March 18 – Divers Clean the Underwater Camera

Sunny
Wind: SW 5-14 knots in the morning, NE 5-9 knots in the late morning to afternoon, calm in the evening
Air Temperature: Low 7.8°C, High 10.7°C
Ocean Temperature: 8.8°C

Nine students came this afternoon with Courtney, Laura and Nazim to dive from the jetty. The seven divers were in groups of two and three for 30 minute dives. The others provided support from above.

Bader and Sean dove together and followed the cable out to the underwater camera, which lies at a depth of 12m of water out from the end of the jetty. They cleaned the plastic dome, which had become dirty with diatoms. See the photos below.

The divers mentioned seeing lots of vivid colours and amazing species including: urchin, anemone, rockfish, greenling, rose star and bull kelp.

Up on land, there was lots of vitamin D to soak up today while doing outdoor tasks: chopping firewood, stacking firewood, sweeping and tending to compost.

There was one fishing boat seen passing through the reserve today.

Crossaster papposus: Rose star–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

We dont find the rose star very often when diving at Race Rocks . These sunstars are scavengers and are omnivores, ir predators of anything edible. Sunflower stars and Northern sunstars are its predators. 

Domain Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Asteroidea
Order Velatida
Family Solasteridae
Genus Crossaster
Species papposus,

(C. papposus Linnaeus, 1776)

Common Name: Rose Star

Other Members of the Phylum Echinodermata at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

Garry Fletcher