Saturday Short Subjects: The Seals of Año Nuevo

Those are not boulders strewn on the sand, no remnants of geologic upheaval. Those dark mounds are living, breathing mammals — northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). They have either traveled 6000 miles to return to this particular spot on the California coast, or they are newly born on the beach at Año Nuevo State Park. They earned their name because adult males have large noses that resemble an elephant’s trunk.

Elephant seals, prized for the fine oil that could be rendered from their blubber, were hunted to near extinction. By 1910, it is estimated that there were fewer than 100 individuals, living off the coast of Baja California in Mexico. In 1922, the Mexican government granted the seals protected status, and when they began to appear off the southern California coast, the US government did the same.  Today the population is approximately 150,000 (124,000 in California). Their recovery is a dramatic example of how a species granted protected status can rise again. Elephant seals began their return to Año Nuevo, on the mid California Coast, in the mid-1950s.

A bull rising to the challenge.

The males arrive in early December to establish their territory. Bull elephant seals, weighing up to 4500 pounds, engage in fierce combat to establish dominance.

By mid-month, the females, who weigh 800 to 1600 pounds, begin to arrive, clustering in “harems” on the beach. They give birth and nurse their offspring (always just one) for four weeks. The females do not eat during this time. After a month, the emaciated moms return to the sea, but not before they mate, perhaps several times! 

By mid-March most of the adult seals migrate north to waters off the Alaskan coast, a journey of 6000 miles, to eat and recuperate. There they live well offshore and often dive nearly a mile below the ocean surface in their hunt for food.  

Two weaners are in the foreground.

They leave behind the “weaners” who must learn to fend for themselves on their own. By the end of April, the weaners, too, depart for Arctic waters.

Smaller numbers of female and juvenile seals return to Año Nuevo for four to six weeks between April and August for summer molting, after which they return to the Arctic. The only time elephant seals return to land is to molt, to give birth, and to mate. Seals born at Año Nuevo return to Año Nuevo. 

To visit Año Nuevo between the months of December and March, one must make a reservation and walk with a guide. This is for your protection as well as the seal’s. With male elephant seals weighing over two tons, you don’t want to get in the way of a challenge! The Año Nuevo website advises: Seals can sometimes appear dead due to their quiet nature of sleeping on beaches. However, the majority of the time they are very much alive. Never get within 25 feet of an elephant seal. 

More weaners with Fred on the right.

Our guide was Fred, a retiree from Apple, who had accumulated an incredible horde of  information on the seals during his seven years as a volunteer naturalist; he even had a self-published book of seal facts and images to share! Here are some of the amazing things we learned from Fred on our tour:

• Only about 4% of male elephant seals ever get to mate
• Those who do rise to alpha male mate for only one season and have a harem of 50-70 females.
• After the female mates (on her way back to the sea), cell division begins, a blastocyst is formed, but the embryo does not implant until the female is out at sea and has recovered some of her body weight!

We witnessed and heard (males make a loud drumming sound to warn lesser males to stay away) a couple of male challenges, but no real fights.  We saw a few newborn pups with their moms and lots of “weaners” (pups over a month old) trying to figure out life on their own. Not all of them will make it; the staff at Año Nuevo does not intervene. 

Researchers, however, have begun to equip some of the moms and babies with cameras and tracking devices so they can learn more about their mysterious time at sea — where they go, how they rest, how they journey so far.

For our long hike over the dunes to the beach of Año Nuevo on January 31, it was windy, but warm enough to wear just a light jacket. Seals like to cool off by flinging sand onto themselves with their flippers when they get too warm. There was a whole lot of sand flinging going on that day.

For more on the Northern Elephant Seal, visit the Año Nuevo State Park site and the Marine Mammal Center site, where you can even hear the distinctive sounds of the adults and weaners.

The cliffs you see were created by tectonic activity.
Año Nuevo is part of the Monterey Formation.

What a wonderful memory to carry us through the mostly miserable weather we’ve been having in the East since our return. Today we did, however, have an entire day of sun, blue skies, and warm temperatures — at last!

Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are and whatever your weather.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Saturday Short Subjects: Butterfly Town, USA

When we chose Pacific Grove as our base for a 5-day stay in the Monterey Bay area, we were familiar with its beautiful coast and its proximity to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Pebble Beach. We did not know that Pacific Grove was founded as a Methodist summer retreat in 1875 and that so many of its original buildings are still in use today. According to a handout from the Pacific Grove information booth, nearly 1/4 of Pacific Grove’s structures are designated “historic.” We were also ignorant of the wide range of affordable eateries located within the immaculately kept downtown. 

And we certainly had no idea we would be staying in “Butterfly Town, USA.” Each winter, Pacific Grove is home to some 25,000 monarch butterflies. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plecippus) has a range extending north to Canada. It cannot withstand freezing temperatures and must seek a warmer climate for the winter months. We were well acquainted with the migration the east coast monarchs make to central Mexico. We did not know that the monarchs west of the Rockies migrate to California’s Central Coast where they gather in groves of eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and Monterey cypress, huddled in clusters for warmth. While their journey does not encompass as many miles as the eastern migration, it is still impressive. 

Postcard photo by Richard Bucich

The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History has a wealth of information on these amazing creatures. Citizens of Pacific Grove take their role as protectors of the monarch very seriously; they voted to create an additional tax to create the Monarch Grove Sanctuary, led by dedicated volunteers. The Pacific Grove Police Department continues to enforce strict regulations that prohibit the "molestation of butterflies." The fine? $1,000. The town marks the return of the monarchs with an annual parade and celebration in early October.

Did you know that the butterflies who migrate in the fall are not the same ones who arrived in the spring? You can read more about their amazing life cycle here. Where the monarchs went each autumn was a mystery until Dr. Fred Urquhart, the scientist who invented the butterfly tag, and his wife Nora, learned in 1976 that the eastern monarchs travel to central Mexico.

A new IMAX movie, Flight of the Butterflies, which documents one generation’s migration north and a new generation’s miraculous journey south to Mexico — a place it’s never been — will open in theaters across the country on October 1.

Unfortunately, like so many of our native species, the monarchs are suffering. Citizen scientists in California, with the help of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, have conducted annual Thanksgiving counts of the wintering monarch populations since 1997. The results show alarming declines. As just one example, in 1997, at the Natural Bridges State Park near Santa Cruz, volunteers recorded an estimated 120,000 monarchs; in 2009, only 1,300 butterflies were found. 

Many scientists believe the falling population is tied to the loss of the native milkweed, due to urban and agricultural development, drought, and herbicide use.  Monarch caterpillars feed on milkweed; without adequate sources of this food, monarchs are unable to reproduce. Loss of wintering groves and climate change are also possible contributing factors. Groups including the Xerces Society, the Monarch Joint Venture, and Monarch Watch, are all working on programs to restore the monarchs’ habitats and food supplies. 

How can you help? Across the country individuals and groups are establishing butterfly gardens in their communities. An easy way to get started is with a Monarch Waystation Kit available through Monarch Watch. 

Guess this “short” wasn’t so short after all. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: The Heirlooms of Old Wethersfield

Just off I-91, between the city of Hartford and the suburban sprawl of Rocky Hill, lies quiet Old Wethersfield, a popular destination for tourists and schoolchildren wishing to get a glimpse of colonial American life through such attractions as the 1715 Buttolph-Wiliams House, the setting for The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

The home of Comstock & Ferre Co., the oldest seed company in New England, the town is also a mecca for organic gardeners. The heirloom seed company was having a party for its 201st birthday when we happened to pull into town yesterday. There were musicians, period re-enactors, vendors, and speakers passionate about issues related to GMO crops, including Bill Duesing, Director of CT-NOFA. 

Comstock & Ferre started in 1811 as Wethersfield Gardens, which was sold to Judge Franklin Comstock and his son William in 1838.  Inspired by the Shakers of Enfield, Connecticut, who were the first to package and sell garden seeds in colorful packets, William adopted the practice and plied his seeds in lidded display boxes of his own design to shopkeepers throughout New England and as far west as the Mississippi. In 1845, William took on a partner — Henry Ferre. William Comstock retired in 1871, and the growing company was operated late into the 20th century by four generations of the Willard family. 

Its newest owners are the Gettle family – Jere, Emilee, and daughter Sasha, who also own and operate Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, Missouri (their home and first business) and the Seed Bank in Petaluma, California. Baker Creek Founder Jere Gettle planted his first garden at 3, and in 1998, at the age of 17, printed the first small Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog, which now offers 1300 varieties of seed in its beautiful 196 pages. The Gettles collect seeds from around the world and only sell non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented seed. They work extensively to supply free seeds to “many of the world’s poorest countries” as well as to school gardens and educational projects in the US. Their mission is to “educate everyone about a better, safer food supply and fight gene-altered, Frankenfood and the companies that support it.” You can read more about the fascinating family here, here, and here.

The Gettles’s dream for the grounds and eleven buildings of the Comstock & Ferre property is to “erase modern influences around the company and return it to something that William Comstock or Stephen F. Willard could recognize, if they were to walk through the doors. Comstock will be a type of living history museum dedicated to agriculture and our diverse inheritance of heirloom seed varieties that are in danger of extinction…”

Old Wethersfield is a short drive from New Haven and is worth the trip just to visit Comstock & Ferre. In nice weather you could easily spend a day with so much to see and do and a wide range of eating options near the attractions (as well as places suitable for a picnic). Just remember not to visit on Saturday if you want to step inside Comstock & Ferre. 

You can also peruse the Comstock & Ferre and Baker Creek Heirloom catalogs and shop from them online.  

I often blog on food, food issues, or topics related to growing things on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”