I hope you are finding what you are looking for on the racerocks.com website. I urge you to use the Search button . First a brief introduction and rationale for why this site exists.

Between 1976 to 2004 I taught in the International Baccalaureate Biology and Marine Science/ Environmental Systems Program at Lester B. Pearson College. Throughout that time, I was very fortunate to have Race Rocks available within a 15 minute boat ride from my classroom in Pedder Bay at the Southern tip of Vancouver Island. This allowed us to use the area as a valuable resource in field work with my classes in biology, marine science and environmental systems. Since 1976 we also used the area extensively for SCUBA Diving and I was a PADI Instructor with the students in the Diving Activity at Pearson College. In 1980, the students and faculty of the college with the cooperation of BC Parks, made Race Rocks into a provincial Ecological Reserve and since that time I have served as the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve warden for BC Parks.

We first started publishing this website in 1996. I thought the area provided such a valuable teaching and research resource that we just had to do all that was possible to enable others to use it as well. In the year 2000, with the help of a Millennium Partnership grant, we built a computer network on the island and microwaved the video and audio signals from the live cameras back to the internet serving as a highlight on the website. In 2004, our work in Distance Education with the racerocks.com website resulted in an Award in Excellence in Distance Education from the Commonwealth of Learning.

Since retirement from teaching at Pearson College, I have continued to volunteer my time to keep developing and updating the website and trying to keep all parts of it operational. I also work with students, staff, faculty and other contributors on videos and new reference materials to add to the archive of resources available on the website. I use the "updates file" of the Daily Log to track the addition of new material. In the past few years, the Integrated Sustainable Energy Project has provided an some new materials, and new curricular resources have been produced for the OceanQuest Project.

Other areas we have spent extra time on recently are the historical section in preparation for the 150th anniversary of the lightstation, and the Race Rocks Taxonomy.

In February of 2007, I was appointed to the Board of the Friends of Ecological Reserves . There is a need to assist people involved in the different ecological reserves in BC to create an internet presence for their reserves to provide online access to the resources for research and education. I have been promoting the Adopt an Ecosystem Approach for community Stewardship of ecologically significant areas.

I am also involved on the Metchosin Environmental Advisory Select Committee and in that capacity have added a new website to portray Coastal Metchosin, linking it as "ecosystems contiguous to Race Rocks" http://racerocks.ca/metchosinmarine/marineecosystems.htm
and recently I added a section on Strategies for a Sustainable Marine Future and Education Issues.

Currently we are involved in another round of the Race Rocks Advisory Board meetings , which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans expects will complete the finalization of the Marine Protected Area process for Race Rocks.

I live in the Metchosin Community near Pearson College and serve as a consultant in marine education.

You may e-mail me with the following link:
Garry Fletcher, educational director of racerocks.com