Back for Haul-Out!

Young seals have the beach to themselves

Every day, more young seals arrive at Piedras Blancas elephant seal beaches. They are here for the annual haul-out.

Hundreds of them sleep on the beach and spar with each other, on the sand and in the water. You can tell a lot about them by observing their size, nose development, scars, and identification tags and marks.

Seals or sardines? Young seals sleep peacefully on the sand. (Christine Heinrichs photo)

Which seal is which

Bigger seals are older seals, but the smallest may be the Young of the Year, last year’s pups returning from their first migration. Big welcome back for those that survived!

Most of the young seals are males. Although half of pups born are male and half are female, females mature faster. Some are pregnant by two years old, and nearly all by age four. They have already joined the adult herd, so more males are among the juveniles on the beach now.

Males start growing that distinctive nose when they are about five. It continues to grow throughout their lives. Compare nose size among the young seals on the sand for relative age.

 Two young seals show off their growing noses as they spar in the surf. (Chrisitne Heinrichs photo)

Migratory seals

Most young seals don’t have many scars, but they may have tags or dyed identification numbers. This is a Citizen Science opportunity. Report any identifying marks to Friends of the Elephant Seal docents, or go to the website to submit a report.

Reports of marked and tagged seals tells the researchers who marked them where the seals are now. That research has revealed how far the seals traveled, further than even the scientists imagined.

Compare the migration of juveniles and adult seals on the maps at UC Santa Cruz’s Beltran Lab.

Seals differ in their migratory timing. Some juveniles don’t return in the fall at all. Because they are always coming and going, every day is different at the viewpoint. They aren’t like a flock of birds or a herd of wildebeests. Each seal is gradually adjusting when to arrive and depart. As they mature, they will coordinate their migrations with the rest of the adults, and join the breeding herd in December.

San Simeon Cove Winter Guides

Friends of the Elephant Seal is recruiting volunteers for special duty at San Simeon Cove, December through March. That’s elephant seal breeding season. Although Piedras Blancas rookery is the main local breeding area, subdominant bulls that are chased off those beaches often come to San Simeon Cove to rest and recuperate from their battle wounds.

That can be a problem, when human visitors and their dogs come to the beach. They don’t expect to share the beach with two-ton seals. FES’s trained Winter Guides help keep everyone safe by advising visitors how to navigate around the seals. It’s a teachable moment for the public to learn about the wildlife who whom we share the world.

The bull seals aren’t aggressive toward beachgoers, but they can be dangerous. Visitors need to keep their dogs from annoying the seals, and stay well back. Seals may challenge each other, or decide to return to the ocean without warning to visitors strolling down the beach.

FES trains volunteers to educate the public and help everyone enjoy visiting the beach. Join them by applying online by October 16. Questions? Call 805-924-1628. Must be 18 or older. Commit to two four-hour shifts a month, December through March. Must be friendly, outgoing, able to stand for three to four hours and walk on the beach in a variety of weather conditions – and love the seals.

“This is a great opportunity to learn more about elephant seal behavior in a unique environment,” FES board president Kathy Curtis said in a press release. “Seasonal residents, weekend travelers, couples, students and full-time employees are encouraged to apply for this short-term volunteer experience.”

 

The Biggest and the Smallest

 Bulls and young of the year rest on the sand

Young seals are arriving on the beach for the fall Haul-Out. They join the mature bulls who are completing their annual molt. It’s a beach of contrasts.

A flock of Heermann’s gulls joined the seals on the south beach. These gulls nest in Mexico, but migrate north during the non-breeding season. They are easy to identify, with their dark gray plumage and red bills. The elephant seals are the main attraction at the viewpoint, but keep your eyes out for other wildlife.

Juvenile seals

The smallest seals are my heroes on the beach. They are last winter’s pups, the Young of the Year. Any pup that survives that first migration, begun last spring, has passed a major hurdle on the way to adulthood. Only about half survive, so they may be small, but they are winners in the test of survival. Their skin is perfect, smooth and unscarred.

 These young of the year rest near full-grown bulls. They seem to take no notice of each other. Note the scar on the youngster on the left. (Christine Heinrichs photo)

Moving up in size are older seals. Not yet mature, but getting there. Males are more common among the juveniles, because males take longer to reach maturity, at age eight. Females may be mature and pregnant as early as two years old, most by age four.

Young males and females look very much alike. Around age five, males begin growing that nose, and get bigger than females.

They are the early arrivals for the Fall Haul-Out, six weeks or so of rest in September through November. They are synchronizing their timing with the rest of the seals, returning to the beach at predictable seasons.

Migration

Heather Liwanag and her Team Ellie at Cal Poly tagged 10 weaned pups last spring, at the Vandenberg and San Nicolas, in the Channel Islands, colonies. The satellite tags allow the team, and the public, to see where they go. Satellite Tags 2023 — VIP Lab (calpoly-viplab.com)

The young seals know to head generally north, along the same routes the rest of the seals take. Most didn’t go as far as mature seals, but one, Monarch, swam to the Gulf of Alaska, a 4,000-mile trip.

 

Fox stayed closer to his home beach, within a couple of hundred miles of his Channel Island rookery.

 

They are diving and feeding almost constantly, more than 20 hours a day. Satellite signals transmit only when the seal surfaces to take a breath.

Roxanne Beltran and her team at the University of California Santa Cruz are tracking first year and older seals. Check out their journeys at Beltran Lab – Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz (ucsc.edu).

One seven-year-old female departed in June on her second trip 3,452 miles west. She went to the same location, the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount chain, two years ago.

Constantly diving as she moves forward, she has covered about 50 horizontal miles a day. By mid-August, the journey has taken her ten weeks.

She hasn’t set a record – yet. That’s held by Phyllis, who swam nearly to Japan, 7,400 miles, in 2017. The mighty Phyllis returns after record-shattering swim (ucsc.edu)

Juvenile seals arrive and depart individually, on their own schedules. Young seals will be on the beach through the end of November, and perhaps beyond.

Bigger is bigger

The mature bulls are mostly done with their annual molt, last year’s skin peeling off to expose new skin underneath. Compare the size of the nose, the proboscis, to compare age. The proboscis continues to grow throughout a seal’s life, so bigger is older.

This big bull's chest shield is bright pink as the skin on it molts and peels away. He's taking no lip from a younger bull. (Christine Heinrichs photo)

Although no adult females are on the beach for them to fight over, the bulls have been entertaining visitors with loud calling and bad-tempered sparring among themselves. Mostly they sleep.

Every day more bulls leave the beach, returning to the ocean to continue bulking up in anticipation of the breeding season. That will be their next appearance on the beach, in November and December. They arrive before the pregnant females, who begin to arrive in December.

They’ll need all the blubber they can gain. They may go without food for as long as 120 days as they battle for dominance and breeding rights then.

 Read the column in the Tribune here. 

The titans return!

Adult bulls throw their weight around

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article276817486.html 

The full-grown elephant seal bulls are returning to Piedras Blancas for their summer break from foraging in the ocean. As one bull arrived on the beach, he cleared females, juveniles, and one subadult bull from his path as soon as he arrived.

This video, posted to the Friends of the Elephant Seal YouTube channel, Look who's here for the summer molt at Piedras Blancas! - YouTube, is edited from his first ten minutes on the beach

by Kathy Curtis, president of the FES board. If it seems like he is taking a long time to

secure his place on the beach, remember he hasn’t used his land muscles for three months or more, and now weighs several hundred pounds more than when last on land.

Displacement, making other seals move out of his way, is a measure of dominance. He makes it clear who is dominant on this stretch of beach!

Dominance helps bulls settle their status without having to fight. Summer is a good time for visitors to observe these senior bulls at rest.

Molting

This bull is one of the first to arrive for a few weeks on the beach, to molt his skin. Some adult females and juveniles linger on the beach, completing their molt. They will leave on their next migration, leaving the beach to the bigger bulls for the summer.

Elephant seals molt their skin annually. The old brown and tan skin peels off in chunks, revealing the new skin underneath. New hairs are just beginning to grow, so the skin is gray. As the hair grows, the color becomes brown.

The upper layer of skin is new, but old scars remain. Look for the skin to begin peeling off around the eyes and old scars.

FES docents have samples of the bristly molted skin. Ask to see and touch it. Some describe it as feeling like Astroturf. Elephant seals don’t have the lush fur of some other seals and otters. Elephant seals rely on their blubber, not their fur, for warmth.

Female migration

Adult females leave to go on their long migration of the year. They’ll spend the next seven months feeding at sea. They are pregnant with the next generation.

The embryo conceived after they weaned their pups last winter has been suspended since then. Now, after they finish molting, it begins developing. They will return in winter to give birth.

Juvenile migration

Juveniles leave the beach for a shorter migration, returning in the fall for their annual Haul-Out.

Juvenile migrations are less studied than adults, so Heather Liwanag, and her Team Ellie at the Vertebrate Integrative Physiology (VIP) Lab at Cal Poly have been tagging weaned pups and tracking them on their first migration to see where they go.

They knew to head north. Some ventured much further than others. Check out the maps showing their routes at Satellite Tags 2023 — VIP Lab (calpoly-viplab.com) and Satellite Tags 2022 — VIP Lab (calpoly-viplab.com). Try out the zoom and measurement features of the map. 

Light Station Open House

Piedras Blancas Light Station will be open free, July 5 and 19 and August 2 and 16, 10 am -2 pm. Hike in from the north parking lot of elephant seal viewpoint Boucher Trail trailhead or from the Boucher Trail trailhead a mile north of the lighthouse.

Observe the elephant seals from several other vantage points along the trail.

For more information, check the website Hike In Open House - Piedras Blancas Light Station or email PiedrasBlancasTours@gmail.com.

Seals get serious about resting

Adult females join youngsters to molt 

May actually brings more elephant seals to the Piedras Blancas beach than the winter breeding season. Lots of seals, doing a lot of sleeping.

That’s because all the adult females and the not-yet-mature juveniles begin arriving in April and linger on the beach through June. The females left the beach after giving birth and mating to get next year’s pup started in February and March. They’ve been regaining weight lost to their nursing pups, so that they are physically strong enough to support another pregnancy.

The juveniles left the beach to the breeding adults during the winter. They return to the calmer beach of spring.

All will molt their skin during their stay.

Molting

The old brown skin and hair peels off in chunks, exposing new skin and hair underneath. Look for pearly gray seals next to brown and tan seals. Check out the ones with skin curling off around eyes and nose. Old scars also start peeling back the molted skin. You may see a marked seal. Check with a docent or contact elephantseal.org to report a marked seal. All marks are temporary, since they come off with the molted skin.

Female migration

Unseen, the egg fertilized in mating two months ago has suspended development during the short post-breeding migration. After molting it implants in the uterine wall and begins developing into a pup.

After resting and molting in May and June, the juveniles go to sea until they return for the fall haul-out. The pregnant females will leave on their long migration, to return in January to give birth to their pups.

Seals and Floating Offshore Wind turbines

Elephant seals are one of the many marine mammal, sea turtle, fish and marine bird species that are the subject of research efforts to investigate ocean conditions relative to Floating Offshore Wind projects.

The Coastal Commission was briefed at its May 11 meeting by energy company representatives, scientists, state agency representatives, fishermen and others. Watch the video recording of that briefing here. Slides and videos are in the Presentations drop-down menu.

Ben Ruttenberg, director of Cal Poly’s Center for Coastal Marine Sciences, gave a presentation on knowledge gaps in the deep ocean, at 57:23 into the video. At 4,000 feet, the depth off the Central Coast 20 miles offshore where wind turbines will be located, little is known. He proposes using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to assist in the research.

Oceanography consultant Grace Chang gave a presentation on Upwelling at 1:13:54. Brandon Southall of UC Santa Cruz, Duke University, and his own company, Southall Environmental Associates, presented background on the effects of sound on marine mammals and sea turtles at 1:31:28. Josh Adams of the US Geological Survey is leading a team studying the effects on marine birds, at 1:53:25.

The entire briefing is of interest, but these presentations are especially significant for elephant seals and other wildlife. 

Ports

The Offshore Wind projects will also require substantial onshore support infrastructure. Morro Bay is being considered for Operations and Maintenance, but larger ports, such as Humboldt, Los Angeles and Long Beach, are needed for manufacturing and fabrication of the 1,100-foot turbines and for staging and integration, assembling the turbines and towing them out to sea.

They’ll also need waterfront and onshore upgrades for fueling, warehouses, offices, parking, and crew support services.

See port reports from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, California Floating Offshore WindRegional Ports Assessment;

the California State Lands Commission, “Alternative Port Assessment to Support OffshoreWind;”

and REACH Central Coast.

 

 https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article275712876.html

Seal Star Quality!

Tracked seal delivers data 

Every day brings surprises at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint, but April brought an especially exciting seal to the beach. Docents spotted her on April 5, with two tracking devices attached. One was on her head, the other on her back. She was carrying messages from long ago and far away.

Such electronic tracking devices are used by the research team at University of California Santa Cruz campus, so Friends of the Elephant Seal docents notified them right away. Salma Abdel-Raheem, Ph.D. student in the Beltran Lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, recognized the seal as one of her research subjects. The team worked with their colleague Dr. Dan Costa to get the State Park and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration permits required to go on to the beach and retrieve the devices.

 

All the pieces were in place to recover the devices on Easter Sunday, April 9. After carefully shooing away the other seals and giving the seal a sedative injection, they cut off the zip ties and electrical splicing tape holding the device to a mesh footprints glued to the fur. They also collected blood and tissue samples. Success!

 This journey began May 2022

The research team glued the tracking devices to this seal May 2, 2022 at Año Nuevo. The seal was two years old then, approaching adulthood from adolescence. She hauled out at Point Reyes a few months later, on September 19, and stayed to October 24, a typical juvenile haul-out.

“We tried to retrieve her tags during this period, but she was only accessible by boat and weather conditions were not favorable,” Ms. Abdel-Raheem said.

The seal left the beach on her next migration, and Piedras Blancas was the next they knew of her. That 342-day trip is the longest of any of the juvenile seals the team has tracked so far, nearly double the average trip of 184 days.

“We're really excited to see what she’s been up to in her year-long adventure!” Ms. Abdel-Raheem said.

 Successful foraging

She fed well during that migration, doubling her mass from 170 kgs (~375 lbs) in May 2022 to 344 kgs (~760 lbs) when they recovered her tags on April 9, more than any other seal the team has studied. 

She is beautiful and sleek, without any scars or defects. I thought she was absolutely perfect, a Rock Star of a seal. The FES docents started calling her Gigi.

Somewhere along the way, Gigi lost the VHF transmitter that allowed the team to find her on the beach. However, the tracking devices continued collecting data – salinity, depth, light, temperature, and accelerometers that measure the orientation of the animal in the water column as well as its speed and acceleration.

“We can put these data together to help us formulate an idea of what the seal is doing while out at sea. We can infer the number of prey capture attempts, the body condition via buoyancy, how much time the animal spends traveling, resting, or foraging, how the animal responds to changes in its environment,” Ms. Abdel-Raheem said. “These data are critical in informing our understanding of the ecology and physiology of this species throughout juvenile development.”

Along with Ms. Abdel-Raheem, the tag recovery team included her two lab-mates, Zea Premo and Milagros Rivera, and their adviser Dr. Roxanne Beltran. Zea is studying the development of diving physiology in juvenile seals by using the blood and tissue samples that they collect; Milagros is interested in the genetic diversity of northern elephant seals and uses the DNA samples to inform their research.

The mesh footprint that held the tracking devices will fall off as Gigi molts on the beach, now blending in among her sisters. Thanks, Gigi, and farewell.

 

Pups survive storms

Weaned pups move forward despite raging weather

California’s coast has been pummeled by storms this winter. The pups born in this year’s breeding season continue to mature and develop. As they do, they leave the beach on their first migration. 

The beach has been much changed by the heavy rains and high tides. The north beach at the Piedras Blancas viewpoint has lost a lot of its sand. Few mothers raised pups on that beach this season. 

Much sand was washed off the south beach, too, and water gushing from the culvert carved a deep channel. 

Weanlings 

Fat weaned pups, weaners or weanlings, appear not to take much notice. Their blubber insulates them from cold and wet. They find a spot among their peers and settle into sleep. Look for roly-poly seals. 

Most have molted their black birth coats, although you may see some still peeling. After they have molted, they have the counter-shaded coat of mature seals, dark on the back and light on the belly. They look so perfect! No scars or marks of older seals, whose skin tells the story of depredations at sea and battles on land. 

They socialize in groups called pods. See them lying close to the base of the cliffs, or across the beach where they can avoid any adult seal mating or fighting. 

They take to the surf to practice holding their breath, swimming and diving. They have strong instincts, but need practice to polish their swimming and diving skills. They increase how long they can hold their breath. They need to stay under water long enough to catch food, and dive deep enough to avoid predators. 

Blubber into muscle 

They haven’t had anything to eat since their mothers left. They metabolize their blubber until they begin catching their own food. They take this time on the beach to exercise, turning some of that blubber into muscle. 

They are more likely to be in the water at night, but you may see them splashing around during the day. Their life deep in the ocean will require them to hunt in the dark depths. 

No one teaches them how to hunt. Although most survive on the beach, only half will survive that first migration. 

Few adult seals on the beach 

Few if any females remain on the beach. They have left after nursing their pups for a month or so and mating with one or more bulls on the way back to the ocean. After not eating for the entire birth and nursing time, they are at their physiological low point. Time to get back in their ocean home and feed to build up some blubber. 

They will return in April and May for the annual molt. They lose their old skin, replacing it with new skin underneath, once a year. 

A few bulls sleep on the beach. They, too, are at their thinnest. They may have gone more than three months without food. It’s the price of eternal vigilance for a beachmaster. 

Stranded weaners 

Underweight and exhausted weaners may strand on local beaches. If you see one on the beach, you can report it to the Marine Mammal Center 24-hour hotline, 415-289-7325 (SEAL). They will send out a team to evaluate it and rescue it if necessary.

Bulls threaten for dominance

Somepups are already weaned

Elephant seal pups born since winter’s storms subsided are doing well at Piedras Blancas beaches. Some are already weaned, others are still to be born. Bulls threaten each other, and occasional battles break out. It’s breeding season at the beach.

Highway 1 is now open north of the elephant seal viewpoint. The parking lot has been graded, but it still has significant potholes. Go slow.

Look for fat, roly-poly pups. After giving birth to 60-80 pound pups, the mothers nurse them for about a month. The pups gain about 200 pounds. Some gain far more. It’s unclear whether this additional weight is a survival advantage. The extra blubber may make them more buoyant in the water, making diving more difficult.

A gull steals milk from this nursing pup.

After they’re weaned, some congregate at the base of the cliffs. They molt their black baby coats and get their first countershaded fur, light on the belly and dark on the back. 

This pup is molting his black natal coat.

As the mothers come to the end of lactation, they come into estrus. They are then ready to mate with the bulls. That’s when the bulls get competitive. Earlier battles were over territory. Now, they battle over breeding rights. 

Look for bulls raising their heads to stare at each other. One or the other will make a move, backing off from a fight. It’s called dominance interaction, displacement. From the viewing area, visitors can see which bull is dominant. 

This bull announces his dominance.

Other beaches

The beaches north of the viewpoint, along the Boucher Trail, are also heavily populated with elephant seal mothers, pups and beachmasters. Park at the lot beyond the viewpoint and walk out.

Few bachelor bulls have come to Hearst Memorial Beach at San Simeon Cove this year. They may have gone to other beaches, such as the north beach at the Piedras Blancas viewpoint and other points north.

Beaches at the northern end of the Piedra Blancas viewpoint were completely inundated repeatedly during high winter tides and atmospheric river storms. That beach is almost exclusively populated by bulls this year.

The north beach at Piedras Blancas

State Parks tours

During this exciting season, February through March, State Parks is offering tours at the Arroyo Laguna beach. Tours are available 9 am on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Tickets are $13 per person. Meet at the parking lot, 2.25 miles north of the Hearst Castle Entrance and south of the Piedras Blancas viewpoint. 

Dress for conditions, walking on uneven rocky and sandy ground, possibly muddy. Wear sturdy, close-toed shoes. Dress in warm layers. 

Bring cameras and binoculars. Call 805-776-2564 or check the website for information.

Superbowl ad

The Jeep ad shown during the Superbowl Electric Jeep Boogie Woogie, featured an elephant seal bull backing up rapidly. It’s somewhat enhanced, but visitors may well see bulls doing a similar maneuver, as they confront more dominant bulls.

Who Knew elephant seals would make their way into such rarefied circles!