Marine Mammal Rescue!
It has been a fantastic few days out here! The team from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society came out with DFO to disentangle the California sea lion that I first spotted last October.
He was sleeping up high on the boat launch with made landing at the jetty tricky because we didn’t want to scare the sea lions and risk him going in the water. Instead, DFO dropped the rescue team off the south side of the island. The current was strong so we weren’t sure it would be possible, but they were able to safely nose the rhib into the rocks behind the generator building and the team came up the rocks. This ended up being great because we could approach the entangled sea lion without scaring him, and there are significantly less sea lions on the south side lately, so the disturbance was minimal.
For those who don’t already know, when I’m not at the lighthouse, I work full time as a Registered Veterinary Technologist with the Marine Mammal Rescue Society. This was my team coming out, and disentanglements are one of my favourite parts of the job. Doing this work at Race Rocks is especially meaningful: I can help save an animal, and I’m often the person who finds and monitors them, coordinates with the team, and supports the rescue. Afterward, I’m able to continue monitoring the animal in the following days, which is incredibly rewarding.
The rescue itself was straight forward, Dr. Haulena darted the entangled sea lion with a sedation protocol that allows us to approach and work with the animal, but doesn’t sedate them so deeply that if they end up going into the water they won’t drown. Thankfully, after the initial shock of the dart, the sea lion only moved a few feet before settling back down on the ramp. The sedation takes about 12 minutes to take effect, at which time we moved in. We quickly discovered that the entanglement material was a thick industrial rubber band, these bands have a wide variety of uses in the marine field and can often be found on commercial crab traps or used in other pot fisheries. Once the band was removed, we place a flipper tag on each of his fore flippers, these are not satellite tags, but they can help us identify the animals in future sightings.
A great example of this is the animal Eva helped us with in August. He is still here and I was able to determine that by taking a photo of his tags and then comparing them to our spreadsheet. Each tag has a unique number on it that allows to ID the animal when resighted. I’ll insert a photo of the animal we rescued in August below:
Once we were done, we gave him an injection to reverse the sedation and then we watched from the top of the of the boat launch as he woke up, stretched out, and then entered the water and swam off. He later hauled back out on the rocks to the left of the jetty and is currently still there as I write this. I can’t imagine the relief he must be feeling and I’m already excited to see him here again next year!
You can watch the rescue video here: https://youtu.be/EJJ7pKWvKIY?si=JR4Ft_c99E8h6POc
The team was gone by 12:30, and with them they took my dad whose been here this first week with me. It’s been so special having him here and spending time with him, he is the one who taught me my love for the ocean and he enjoys it out here just as much as I do!
Aside from the excitement of the disentanglement, things have been quite calm around here. The weather has been incredible, glassy seas and no wind, full sun and whales everywhere! Today is supposed to reach 40 knot winds (close to 80km/hr) and raining, so today I’ve be battening the hatches and making sure everything is securely put away and I have everything I need in the house. The generator is being run manually at the moment so I will need to make a couple outside treks to turn that on and off but other than that my plans include a fire and storm watching from inside. I’m very curious to see how that affects Saturday’s census!
And lastly, we have a young female elephant seal back at Race Rocks! She has been hanging out with the Stellers on the South rocks but hopefully she comes up to the grass soon!
Facility work for the past couple days:
- Ran the generator
- Cleaned main house windows
- Topped up batteries
- Fixed the main house kitchen sink (thanks dad!)
- Lots of fence repair
- Cleaned solar panels
- Storm prep: lowered the flag, secured the electric fence as best as possible, general site clean-up.
- Oil change in Honda generator
- Ran the last remaining line of electric fence tape behind the main house
Vessels:
- Ecotourism: average of 15 per day
- Private: average of 4 per day
Visitors:
- DFO team: 4 people
- VAMMR team: 6 people
- Greg/Richard for supply drop off.
Another Beautiful Day
It’s been so beautiful lately it feels like summer!! Spent most of today outside enjoying the weather, tons of whales as usual. The entangled CSL is still here, and so is the young Steller pup. I have yet to see him with a mother which does concern me at his age, so I am keeping a close eye on him.
The Red-Footed Booby is still around which is always exciting each day I get to see it!
Lots of boats on the water today:
- Private: 8
- Ecotourism: 14
- Jetski: 2
Census Day!
Another stunning day on the rocks! Calm seas, and beautiful sun all day long. Nothing beats waking up to watch the sunrise and thinking it can’t get better and then you watch the sunset as whales lunge feed in the distance.
Today was census day, a few new birds (for me) and surprisingly low sea lion numbers compared to Christines last count and compared to my counts at this time in 2025 and 2024. We had a good rain a few days ago and that usually clears out a lot of them so I imagine they’re slowly coming back now and by next Saturday the numbers will be higher.
Mammals:
- Steller sea lion: 330
- California sea lion: 390
- Harbour seal: 49
- Humpback whale: tons, as far as the eye can see
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- Someone caught lunch!
Birds:
- Canada goose: 10
- Gulls: 608
- Cormorants: 502
- Turnstones: 73
- Sparrows: 20+ but they are so fast I can’t keep track!
- Oyster catcher: 7
- Harlequin duck: 22
- Greater yellow leg: 1
- Osprey: 1
- Red-Footed booby: 1
Shout out to my cousin (and wildlife biologist) Nick for helping me ID the osprey and greater yellow leg!
Facility work:
- Ran generator in the morning, solar took it the rest of the way!
- Minor fence repairs
- Started weeding around the old wheel bricks
Lonely Little Steller Pup
The red-footed booby was here bright and early his morning, seems to be going back and forth between the western rocks and the southeast side. It also seems to have quite the fan club of boats coming out to check it out.
Came across another sea lion with an entanglement scar, bringing the total to 5, plus the one that still has an active entanglement.
Active entanglement, unsure what the material is.
Another wildlife note – there is a small Steller sea lion pup that I have yet to see with a mom in the 3 days I’ve been here. He is underweight but not terribly so and is still bright and alert. He spends his time chasing the male California sea lions and today decided to try and eat a small rock. Will see if he sticks around, and hopefully mom comes back for him!
Facility work:
- Ran generator
- Topped up battery electrolytes
- Cleaned main house windows
Vessels:
- Paddleboard: 2
- Private: 4
- Eco: 12
A Red-Footed Booby!? Here?!
Beautiful day today, cloudy but flat calm seas. Only a few minor repairs for the fence today, the new system is pretty sleek!
As per usual most of my notes are wildlife related. I found 4 sea lions with entanglement scars today, two are untagged so were likely able to free themselves. Two were tagged, one was the CSL the team at VAMMR disentangled in August about a month ago, and the other one took me a bit longer to track down the story.
Entanglement scar, no tag.
Entanglement scar and tagged, this one was rescued in August thanks to Eva’s great tracking and reporting.
As it turns out, he was disentangled by a NOAA team in 2021 on San Miguel Island when he was only a couple of years old. It’s wild that he’s come so far, but he looks great!
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- Took me half the day to track down where this tag came from!
Later in the day I got a call over the radio from one of the eco-tourism boats in the area to let me now a few transients were coming by. They passed quickly but were awesome to see, and for the first time in my LIFE I actually stopped photographing killer whales to photograph…a bird!!!
But not just any bird, it was a red-footed booby! It was first sighted around Race Rocks a few weeks ago and was apparently hanging around but I really didn’t think I’d get to see it. My photos aren’t great so hopefully he’ll stick around for some better ones!
Facility work:
- Fence repairs
- Ran the generator
Vessels:
- Paddleboard: 1
- Private: 2
- Eco tourism: 15
I’m Back!
Home sweet home! If I’m counting correctly, this is my 8th time coming out to work at Race Rocks, and fingers crossed there are many more in my future!
Christine left the house and site in excellent condition and set me up for a great month ahead. No huge changes since last October, will mostly be just getting back into my usual routine.
Tons of sea lions out here, but not as many as I’ve seen previously, but I suppose it’s not even October yet and I’m sure it’ll fill up fast! I saw a few pelicans this afternoon, including one with a different plumage I haven’t seen here before. Lots of humpbacks around the reserve this afternoon and even a few breaches.
Great start already!
Vessels:
- Eco: 6
- Private: 1
- Paddle: 1
Facility work:
- Just unloading and settling in!
Tiny Steller Sea lion pup! Only a few months old.
Adult Steller, much bigger, and still not fully grown!
Adult pelican, I have never seen this plumage before!
Hard
It is always hard to leave here and to know how to properly say goodbye to all the creatures and things I will miss. I find it helps me to imagine the beauty, wonder and excitement Kendra will experience over the next month. Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart! It has been an honour and a privilege.
Tonight’s sunset.
Wildlife notes
I woke this morning to find 80% of the sea lions had left. By evening the numbers were a bit higher but the majority were still away. I can only assume they are out fishing.
Facility work
Another day of only minor adjustments on the fence. Hopefully this will continue for Kendra. She will have a busy month with the major renewal of the energy system (new solar panels, controllers, batteries and the removal of the old stuff), the new water line to the cistern, the installation of the basement door and possibly students on the weekends.
- ran the generator
- topped up battery fluids
- cleaning and preparing for the shift change tomorrow
Vessels
- Ecotourism: 15
- Private: 0
Weather
Overcast and rain in the morning, skies clear by evening. Winds SW 13 in the am veering to WNW 26 early evening.
Still with us
Wildlife notes
The two one-eyed gull chicks observed this summer (see post) are still with us. The one-eyed chick that lives near the Energy Building has learnt to fly, although not well it still has a chance at survival. The one-eyed chick by the walkway to the Keeper’s House can’t fly yet and it has been several days since I have seen its parent around feeding it. Its two siblings are long gone. They developed on schedule being quicker and able to get more than their fair share of the food. I know of only one other gull chick that still isn’t flying but this one seems to have an issue with one wing.
The one-eyed walkway chick on July 29, 2026
The one-eyed walkway chick on Sept 28, 2026. It is probably around 10 weeks old. Normally a chick will fledge in 5 to 6 weeks.
Facility work
This is the first day, I did not have to do any major repair to the fence!!!
- ran the generator
- cleaned the solar panels
- started on the months end report and data entry
Vessels
- Ecotourism: 12
- Private: 1
Weather
Fog early in the morning, cloudy mid-day, overcast by evening with light rain. Winds mostly from the south, 3 to 14 knots. Daytime temperatures 11 to 15 degrees.
Peckers!
Wildlife notes
A few days ago I showed a visitor the only clump of sea thrift (Armeria maritima) that I know of on the island. Last year there were two clumps near the flag pole. There is only one clump left now and today I found it pecked at with many stalks removed. The pieces weren’t eaten but strewn about. I don’t know which bird is responsible – gull or goose? I hope it makes it through the winter.
The pruned clump of sea thrift on Sept 27 2026.
Sea thrift clippings.
A photo of the clump of Armeria maritima on May 16 2025: Thrift in bloom at Race Rocks. The thrift was once on the British three pence coin. If you were “thrifty” you would be able to buy something with this small amount of money. Source: Armeria maritima – Wikipedia
They all look guilty.
Facility work
- ran the generator in the morning
- cleaned the solar panels
- fence repair at the Jetty and along the flats
Vessels
- Ecotourism: 21
- Private: 1
Weather
Clear skies. Winds light, SE 0 to 10 knots. Daytime temperatures 10 to 15 degrees.
September 26 Census
Mammals:
- California sealion: 614 plus 9 on outer islets
- Stellar sealion: 350 plus 287 on outer islets, mainly Middle Rock
- harbour seal: 64
- humpback whales: 5 inside the reserve, more outside
- sea otter: 1
Birds:
- gulls: 352
- cormorant: 367
- Canada goose: 9
- harlequin duck: 4
- black oystercatcher: 3 juveniles
- black turnstone: 71
- surf bird: 43
- western sandpiper: 2
- semipalmated plover: 1
- killdeer: 2
- savanna sparrow: 11
Notes on census
Wildlife seen this week but not observed on census day were eight sanderling. The red-footed booby was on Race Rocks this week according to BC Rare Bird Alert. The numbers of sea lions, especially the Stellar sea lions is likely higher. Oddly I haven’t seen or heard an eagle this week.
The census took a long time today. There were several trips up the lighthouse and just too much to count!
This is photo 2 of 4 taken in a series to count the sea lions on Middle rock, one of the outer islands. There were so many sea lions I needed to count them using this method. The number of sea lions in the census would surely be higher if I could see the back side of the outer islands!
Surfbirds and black turnstones on the Energy Building beach.
Semipalmated plover.
Killdeer.
Eight sanderlings and a western sandpiper in the flats between East beach and the Jetty, in a spot free of sea lions.
Facility work
The sea lions didn’t just mess with the Jetty fencing today, they also took out a long section of the fence near East Beach.
- ran the generator
- repaired fences
A section of electric fence that the sea lions took out today. They dragged the line down to the beach and took a weathered tree root ball with it.
Vessels
- Ecotourism: 30
- Private: 13
- Jet ski: 2
Weather
Clear skies. Winds light 0 to 6 knots, direction variable. Daytime temperatures 12 to 15 degrees.