Between 1976 to 2004 I was a teacher in the International Baccalaureate Biology and Environmental Systems Program at Lester 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 me to use the area as a valuable resource in field work with my classes in ecology. 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.

We first started publishing this website in 1996, because 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 2000 with the help of a Millennium Partnership grant, we built a computer network on the island and microwaved the signals from the live cameras back to the internet. 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, I have continued to volunteer my time to keep developing the website and try to keep all parts of it operational. I also work with the students of the racerocks.com Activity once a week, working on videos and new referencs materials for the website. Currently the Integrated Sustainable Energy Project has provided an abundance of new materials, and new curricular resources have been produced for the OceanQuest Project. Another project currently underway is the internet publishing of data from underwater sensors to enable a wide spectrum of options for virtual research and education. In February of 2007, I was appointed to the Board of the Friends of Ecological Reserves . It is my intention to assist people involved in the different ecological reserves in BC to create an internet presence for different resrves to provide online access to the resources for research and education. I have been promoting the Adopt an Ecosystem Approach for commuynity Stewardshiip of ecologically significant areas.

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