ecological Notes:

With the heavy winds and snowfall the California Sea Lion numbers have been reduced, we thought just for a night or two but the numbers haven’t returned as the snow melts and winds die down. We had 1 California on the jetty looking very sick and emaciated; and one on the South side of the lighthouse with a neckband bleeding pretty heavily.

California Sea Lion with a nasty looking neck-band.

The Stellers have come back once the snowfall stopped, but weren’t around during the peak snowfall days.

On February 13th we spotted 4 Southern Resident Orca’s cruising their way around the South side of the lighthouse. Talking with local experts it sounds like it was members of J-pod due to local hydrophone recordings.

Elephant Seal update:

On February 11th another pup was weaned and his mom left. This is our 4th pup to be weaned this season, with one still nursing.

Snuggles got buried into his own little snow bank.

Our last female on the island, Jolene provided a wall to protect her pup from the blasting snowflakes.

Our oldest pup Cheermeister got bit on the head the night of February 7th, and retreated to the front door of the Eco-Guardian house. We thought his bite marks didn’t look that bad despite the amount of blood, but the wound never seemed to clot and may have been much deeper than it initially looked. Cheermeister died the morning of February 11th, and further inspection showed he had 2 deep bites from one of the adult male elephant seals; we assume Jafar the non-Beachmaster hanging out on the island.

Cheermeister post head wound.

The head wound turned out to be fatal. Pretty crazy to see how much damage they can handle, but the wrong bite in the wrong spot can be enough to kill them.

The photos of the seals make them look all cute and cuddly, but they’re actually all over 150kg (330lbs). If it weren’t for the slippery snow he would have been much harder to move.

It’s an interesting thing getting to live in such close proximity to wild animals. You don’t want to interfere in their lives, and sometimes that means watching things that make your stomach churn. Other times things happen and you don’t really know why, and are just left wondering. We are very grateful for our time on Race Rocks, getting to watch these pups be born, grow, and explore the island. Each birth is a celebration of the resiliency of these animals, making their comeback from near extinction.

I love seeing these fat pups slipping around in the snow!

Jellybean and Sebastian have officially ‘podded up’ and are exploring the island together. Too much cuteness.

To offset the sadness of Cheery’s death, here’s a Elephant Seal pup’s tail. They’re possibly the most adorable part of the seal.

February Sunsets lighting up the sky!

February 7th census

Laura Verhegge celebrating her 50th birthday at Race Rocks, sharing her love of nature with students near and far.

Weather: Stormy weekend! Steady 30knots with bursts of 50knots.

Visitors/Traffic: We were visited by the Marine Biology class and Biodiversity classes last week, so cool!

Courtney Edwards regailing the Marine Biology students with tales of Lighthouse keepers past.

Ecological Notes:

Sebastion hasn’t moved since his mom left, his little flippers can’t reach the ground with that big fat belly.

We had another mom wean her pup and leave Race Rocks on February 4th 2021 (Rhi-Rhi). We’ve been hoping for the 3 pups to ‘pod-up’ but no luck yet, the newest weaned pup is still too fat to move. The students have been studying the Steller Sea Lion carcass on the NE side of Race Rocks, with 25-30 eagles feeding on the carcass early in the mornings. Some of the students spotted a new dead California Sea Lion just S of the Lighthouse, it’s a branded seal with a tag on it, no obvious sign of death.

After Jafar’s last beating he’s been giving the Beachmaster a wide berth, but still relying on the boat ramp sneaker move.

Eagles feasting on the Steller carcass.

Jafar got his nose shredded fighting the Beachmaster, but it hasn’t scared him off the island.

Census:

Gulls: 79

Cormorants: 300

Eagles: 4

California Sea Lions: 149

Steller Sea Lions: 89

Elephant Seals: 9

Harbour Seals: 6

Turnstones: 0

Killdeer: 18

 

The dead California Sea Lion.

Tag matches the brand on this dead California Sea Lion.