Weaned pups face the world

 Swim School to prepare for migration

This season’s Piedras Blancas elephant seal pups are now independent seals. Their mothers weaned them, abruptly, and left on their short spring migration. It’s on the pups now to develop the swimming and diving skills to make it on their own.

A complication this year is the threat of H5N1, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, that hangs over them. The outbreak has been confined to San Mateo County, but on Thursday March 26, test results confirmed that a young sea lion in San Luis Obispo County had died from it earlier in March. A network of marine observers continues to monitor for other cases.

Swim School

At the Piedras Blancas viewpoint, weaners spread out across the beaches. They may collect in groups, called pods. Weaner pups are easy to recognize. They are fat, even roly-poly. They gained weight fast in the month they spent nursing, from 75 pounds to 300 pounds. Since then, they have had nothing to eat, until they get out into the ocean and start hunting fish and squid.

A wave splashes a juvenile elephant seal near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse on March 3, 2026. David Middlecamp dmiddlecamp@thetribunenews.com

They were born all black, but they shed that black coat in their first molt when they were weaned. Now they are countershaded, light on the belly and dark on the back. Many marine animals have that color pattern, helping camouflage them from their predators.

Look for them splashing in the waves, practicing holding their breath and learning to swim and dive. They may take refuge from the heat in the cool ocean water.

Pups aren’t born with much ability to swim, so this transition time is when they go from beach to ocean. Weaned pups learn to hold their breath for around six minutes, some as long as 12 minutes. That will help them stay underwater and dive deep enough to catch food. They are on their own now.

Most will leave the beach on their first migration by the end of April.

Watch a video on the Friends of the Elephant Seals YouTubechannel.

Nearly all the elephant seals on the beach at Piedras Blancas are this season’s pups, now preparing for their first migration. Christine Heinrichs

Stranded weaners

One result of the H5N1 outbreak is that The Marine Mammal Center is temporarily not responding to reports of stranded weaners. Some weanlings that start their first migration can’t quite make it in the ocean. They wash up on local beaches, underweight and exhausted.

They may be camouflaged among driftwood and rocks, or unprotected on the sand. Most frequent locations for stranded weaners include Morro Bay, Avila Beach, Oceano, Pismo Beach, and San Simeon Cove.

The Marine Mammal Center is taking reports of stranded weaners, but because they don’t want to risk bringing this contagious virus back to their hospital, they will not send responders to evaluate or rescue the seal.

If you see a stranded weanling seal on the beach, stay clear of it. Risk to humans is low, but not non-existent, and the virus could be transmitted to pets at home. Call for help, The Marine Mammal Center 24-hour hotline, 415-289-7325 (SEAL). Take photos. Find out what the location is. Find beach staff members of other agencies and ask for advice.

Report dead seals and other marine mammals to the West CoastMarine Mammal Stranding Network.  Anyone who finds a dead, injured, or stranded marine mammal along the West Coast can report it at 1-866-767-6114.

“Keep your distance. Keep yourself and your animals safe,” Moe Flannery, senior collection manager for the California Academy of Sciences, said. Her team responds to reports of dead animals from the public by going out to the beach, recording the details about the animal, taking samples and specimens for testing.

“Report them and we will approach them safely,” she said.

TMMC watches over more than 600 miles of coastline, from San Luis Obispo County to Fort Bragg in Mendocino. For this outbreak, the focus is on San Mateo County, north and south of Año Nuevo. 

UC Santa Cruz researcher in Hazmat suit examining elephant seal pup, Ano Nuevo State Park, California. Frans Lanting Beltran Lab / UC Santa Cruz

The H5N1 outbreak

The outbreak of H5N1, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, among elephant seals on California’s coast in February has claimed at least one sea lion and one southern sea otter in San Mateo County as well. The spread to two other species concerns scientists studying the outbreak, but the slow progression suggests that the outbreak is not spreading.

“We haven’t heard of any other colonies experiencing symptoms,” said Patrick Robinson, director of the Año Nuevo Reserve, where elephant seals have been studied since the 1960s.

“It’s not unusual that N5N1 spreads to other species,” said Christine Johnson, director of the NSF Center for Pandemic Insights at UC Davis. “We see occasional one-offs in other species. We’re going to hope it stays that way for sea otters.”

Of the 47 seals at Año Nuevo that have died since the outbreak began, some may have died of natural causes. Most of the seals that have died are weaned pups. A few large males have also died.

“That makes the mortality on the beach four times higher than last year,” Dr. Robinson said. “But it’s not as bad as has been seen in other areas.”

When H5N1 appeared in South American elephant seal herds in 2023, it killed more than 95 percent of the pups born in that breeding season. Researchers are studying the long-term effects of those losses on thepopulation. 

Dr. Robinson first identified the sick and dead seals. His account of finding them is chilling, in this interview at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center.

A pup and adult elephant seal have a conversation near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse on March 3, 2026. David Middlecamp dmiddlecamp@thetribunenews.com

Adult females already left

Elephant seals are migratory. When the H5N1 outbreak began in mid-February, around 80 percent of the females had already weaned their pups and left the beach on their short spring migration, so they likely escaped exposure to the virus. By March 11, Dr. Robinson saw only two adult females on the beach.

Roxanne Beltran, an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, and her team had placed tracking devices on seven females before they left. Beltran’s lab leads the university’s northern elephant seal research program at Año Nuevo. The tracked females are migrating normally in the north Pacific, which suggests they are not sick.

Follow the tagged adult female seals here.

Tourists stop to watch northern elephant seals near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse on March 3, 2026. David Middlecamp dmiddlecamp@thetribunenews.com

From mild to deadly

A mild avian influenza virus has circulated for years, among migratory birds and poultry production facilities. Influenza viruses are constantly changing, and the avian influenza virus evolved into a highly pathogenic form in the 1990s. It first appeared in China, but spread across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe in the 2000s. 

Humans are rarely affected, but H5N1 adapted to infect other wildlife and domestic species. In 2024, it went from birds to mammals, infecting dairy cows. Milk production dropped, causing dairy farm losses. California, which is the nation’s top milk-producing state, declared a state of emergency in December 2024.

Since then, globally, H5N1 has infected sea lions in Peru and Chile, elephant seals in Argentina, and foxes in Canada, France, and other countries. Wild or feral animals such as foxes, bears, and seals; stray or domestic animals such as cats and dogs; farm animals, such as goats, cows, and mink, and zoo animals such as tigers and leopards have been affected. Many seabird and other migratory bird species can carry the infection.

H5N1 losses threaten wildlife that are already listed as endangered species. As of December 2025, H5N1 had infected some 598 types of bird and 102 mammal species, according to the United Nations, a substantial increase in just 18 months. In August 2024, the U.N. reported 485 bird and 48 mammal species.

An outbreak in imperiled species, such as endangered condors, threatened southern sea otters, and endangered Hawaiian monk seals, could push them to extinction. In 2025, TMMC conducted an experiment using a reformulated cow H5N1 vaccine from Zoetis, a veterinary pharmaceutical company, on California’s elephant seals, to determine whether it might be effective in immunizing endangered Hawaiian monk seals, with a precarious population of 1,600. Results showed some antibody production, and the vaccine has since been used on three monk seal pups at the Marine Mammal Center’s Hawaii location, Ke Kai Ola, the dedicated Hawaiian monk seal hospital in Kona.

Wildlife is already fighting to survive against a changing climate, disappearing habitat, and other stressors.

Veterinary experts at The Marine Mammal Center’s hospital and visitor center in Sausalito, California, carefully place a post-release tracking tag on the head of a northern elephant seal pup as part of an Avian Influenza vaccine trial on Aug. 27, 2025. Bill Hunnewell The Marine Mammal Center

How it started

This outbreak probably started with pups coming in contact with infected bird feces on the beach, as they roll around in the sand.

 “What we think is this is most likely a new introduction of what has been a very well-known and common genotype that has been documented since 2022,” Dr. Johnson said.

“It looks like bird-to-seal rather than seal-to-seal transmission,” said Dominic Travis, Chief Programs Officer at The Marine Mammal Center.

Dr. Johnson’s team has tested samples from seals as far north as Humboldt, which show no signs of H5N1.

The Marine Mammal Center’s Dr. Dane Whitaker, left, associate veterinarian, and Sarah Pattison, director of hospital operations, collect a blood sample from a northern elephant seal patient during an Avian Influenza vaccine trial at the Center’s Sausalito-based hospital on July 14, 2025. Bill Hunnewell The Marine Mammal Center

Transmission routes

During the Southern elephant seals outbreak, seals were able to catch it from each other. Seal-to-seal transmission made the virus more dangerous. That doesn’t appear to be happening in California.

“We don’t know any of that yet,” said Dr. Johnson, whose team is collaborating with UCSC to evaluate the Año Nuevo cluster. They are matching patterns of the quickly mutating virus as it evolves over time. “It’s a unique opportunity in wildlife,” she said.

The long-term monitoring of the Año Nuevo elephant seals provides advantages, such as knowing which mother gave birth to which pup. One mother, her skin marked with bleach 007, showed symptoms, but later recovered and appeared well. Her test results have not been completed yet.

Whether elephant seals can be immune is “a million-dollar question,” Dr. Johnson said. Looking back ten years may provide insight into whether seals have been exposed to less pathogenic influenza that have given them some immunity. 

“This whole outbreak has really brought together an amazing diversity of people that has shown me how many people care about these animals and the Central Coast,” Dr. Robinson said. “That just makes me really happy to learn that that many people care about this area, and that it's one of the many reasons why long-term monitoring is really important.” He concluded with “I'm going to make a plug for continuing science funding in general.”

Human risk

H5N1’s threat to humans is rated Low. The public can protect themselves further by avoiding contact with sick or dead animals. Keep pets on a leash on the beach. Do not let them approach wild animals.

“The risk is low to the general public, but higher with direct contact,” said Catherine Sallenave, infectious diseases staff physician for San Mateo County.

An adult female elephant seal throws sand on her back near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse on March 3, 3036. The females are leaving behind weaned pups who will learn to swim in the near-shore waters. David Middlecamp dmiddlecamp@thetribunenews.com

Most seals are fine

The State Parks tours were closed in February, before the usual March 31 conclusion, at the end of the breeding season. Ticket sales will reopen October 20 for tours beginning December 15. Other elephant seal viewing sites remain open, at Piedras Blancas-San Simeon and Point Reyes.

The Piedras Blancas viewpoint remains open, with no seals reported sick.

“Just to assure everyone, we see thousands of apparently healthy animals at Año Nuevo, and we’re only observing a small number of impacted animals every day,” Dr. Robinson said. He and his team find about two dead and two sick weanlings every day.

Stay informed

Updates are posted as they are available.

 

Christine Heinrichs is SLO At Large Member of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council. Her elephant seal column won first place from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 2024.

 

 

 

Traveling with an elephant seal bull

 J912’s tracking device reveals his journey

An adult male elephant seal, marked J912, with a tracking device on his head and an antenna on his back, hauled out February 5 at Piedras Blancas.

J912 ar Piedras Blancas. David Lawrence. 

Friends of the Elephant Seal docent Barrett Stuart was the first to notice that the seal, among many other males on the beach, had a device on his head. In February, breeding season, male seals are on the beach, moving around, seeking advantage with females and threatening each other.  He reported the sighting. FES docents Rian Dom and Dave Lawrence decided to revise their plans for the following day and go look for him.

 “Rian and I were going to tag hunt at VP2, but she suggested we start at VP3 to try to photo this seal,” Lawrence said.  “Rian is responsible for getting me there that following morning. I’m glad we did!”

VP2 is the elephant seal site south of the main viewpoint. “Tag hunting” is looking for seals with flipper tags, to photograph and report to researchers. Resighting tagged seals is important, to document where seals go and when.

Elephant seal J912’s tracking device, glued to mesh that is glued to the seal’s head. Dave Lawrence

Tracking male seals

It’s unusual, and exciting, to see any seal with a tracking device at the viewpoint. It’s always a female. Males are hardly ever tracked.

They, like much wildlife, migrate across international boundaries, making protection complicated. Hoary bats have flown from California to Hawaii. In January, a waved albatross, a critically endangered species from the Galapagos Islands and South America, was seen off Cambria’s coast. The bird had traveled about 3,300 miles from its typical range, making it an avian “vagrant,” the term used for birds outside their usual range.

Wide-ranging wildlife requires a global perspective. In J912’s case, it led to international cooperation to test a tracking device.

Dan Costa, Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCSC, and head of the Costa Lab, said “J912 is a male that we tagged at Ano Nuevo last summer-fall after he molted. He is carrying two tags. One of the tags is a device we were testing from King Abdul University of Science and Technology, or KAUST. KAUST is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and has an excellent technology development team. The device had GPS tracking capability and recorded dive behavior, and it used the Iridium Satellite system to transmit data. The other tag is one of our more standard tags built by Wildlife Computers in Redmond, Washington. It recorded diving behavior and animal position; position data were transmitted via the ARGOS satellite system.”

The KAUST tag has a much higher data bandwidth than the standard Argos tags, but is more challenging to establish communications with, especially on diving animals. It transmits GPS locations and has an accelerometer for measuring fine-scale head movement. Those head movements can be interpreted as feeding, when the seal catches prey.

The standard tag collects basic oceanographic data, depth, and temperature, the standard set of measurements for understanding the ocean environment.

“The rationale for the study is to learn more about male elephant seals.,” Dr. Costa said. “We have over 1000 records from individual female elephant seals, but only a few tracks of males (fewer than 50). Males are less reliable than females; that is, they aren’t as likely to return to Año Nuevo, as this individual shows, so there is a greater chance of not recovering the tag and thus not retrieving as much data.”

During the summer, J912 was on the beach to molt his skin. The device was attached after he had molted, to the new skin that would last for a year. He then left to go feed along the continental shelf, gaining blubber to sustain him though the breeding season.

 

In J912’s case, the tracking record shows that he left Año Nuevo on August 30 and arrived in the Aleutian Island foraging site, 2,573 miles away, on October 11, a 42-day migration, averaging 61 miles/day.

At the urge of some unknown signal, after feeding for two months, on December 4 he turned around to return to California from the Aleutians. He arrived on land near Point Buchon, 2,718 miles, on January 17, a 51-day migration, averaging 53 miles per day.

 

In both directions, he travelled in more or less a straight line. He stopped in places, perhaps to eat along the way, but his main goals were the rich foraging grounds in the Aleutians and then to return to California.

 

J912’s tracking records show that he had been around Piedras Blancas for a few weeks, before hauling out on the beach at Piedras Blancas February 5. He visited at least four birthing beaches in the rookery, but it isn’t clear whether he stayed to breed.

He was seen at Año Nuevo a few days earlier, but he was in the water then, and the team couldn’t get to him. “Apparently he stayed in the water and swam south as fast as he could!” FES member Kathy Curtis posted on GroupMe.

I didn’t see J912 while he was at Piedras Blancas. He stayed only two days, then moved on north to the Lighthouse Beach on February 8. He may find a breeding beach where he stays for a while, or move on. The device will record where he goes, and for how long.

The team may leave the device on him until he returns to Año Nuevo to molt, in July. The data from that, and the other four seals’ devices, will add to the understanding of these seals’ lives.

“Our goal is to better understand large male foraging behavior and ecology, energy gain rates, and diving physiology,” another member of J912’s research team said. “The other four males all returned to Año and we were able to recover all of their tags over the last month, which is really exciting.”

The complex tracking equipment on elephant seal JP12’s head allows researchers to collect data on the ocean environment as well as the seal’s dives and migration. Dave Lawrence

Webinar on elephant seals

Dr. Roxanne Beltran and research technician Conner Hale of the Beltran Lab at UC Santa Cruz will discuss how tracking individual variations can contribute to understanding the species in a free webinar "Unraveling individual and environmental drivers of variation among elephant seals," Tuesday, February 24, 7 pm. Register here.

American Cetacean Society - San Francisco Bay Chapter — Dr. Roxanne Beltran, "Unraveling individual and environmental drivers of variation among elephant seals"

Christine Heinrichs is the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council SLO At-Large member. Her elephant seal column won first place from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 2024. Follow her on Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Substack.

Weaning

Pups fill the beach

All stages: newborn, nursing, and weaned

There’s a lot to see at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint in January and February, the breeding season. Pregnant females arrive at the Piedras Blancas viewpoint beaches daily. They join the mothers already there, nursing the pups born in the past month. The females congregate in groups, harems, presided over by a beachmaster, who is vigilant about defending his rights. Other bulls challenge him. Lots of activity, constant movement and drama.

Two male elephant seal take the battle into the ocean

 at Piedras Blancas tookery. The one on the right began the fight with bleeding wounds on his chest shield. 

Pups

The first ones born, in December, are already being weaned, and their mothers leave on their short migration. Gingerbread, the first pup born December 12, is a fat weanling.

Weaned pups congregate in groups called pods, out of the main breeding areas, along the base of the cliffs. Look for rotund seals shedding black fur. They shed the black coat they were born with after they are weaned. They grow their first countershaded coat, darker brown on the back and lighter on the belly.

As the mothers wean their pups, after nursing for about a month, they come into estrus, heat, and are receptive to breeding. That’s when the beachmaster’s wait, since arriving on the beach in November or December, is rewarded.

This mother is ready to wean her pup.

Females mate with bulls before they leave the beach. Mating can be noisy, with the female barking and flapping around. Other bulls may take interest and chase the bull attempting to breed. Fights break out. One vicious battle last weekend went from beach to the ocean, with both bulls eventually returning to the beach, although with more separation between them.

The seals mate on the beach, X-rated. The most dominant bulls get to breed, but they are regularly challenged by other bulls. That’s when they may come to battle.

Beachmasters at the top

They fight for dominance. The most dominant bulls, the beachmasters, have breeding rights with the females, usually a harem of about 30 at Piedras Blancas. Researchers estimate that only about one percent of males born ever get to breed. So there’s a lot at stake.

Each bull has a unique call. Bulls recognize each other by call much more readily than by sight.

Bulls approaching one another bellow to show the other who they are. If dominance has been

established, watch one bull back away. If the bulls are strangers they will continue to

approach. They may rear up to show their size, but if neither backs off it will get physical until dominance is determined.

That helps them avoid battling bulls they have fought before. Once a match is settled, the bulls accept that result and avoid each other in future. If they’ve fought before, no need to fight again. They establish themselves in the dominance hierarchy. A bull may remember as many as 50 opponents. They can remember who beat who for years.

Dominance interactions are clear to see from the bluff. The dominance hierarchy actually helps reduce conflict on the beach, by settling conflicts before they come to a fight. One bull challenges another, and one of them backs down.

Fighting uses a lot of energy. These seals need to be able to survive, and fight and mate, for 100 days or longer, relying only on their blubber, without food. Having a lot of blubber helps, but eventually any seal will be depleted. Conserving energy extends the range of a seal’s vitality during the breeding season.

Sneaking into the harem

It’s a tough time for the bulls. Dominant beachmasters have to be vigilant. Look for “sneaker” bulls, who hang around the fringes of the harem. They seem to camouflage themselves among the mothers, who are busy with their pups. They are attuned to the beachmaster, waiting for his attention to be diverted by a direct challenge. As he galumphs across the beach in battle, the sneaker bull moves forward among the females and tries to mate.

Females typically bellow and complain, but the beachmaster may be too deeply involved in the battle to respond. 

This female looks back at the bull who is approaching her. 

Less dominant bulls may leave the breeding beach entirely. In past years, they have come to rest on other local beaches, but this year some are taking refuge on the north beach at the rookery. It’s been fully inundated during high tides, so few pups are born there. It’s a beach these defeated bulls can have to themselves. When a beachmaster is defeated, he loses all status, and drops to the bottom of the hierarchy.

Pups carry on

In the midst of this conflict, pups need to nurse to gain weight and grow. They may get separated from their mothers. They may starve if they can’t find each other and reunite. Pups separated from their mothers may find another mother willing to let them nurse. About 80 percent of pups nurse on more than one mother before they are weaned.

Last weekend, we watched one pup search for his mother, dragging himself along the beach. One mother turned and bit him on the head, then the body, as he squealed in fright and pain. He moved on, and another mother bit him. He called and called, and eventually a female recognized his bark, and came thundering up the beach. They touched noses and settled down together.

The connection seemed a bit uncertain, and those of us watching hoped that the pair would stay together.

One pup at a time

Elephant seal mothers have only a single pup. Since they don’t eat while they are nursing, they don’t have adequate reserves to feed multiple pups. It’s common for pups to nurse on mothers other than their own, though. Some mothers tolerate it better than others. Often mothers have several pups around them. Only one is hers.

She can't be mother to both, but she seems accepting. 

Mothers whose pups don’t survive may adopt a pup, or at least be willing to let a hungry one nurse. The experience may help inexperienced mothers become better mothers.

Not all pups survive, and mothers sometimes fight over a pup. Mothers without a living pup still have milk, so there’s a net surplus of milk on the beach. The milk changes as the pup develops, so mothers and orphan pups may be mismatched. Pups and mothers need to find each other despite the confusion.

Drama on the beach

Although conflict and chaos churn across the beach, the seals find enough peace to accomplish their birth and mating season. It’s a time of unfolding drama, from one crisis to the next.

One foggy morning, I met up with a Facebook photography group, The Nature Photography Group of the Central Coast, to learn how to take better photos and provide the photographers with pointers about what the seals are doing. Check out their Facebook page for more photos.

Several visitors from the Morro Bay Bird Festival also visited the bluff. One pointed out an Ancient Murrelet floating over and under the waves, so named for the white feathers circling its head, like the laurel wreath of ancient Roman statemen. This tiny bird dives underwater to catch fish.

Always something new to see along the coast, part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Take lots of pictures, and bring home those stories to tell.

Christine Heinrichs is the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council SLO At-Large member. Her elephant seal column won first place from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 2024. Follow her on Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Substack.

 

First pup Gingerbread is now on the beach!

The Piedras Blancas elephant seal breeding season hasofficially started

The air crackled with excitement all week. Docents messaged each other, watching over a pregnant seal squirming on the beach. Soon, soon, the first pup would arrive.

Tis the season! After a long day on Thursday, December 12, Gingerbread was born overnight. Sex undetermined, but mother and pup are resting well.

FES Docent Jim Mentgen was the first to see and photograph the pup, so it was his privilege to name the pup. Gingerbread has the whiff of the season, along with a playful image of sugarplums dancing in our heads. Nineteen other docents shared honors for guessing the date of the first pup arrival. It’s an informal lottery among FES docents.

Gingerbread greets his mother.

Welcome, mothers and pups!

Gingerbread is the first of over 5,000 pups that will be born between now and February along the beaches of the Piedras Blancas rookery. The rookery includes the boardwalks of the viewpoint, and extends from north at the light station to about a mile south of the viewpoint.

Pregnant females will continue to arrive, one by one. They settle on the beach for a few days and then give birth to their pups.

This is the time of year when visitors may witness a pup being born. Although many pups, like Gingerbread, are born at night, pups can be born at any time. It’s a breathtaking experience for anyone. It never gets old for experienced docents, and it’s thrilling for visitors who are fortunate to be in place when a pup is born. An experience to take home and tell their friends!

Looking through my records last week, I found that the first time I saw a birth was in 2009. Every birth is unique, always exciting.

When will a pup be born?

It’s hard to predict – experienced docents held their breath all day Thursday, and the pup was born later. Look for a female seal digging out a “saddle” by tossing a lot of sand on both sides. That sometimes indicates that she will soon give birth.

Or not. Nothing is certain in wildlife viewing. As soon as you’re paying attention to one seal, another down the beach will squirt out a pup.

Bring a chair. Be patient. The weather is warm and pleasant. No restrooms at the viewpoint, but at the Hearst Memorial Beach at San Simeon Cove. Plan to take a break. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Discovery Center at the cove is now open, 10 am – 4 pm, Thursday through Sunday. New interactive exhibits, listen to whale sounds and view live plankton collected from the San Simeon Pier. Get the full coastal experience!

A gull hangs around a nursing pup to steal milk.

Gull announcements

As with other placental mammals, a birth is followed by the afterbirth, the placenta. In the case of elephant seals, gulls screetch and swoop around to consume the afterbirth. They are the beach clean-up crew.

It feels anticlimactic, like you have missed the Main Event, but follow the gulls to see the newborn and mother make their first barks and sniffs to each other.

Pups and their mothers recognize each other by their vocalizations and their scent. That gets established within the first couple of days of life. It’s important, because a pup separated from its mother may starve and die. Maternal separation is the most common cause of pup death.

While all pups are vulnerable, most pups nurse on more than one mother at some time. Early in the season, only a few mothers, well separated, occupy the beach. Later, when the beach is crowded with mothers and pups, some mothers may nurse more than one pup.

Not every pup survives, although over 90 percent of the pups at Piedras Blancas do. A mother whose pup dies may let other pups nurse, or may adopt another pup. Or she may stay a few days and leave. Whether she mates or not is not yet established.

With so many mothers and pups on the beach, any mother and pup may get confused.

One pup per mother

Gingerbread is the standard-issue pup. He – or she, hard to tell from a distance – is about three feet long and weighs about 75 pounds. No multiple births. Mothers don’t eat during the month they spend nursing. They don’t have enough blubber reserves to nurse more than one.

During that month, the pup gains weight rapidly, up to about 300 pounds. The mothers stay with the pup the entire time. They don’t leave the pup to feed in the ocean, so they lose a lot of weight, about a third of their body weight.

Gingerbread’s mother is nice and fat. She’ll need it.

Pus can't swim well, so they need to sstay above the high tide line.

Above high tide line

Gingerbread is in a good position on the beach, above high tide line. That’s an important consideration, because King Tides, the highest tides of the year, will return January 2 and 3, and there will be other high tides. Gingerbread’s timing is good, with three weeks to nurse and gain blubber before the tide comes crashing up the beach again.

Gingerbread can’t swim much yet. Without blubber to stay warm, and able only to paddle a little in the water, pups can drown.

Gingerbread’s mother appears to be mature, probably an experienced mother who has raised other pups. She may even be among the Supermoms, one of the six percent of the females who eventually give birth to 10 or more pups during their lifetimes. Supermoms account for more than half (55 percent) of the total pups born. Supermoms live longer, breed more frequently, and raise bigger pups.

Bernie LeBoeuf, now professor emeritus at UC Santa Cruz, led a research team that identified Supermoms in a 2019 scientific paper. 

Gingerbread’s mother chose a nice dry spot on the south beach. Mothers who give birth at low tide don’t realize that their pups may be at risk later, when the tide comes in. Most of the north beach at the Piedras Blancas viewpoint was inundated with waves during December’s King Tide. Some pups born in the few areas behind rocks could be safe, but any born on the open sand may be washed away.

Share King Tide photos

You can take photos and submit them to the California King Tides Project. Think about taking photos in areas that are subject to flooding and erosion, and of places where high water levels can be gauged against familiar landmarks such as cliffs, rocks, roads, buildings, bridge supports, sea walls, staircases, and piers.

Taking and sharing photos documents the changes in ocean level and how those changes are affecting the coastline.

Christine Heinrichs is the Monterey Bay national Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council SLO At-Large member. Her elephant seal column won first place from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 2024. Follow her on Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Substack.

Bulls ready to roar

Biggest bulls return for the breeding season

Mature bull elephant seals, foraging at sea for the past ten or twelve weeks, will start arriving at Piedras Blancas any day. They are at their biggest and loudest now. They are ready for action. The bulls will be on the beach until March. Great holiday viewing for visitors!

They are preparing for the breeding season, the high point of the year. The bulls are ready for battle when they arrive. They are in prime condition, with enough blubber to carry them through. They may not eat again until March, as long as 120 days.

This mature bull annunces his arrival on the beach at Piedras Blancas.

Arrival

The first bull usually arrives around Thanksgiving. It may look quiet at first.

Look for a big seal surfing in, arising from the waves as a monster from the deep. After a few galumphs up the beach, he stops. Without the buoyancy of water supporting all that blubber, he feels his full weight under gravity. He’s making the transition from life underwater to life on land.

Juvenile seals are still on the beach, lingering from their fall haul-out. They’ll soon get the message: It’s time for the Big Boys to take over. Some may find places on the beach to continue resting for a while. They may benefit from observing the adult social order. In a few years, they will be part of it.

Preparing for breeding season

The bulls have been feeding on fish and squid along North America’s continental shelf since August. They gained as much as 28 pounds a day. Leaving their feeding grounds, the bulls stopped eating and swam directly from as far north as the Aleutian Islands to return to southern beaches.

This is the long fast of their year. They can’t leave the beach to feed. The good feeding areas are hundreds of miles north. Besides, they need to stay on the beach to defend a harem until the females are ready to breed, a month after they give birth. That can extend into March, as females give birth in January and February.

It’s all worth it to them. Beachmasters, 12 or 13 years old, have only one or two good years at the top. They fight to take advantage of their power.

This younger bull is wiling to challenge older bulls for dominance.

Dominance hierarchy

On the beach, even before females arrive in December, they threaten and fight each other to establish the beach dominance hierarchy. Although threats and fighting establish the dominance hierarchy, dominance actually helps reduce conflict in the rookery. Bulls recognize each other’s call, and remember who won. They don’t need to fight again.

Viewers can see the dominance hierarchy acting out on the sand. One bull vocalizes a deep, grunting threat to another bull. All the bulls hear, and start clearing away, which is called displacement. One bull may respond by calling back, or by raising up and coming across the beach for the fight.

That’s when the titans clash. Chest to chest, biting with those big, two-inch, canines. The chest shield, torn and battered, drips blood. No quarter is given.

Most fights are brief, less than a minute, but some last half an hour, exhausting both fighters. They may cross the sand and continue the fight into the water.

The fight ends when one gives up and retreats. The winner my continue chasing him, biting his back. Take that!

This senior bull -- note the long proboscis, with a crease -- has seen years of breeding seasons.

Females soon follow

A solitary female or two may arrive in late November, but they will certainly be on the beach in December. They give birth within a few days of arriving on the beach. Look for the first pup in mid- to late-December.

That’s when the important part of the dominance hierarchy kicks in. Bulls guard their harems of females as best they can. It’s always imperfect, with subdominant bulls constantly challenging the beachmaster’s top position, or simply trying to get away with mating with a female on the edges of the harem.

Only the dominant bulls, the beachmasters, will get to breed freely, without threat by more dominant bulls. By the peak of the breeding season in January and February, beachmasters will reign over harems of 30-40 females on Central Coast beaches.

King Tides

Winter brings the highest tides of the year to the West Coast, King Tides. They are predictable, happening when the sun, moon, and Earth align to exert the greatest gravitational pull on the ocean. This year they will occur on the mornings of November 6, December 4-6, and January 2-3.

High tides may affect pups born within that high tide zone. Females who choose higher ground are more likely to raise their pups successfully to weaning. The most dominant bulls also stake their claim over these sections of beach.

California Coastal Commission invites the public to submit photos that illustrate how far the water 

First Bull Arrival contest

Friends of the Elephant Seal holds a contest every year, to guess when the first bull will arrive for the breeding season. Enter the First Bull contest here!

The winner gets an FES baseball cap, and praise from FES members and elephant seal admirers. Which is the main point, and the most fun!

Visiting the Viewpoint

A visit to see the elephant seals is good holiday entertainment. Look for long noses and big pink chest shields on massive bodies. The nose, technically proboscis, and chest shield continue to grow throughout the seal’s life. Bigger is older.

Friends of the Elephant Seal docents in blue jackets are available every day to answer questions.

Check the live webcam to see what’s happening on the beach. Highway 1 remains closed to the north, at Lucia Lodge, due to the Regent Slide between the lodge and Esalen Institute.

Bring your camera.  Always open, always free. The viewpoint is located within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, federally protected and held in trust for the world.

 

Marine Mammal Center tests HPAI vaccine

Cow vaccine could help protect rare Hawaiian monk seal

The Marine Mammal Center is testing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza vaccine on elephant seals at its Sausalito hospital. If it is effective in producing antibodies, TMMC plans to vaccinate Hawaiian monk seals. TMMC’s Ke Kai Ola monk seal hospital is on the island of Hawaii.

Hawaiian monk seals are classified as Endangered, with only 1,600 seals surviving. They are “one of the rarest seal species in the world, and conservation efforts are critical to their survival,” according to the TMMC website.

HPAI infects birds and mammals

HPAI, caused by the H5N1 virus, is highly contagious and deadly to several species. It has now infected species from wild birds to domesticated birds and even to mammals. That species-to-species transmission makes a threat to global biodiversity.

Monk seals may be vulnerable to HPAI, as may the Central Coast’s herd of Northern Elephant Seals. In 2023, HPAI wiped out Southern Elephant Seals in Argentina, killing more than 96 percent of the pups, 17,500, born there, and an undetermined number of adult seals. Scientists studying the colony say it may take 100 years for the colony to recover to the numbers it had in 2022, 18,000. 

Elephant seals try the vaccine

Veterinarians advised testing the vaccine on elephant seals first, to avoid risk to the already precarious status of monk seals. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials, which have jurisdiction over National Marine Sanctuaries, also consulted on the trial.

“Northern elephant seal research has taken tremendous steps forward over the past decade within our shared network of west coast research partners,” says Dr. Sophie Whoriskey, Associate Director, Hawai’i Conservation Medicine at The Marine Mammal Center. “This vaccine trial on six in-care elephant seal pups at our Sausalito based hospital is especially significant given the great risk that Avian Influenza actively poses for marine mammals.”

1. The Marine Mammal Center’s Dr. Dane Whitaker (left), Associate Veterinarian, and Sarah Pattison (right), Director of Hospital Operations, collect a blood sample from a northern elephant seal patient during an Avian Influenza vaccine trial at the Center’s Sausalito, California, based hospital on July 14, 2025. Photo by Bill Hunnewell © The Marine Mammal Center

The six young elephant seals who were in the vaccine trial had been rescued and were already at the hospital for treatment. The vaccine is one that was reformulated by Zoetis, a veterinary pharmaceutical company, from the HPAI poultry vaccine for use on cows. HPAI in California dairy herds has caused milk production to decline more than 10 percent, and caused other costly herd problems. HPAI has been found in poultry flocks and dairy herds in other states and countries.  

HPAI has also affected egg production across the country. The only strategy for controlling HPAI in poultry flocks is to depopulate, kill, all the birds in the infected flock. The reduced production of eggs and milk has had uneven effects on consumer prices. 

Vaccinated and Placebo groups

The vaccine trial started in July, when three of the seals got the vaccine, and three got a placebo. Some briefly developed hives, including one who got the placebo, but the hives lasted only a few hours. One of the seals in the placebo group died. That seal’s death is under investigation. The seals were already at risk, hospitalized for other reasons.

All else proceeded well, with no other symptoms in either group. In late August, the researchers collected blood samples from the five seals, who had all recovered from the problems that caused them to strand and be treated at the hospital.

Healthy and able to survive in their wild home, they were released to resume their elephant seal lives.

1. Veterinary experts at The Marine Mammal Center’s hospital and visitor center in Sausalito, California, carefully place a post-release tracking tag on the head of a northern elephant seal pup as part of an Avian Influenza vaccine trial on August 27, 2025. Photo by Bill Hunnewell © The Marine Mammal Center

The blood samples they left behind will be evaluated for HPAI antibodies. With those results in hand, the TMMC team will decide whether vaccinating wild monk seals is worthwhile.

“These individual elephant seal patients are providing valuable information to inform any future vaccination efforts to a related species, Hawaiian monk seals, that are endangered and at heightened risk due to their current population size,” Dr. Whoriskey said. “This initial pilot study has showed us encouraging signs that this vaccine is safe and we are in the early stages of measuring the antibody response produced to determine whether it is also effective. As more information is gathered post-release on these seals, consultation and discussions with study partners will be key in finalizing any future vaccination plans.”

If they decide to vaccinate the monk seals, the veterinarian will use a pole syringe to inject seals on the beach, to keep distance between the veterinarian and the seal.

“We may decide to go forward even if we’re not seeing a very strong antibody response,” said Dr. Whoriskey, noting that the seals did not have any pre-existing immunity to the virus. “Something is probably better than nothing in this case.”

Immunizing wildlife

Vaccinating wildlife sounds impossible, but Ventana Wildlife Society has done it for the Central Coast condor flock. The research team captures every condor at least once a year, to check for lead poisoning, so they have the birds in hand to vaccinate.

California Condor Photo Ventana Wildlife Society

Ninety-eight condors of the Central Coast flock, 89 percent, have received at least one dose of the HPAI vaccine, and 72 of those 98 have received the second, booster, shot, and are fully vaccinated. 

In Arizona in 2023, an HPAI outbreak affected 25 California condors, killing 21 of them. California condors are also classified as Endangered.

The main threat to condor survival as a species is lead poisoning from consuming lead ammunition in carcasses shot by hunters. HPAI is another threat to the condor species’ tentative recovery from near-extinction in the 1980s.