A walk with the elephant seals at Año Nuevo

A few weeks ago I had the good fortune to join my Aquarium kids on our field experience to Año Nuevo State Park, the home of approximately 10,000 northern elephant seals. I get to do this trip every two to three years old and I love it every time. We tend to visit Año in January because that is the height of the pupping and breeding season. 

There is a lot happening on the beach at this time. The biggest, experienced males (aka the beachmasters) establish dominance when they arrive and establish a large harem of females. Fights between males tend to break out when a beta gets a bit too close to the alpha male's section of the beach and the ladies on it. The fights are loud, sometimes bloody, and often result in females and pups being separated and sometimes crushed. These younger males on the edges of the harem are unlikely to take over the harem, but sometimes get lucky and manage to sneak into the harem and mate when the alpha male is not paying attention. Researchers only recently discovered these "sneaker" males were contributing to the gene pool much more than they thought. A bit further from the harem, juvenile males with no chance of establishing a harem or standing up to an alpha male, practice their fighting moves. The females give birth to a single pup a few days after they arrive at the beach and nurse their pups with milk that has 40% milk fat! For reference, human and cow milk is about 4%. Elephant seal milk is more like mayonnaise than milk. The pups put on about 10 pounds per day! While all this is going on, the colony is a noisy place. The seals have a wide range of squeaks, squawks, and snorts that give great pleasure to the humans watching them. 

The weather at Año is often anything less than stellar, so I went prepared with thermals, fleece, down vest, rain coat, and beanie. The day turned out to be spectacular, rendering everything but my base layer unnecessary. The skies were blue, there was no wind, and the temperature topped out around 65 degrees F. We were also really fortunate that our trip coincided with the king tides--the highest high tide (and lowest low tide) of the year. The high tide was just a couple hours before our tour reached the beach, so most of the seals were far up on the beach and very close to the viewing areas. We also had some close encounters with younger males that were lounging away from the main beach area. 

pup and mama seal (and gull waiting for some goodies)

a raven after a recent placenta feast

the main beach - all those blobs are elephant seals

male elephant seal guarding his lady from another male

it was warm out there so the seals were flipping
sand onto themselves to try to stay cool

While the docent guided us around the colony, we were supposed to stay at least 25 yards away from these giant animals. Looking at the 4,000 pound males, you would think that a quarter football field would be a pretty safe distance. If they are not happy with your presence, however, they can move FAST, so we tried to keep as much distance as possible. Most just opened an eye to make sure we were keeping our distance, gave us a snort, and then rolled over and went back to sleep. The seals can move quickly on land, but they definitely look a bit clumsy as they bounce along the beach. In the water, though, they are incredible swimmers and divers. When they leave Año in a couple months, the males will head off toward Alaska, while the females head out to the middle of the Pacific. They can dive to depths over 5,000 feet and hold their breath for almost two hours! They will come back to the beach again in a few months to molt and then go back to sea for 8 months before returning to the beach to start the cycle of pupping and mating all over again. 

likely a 3ish-year old male staying far away from the rowdy harem

A weaner, or pup from this year whose mom has gone back to sea.
This pup will hang out on the beach for a couple months before
heading out to sea. They are so fat when they are weaned that they
have to stay on the beach because they are too floaty to dive for food.

they don't really give the impression that they can move fast

We are so fortunate to have these giants in our backyard. That wasn't a certain thing a hundred years ago. The northern elephant seals were hunted to near extinction for their blubber. In 1910, a remnant population of about 100 animals was found on Guadalupe Island in Baja California, Mexico. Protection by the Mexican government and subsequently the U.S. government allowed these animals to make a come back. They now number over 100,000 in California. During the government shutdown, they even took over some new real estate at Point Reyes National Seashore when rangers were not around to redirect them to a location less frequented by humans. Now that they have pups, the seals are there to stay and human access is being limited. 

You can find these giant seals in three mainland locations in California - Point Reyes, Año Nuevo, and Piedras Blancas at the southern end of Big Sur. If you are in central California between December and February, plan a visit to see these charismatic giants. 

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Starting the new year in Baja

We welcomed in 2019 from Zacatitos in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Our dear friends Christian and Lindsay invited us to stay with them at their family's place on the beach again this year. We joined them the first time in 2012 and really enjoyed our time there. When they asked us in September if we wanted to come down again this year between Christmas and New Years, we jumped at the chance. The timing of the trip worked well for Pete, a currently furloughed federal employee. It was a bit more tricky for me since I had just started a new job and had no accrued vacation hours. I worked extra hours to make up for our vacation time and my new employer was really understanding about our already scheduled holiday. 

We arrived in San José del Cabo in the early afternoon and were met at the airport by Lindsay and Arin. We then embarked on a scavenger hunt of sorts to find the tortillaria (where they make tortillas) and the carnitas (pan fried, slow-cooked pork) shop. We found the tortillaria but were coming up empty on the carnitas. Returning home without the carnitas may have caused a scene, so Arin asked some nice men for help. As it turned out, we were within blocks of the place and soon had two stacks of warm tortillas, two kilos of carnitas, and a giant piece of chicharrón (deep fried pig skin). We also grabbed two boxes of beer on our way home, which made our arrival at the house extra welcome. 

We spent our first full day in Baja diving in the Cabo Pulmo marine reserve. We got up early, drove two hours to Cabo Pulmo, and immediately put on wetsuits and hopped in the boat. The marine reserve was established in 1995 to protect some of the special marine species that live there, particularly the hard corals, which are the northern-most corals in the Sea of Cortez. Enforcement of the reserve has been challenging, though, so the benefits of the reserve have been spotty. Our first dive was at a site called Los Morros (the hills), which was an aptly named area of reef that undulated underwater. We saw lots of fish, mainly small individuals, lots of coral, some eels, and a couple Cortez round stingrays. 

When we surfaced from the dive, the wind had picked up and the sea was quite choppy. The water temperature was only 70oF, so I had gotten quite chilled during the dive with a 2 mm wetsuit and 2 mm shortie over the top. The wind at the surface was not helping me warm up, so I huddled on the bottom of the boat to get out of the wind. We had a short surface interval before hopping back in the water for our second dive on the ship wreck. The ship that sank wasn't very big and it was in many pieces. The draw for this site is the potential to see bull sharks. The site is relatively small, so we swam around it a number of times looking for cool critters and sharks. There were a few big fish at this site, which was nice to see. We didn't see any sharks, but there were lots of goat fish and conger eels - two of Pete's favorites - so all was well. The wind had picked up even more during our second dive, so we made a bee line for the beach and started the process of trying to warm up. Fortunately the sun came out at regular intervals to combat the wind that was still blowing. 

We spent the rest of our time at the house in Zacatitos reading, playing games, swimming, snorkeling, walking on the beach or in the desert, and watching humpbacks swim and splash and morbula rays leap out of the water. We also ate delicious food, made almost exclusively by Christian, who would often retreat to the kitchen at 2 pm to make all of us dinner. We were also treated to some phenomenal sunsets and sunrises, and a beach encounter with the local residents. 

our first sunset

our second sunrise

our last sunrise

beach treasure

the local burros celebrating new year's day on the beach!

ridiculously cute baby burro

they were quite friendly

in the end, they got a little too friendly when they started 

licking my pants and eventually trying to eat my shirt

We left Baja fully relaxed and reveling in the time we had with good friends. We returned to cooler, wetter weather in California. While we welcome the rain, it could come in smaller doses. Last weekend the river jumped from 3.5 feet to 13.2 feet after four inches of rain, reminding us how quickly things change around here. We are expecting another round of storms this week so we've winterized the garage to be ready for any possible flooding this winter. Hopefully all will be for naught. 

Pete is still furloughed, which is frustrating and maddening. He is so ready to go back to work! Not quite the start to the year we were hoping for, but hopefully things will get settled soon. Sigh.

A visit to NZ

Leaving NZ was hard for me, but I knew I would be going back before the end of the year, so I had something to look forward to. I headed back to NZ in mid-November for a three week trip that was packed with comings and goings, mostly all work related. 

I spent my first week in Auckland back at the Auckland Council office handing over projects and programs to the new marine scientist and finishing the last few projects that were still outstanding. It was great to see everyone again but also hard to believe that I had been away from the office for four months. I timed my trip so I could join our team on their annual Christmas outing to Anawhata, one of the beautiful beaches on the west coast of the Auckland Region. It was really fun to have some time with the team away from the office. I also got to spend some really good quality time with a good friend and coworker, which was definitely the best part of my Auckland time.

Anawhata Beach

I had brunch with my supervisor, Jacqueline, and go to meet Zoe!

Jacs and Zoe

The weather wasn't fantastic in Auckland, but the long summer days were great! I was able to get a run in nearly every day I was there either before or after work. There were some amazing sunrises that made getting out of bed early worth it. 

sunrise painting the skies above the city center

sunrise on Kohimarama Beach (I missed you Jen!!)

the pohututkawa trees were just starting to bloom - my favorite!

I spent the second week of my trip about two hours south of Auckland in Hamilton working with a friend and colleague from NIWA - the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. This was the main reason for my trip - helping to design and facilitate a national workshop on cumulative effects. I've been working on this project for the last few years and this workshop was the culmination of our work. It was a challenging workshop to design, but Kate and I had a lot of fun along the way. My week in Hamilton was great. I was staying at a place near the Waikato River, so I got to run on the river trail every day. I also got to do a bit of mural hunting and squeezed in a quick trip to the lovely botanic garden.

Waikato River

Chinese Scholar's Garden

Indian Char Bagh Garden

Maori Garden - with kumara planted in mounds just like
in the community garden that I volunteered at in Auckland

Tudor Garden

A selection of some of the murals around Hamilton:

Our workshop was in Wellington, so we headed down there for a few days to start my third week. My morning runs were a bit rainy, but I found lots of murals close to our hotel. I also had a really cool encounter with some native birds in the botanic garden. I was running along and all of a sudden there was a whole bunch of squawking and commotion in a tree along the trail. I stopped and saw a tui (the two blue-ish birds in the mural below) fighting with a flock of kakas (large parrots - brownish bird in the mural below) that had descended on its territory. The tui was outnumbered six to one but it was not giving its tree up without a fight. 

kaka (large parrot) at the botanic garden)

I spent the last few days of my trip in Nelson with my friend Robyn. She started building a house last year and the original timing was such that Pete and I had planned on being available to help Robyn with the interior of the house. The permits got delayed, though, so she didn't start building until after we left NZ. The timing of my trip was great because there were still lots of projects. The drywall had just been hung and mudded and the electrician wanted to get the lights and switches installed, so Rob and I were on painting duty. In three days, I think we painted 12 to 14 hours just to stay ahead of the electrician and the plumber. All that work paid off, though, because I got to be there when Robyn spent the first night in her new house!  

Even with all the painting, we did a lot of fun things too. We went for a long hike up the valley from Rob's place with the dogs, complete with a picnic and a post-hike swim. We took the horses out for a ride another day and swam in the river just about every day. And of course, we ate like queens. It was the perfect way to end my trip and I cannot wait to go back. 

The flax blossoms were a really different color on this hike. 

The soil in part of the area is very mineral rich (serpentine soil)
so it is possible these flax plants are adapted to the local conditions.

Whispering Falls

Robyn with Tui (far) and Kea (close)

Tui and Kea enjoying our picnic (or waiting for us to throw a stick)

Robyn's new house in the distance from her orchard/vineyard

McKenzie and Tasman were kind enough to give us a ride to this vista

Celebratory champaign in the new house!!!