It is about a half hour walk to get to the beach, only a little bit farther away than Gill's middle school (and during the summer days walking is faster than seeking parking). Starting from the
closest beach it is a short scramble over the rocks to the beach with
Rodeo Creek, which drains our property (or at least it tries, when it can out compete the sand bar). I've been there with the girls a lot. The form of the beach varies seasonally, for as winter storms start up they pull out at least a meter deep of sand, which slowly returns after the storm season ends. The full or new moon at the end of December provides one of the best times, for then the tide can be more than a meter below its usual low, and many life forms are evident clinging to the rocks. Alternatively, during high tide and a storm the waves crash up onto the roadways, once
inundating a bus.
From the beach there are always marine mammals visible. During the season the whales sometimes come in close, and also the Stellar sea lions. Porpoises are a pretty common sight. Once we found a dead elephant seal. But there are almost always sea otters basking in the sun while clinging to the kelp. These last two were both highly endangered by human hunting. Indeed, after the elephant seal was considered extinct a Smithsonian expedition found a handful on a beach and
killed them to bring their
carcasses to museums. (In a fashion typical of humans who survive so long, one of the scientists justified his actions in a paper 30 years later.)
Today's entry is prompted by a story of successful human intervention, one of Monterey Bay Aquarium's human-raised orphan otters is now a
successful mom.
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