MBFE - Day 23 - Seal pups!

It's springtime, and in the ocean like on land, it's time for many animals to have their babies.

We are located just up the coast from a place called Simpson Reef & Shell Island.  This place is an important location for seals, sea lions, and even elephant seals to come ashore and give birth.  The elephant seals do this in the winter months and are all gone now, but there are LOTS of harbor seals with pups down there these days.

The students were interested and excited to see the marine mammals.  After all, this isn't the sort of thing you see in eastern Idaho.

This photo, taken looking north along the coast, shows Simpson Reef with waves breaking to the far left, and Shell Island, the inverted cone shaped peak in the middle of the photo.

If you have binoculars or a spotting scope you can see the seals and sea lions on the sandy beach on the leeward side of Shell Island.  This patch of sand stays above the tide line at all times.

The darker animals that are more upright are sea lions and the lighter, browner ones are mostly harbor seals.  There are also some Stellar sea lions around...they are much bigger than the smaller California sea lions.

As you hike along the shore it is not uncommon to see harbor seal mothers with pups, some very young.

Here's a harbor seal mother and pup around the point from Sunset Beach.  This is a very young pup. It's so young that it has to hitchhike on its mother's back while they swim.  

The following photos show some mother-pup groups hauled out on the rocks between Sunset Bay and Simpson Reef.

And when the sky is clear Oregon gives up fantastic sunsets.

Stay tuned for more updates.

MBFE - Day 9 - Docks Piers and Piling Communities - Oh My!

The MBFE adventure for the day today (Weds 4/29) was to discuss dock, pier, and piling communities in the morning, then to walk to the Charleston Marina and explore them.  We expected to see lots of marine invertebrates and algae growing below the water line on the docks, and we were not disappointed.

Here are some shots of the crew checking out the life on the docks:

Eileen and Isaac are on the dock in the foreground with Skyler hanging over the dock in the background.

Here are L-R Rachel M, Danielle, and Courtney...

Rachel M is standing on the dock in the background with Danielle, Isaac, and Courtney lying down, with Skyler in the foreground.

Here's Jessica getting a good close look at the dock community.

Here are a few things we spotted:

Giant barnacles Balanus nubilus...

...sponges and small thread-like caprellid sprimp...

...more sponges and tube worms...

...giant green anemones...

...and smaller white anemones among other things...

What we DID NOT expect was that while we were hanging over the edge of the dock with our faces within inches of the water that we would be observed by something else...

A class member was hanging over the end of a dock and there was a large splash right next to them - it was a harbor seal.  Shortly after that I was hanging over the edge of a dock checking things out and taking a few pictures when I heard a swish in the water close to my head.  I was wearing a baseball hat so I couldn't see what it was, but when I looked up there was an adult harbor seal (Phoca vitlulina) and there were only about 6" between our noses.  I had a waterproof camera in my hand off to one side so I pointed it in the general direction and shot...this is what I got!  After a few more seconds the seal flopped down and with a splash was gone.  Wow!  There's a journal entry experience.

I wasn't the only one to have a visitor while we were on the docks...an adult male northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) made an appearance as well.  Here he is taking a good long look at Shannon and Jennifer.

Right after that it cruised over and got acquainted with Jessica, Arianne, and Kelly.  This shot was taken just as it dove..

...and here he is in a slip at the marina giving Skyler, Shannon and Kelly a good look. 

This is a day that we will all remember for a good long time.  It wasn't our plan to observed marine mammals along with the invertebrate dock community, but in this life you don't always get what you expect...sometimes it's better than that.