We began our day with a tour of Elkhorn Slough by Rebecca Martone, a former Duke CEM. It is the largest estuary on the west coast, but is a fraction of the size of your average east coast estuary. Before we entered the estuary, we had to dip our shoes in Lysol as a preventative measure against sudden oak death. Then, armed with binoculars, we began our walk down to the water while searching for birds. This watershed has been heavily impacted by agriculture and industry in the area and has a railway line going right through the middle of it. Despite the negative effects on the estuary, we were still able to observe an abundance of wildlife -- snowy egrets, brown pelicans, and birds of prey, as well as some giant mullet fish!
We then made our way to the Long Marine Lab at UC Santa Cruz where we had a talk by Mark Carr on the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative. The MLPA is a state initiative involving a collaboration between various stakeholder groups to develop marine protected areas along the coast of California. This talk was followed by a presentation from Scott Shaffer on the TOPP program (Tagging of Pacific Predators). http://www.topp.org/ He focused on how remote-sensing technology can be used to reveal the distribution and abundance of top marine predators (tuna, seals, sea lions, whales, seabirds, sea turtles, sharks) with regard to oceanographic factors.
The highlight of the day was tour of the marine mammal lab where we met two ex-navy bottlenose dolphins who performed for us and loved the attention! We also saw: Astro, a stellar sea lion who was very connected to people so had to remain in captivity; Rio, a California sea lion who was incredibly agile; and Sprouts, a Pacific harbor seal who we all got to touch!
We got to witness Sprouts taking a hearing test to evaluate which frequencies he could sense. We all packed ourselves inside a little room with Sprouts lying at our feet. Depending on which frequency was played, Sprouts would touch his nose to a paddle and if it was correct he was given a fish from a tube in the wall. He was definitely capable of hearing things that we could not!
The Long Lab marine mammal research center also had a 14-year old female Northern elephant seal named Bernice who amazed us with her incredible size!
We ended the day by having a social with the PhD students at the Long Marine Lab to discuss our programs and interests, organized by Sara Maxwell, current UCSC PhD student and former DUML summer visitor and employee. Then, we went to dinner at Palomar, an amazing Mexican restaurant in Santa Cruz.
--Teagan Ward
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