Elephant Seals 101

Day 21

          I’m sure that you’ve figured out when I learn something new to me, that I drag you, kicking and screaming, to school along with me.

          This lesson will be no exception, but we will be going on a Field Trip, so don’t forget your Snacks!

          Yesterday we took advantage of the better weather on the coast than we had the day before. Moody fog rolling in is nice to witness, but it makes for lousy sea-view gazing pleasure.

          As you can see from these photos, we had the exact opposite.

          Our destination was “Anywhere up the Coast”, so we drove past where we went the day before (the local Conservation Reservation) and arrived in the little town of San Simeon. You may have heard (or visited) this locale as it is the home of Hearst Castle, the magnificent estate of William Randolph Hearst.

          He had a lot of money.

          And exquisite taste.

          Hearst Castle was on our list of things to do in the area, but it will not re-open until sometime next month. So, all you get for now is this long-range photo of it. I was there in 1964 and again in the 90’s so I can relay to you the fact that it is nothing less than magnificent. Mr. Hearst scoured Europe and bought entire buildings such as chapels, monasteries, and villas and had them disassembled and shipped back here to be reconstructed on his Estate.

          I told you he had a lot of money!

          Our real reason for coming back was to simply drive California Route 1 up the coast and stop along the way at convenient overlooks that dot this scenic highway. What we discovered is the topic of today’s lesson, er, I mean post 😊.

          Elephant Seals!

          We stumbled upon the only place in the world where you can gaze upon an entire Northern Elephant Seal rookery without trekking, getting sandy, or disturbing the critters. The Piedras Blancas Northern Elephant Seal Rookery is right here. It is free to pull up to and California has done a wonderful job of educating and giving access to the public of these guys. We were kept at a decent, but close distance, up on a boardwalk of sorts, that ran the entire length of the beach.

          The seals could not have cared less that we were there.

          Apparently, some Elephant Seals “re-discovered” this stretch of beach back in 1990, liked it, stayed, imprinted it on their young, and now their Great-great-great-great-Grandkids are still coming back here every year. Back in the day, before we all came here needing blubber oil, these seals lived on the coast  without any interference. They were hunted almost to extinction and the only surviving rookeries are way out on the inaccessible Channel Islands. About 25,000 of the 250,000 of the total population come to this rookery every year.

          Elephant seals spend most of their time at sea where they are all alone. Except for their enemies, the Orca and Great White Shark. The males feed in an area that is rife with these predators, so it is estimated that one-in-three are gobbled up each year. The females tend to stay in a different area that is not as dangerous, so their mortality rate is closer to one-in-seven. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like those odds either! I never go more that knee-deep at the shore!

          These guys get big when they mature! Males are up to sixteen feet long and weigh about 5000 pounds and the females are a tad smaller at twelve feet and 1700 pounds. The kiddies pop out at about eighty pounds and are three to four feet long.

          When these guys are out at sea, they routinely dive to more than five hundred feet and they can go as deep as three thousand, all while holding their breath for about twenty-five minutes or so. While they are in the rookery they do not feed at all. Eating is reserved for their foray’s way out at sea.

          One of the other things that they do while here on the beach is to go through a “Catastrophic Molt”. This is an extreme case of molting where they shed their entire skin of fur and obviously grow a new one in its place. This fur, along with their blubber, keep them relatively warm while out in the ocean and diving to those depths for food. That’s why, while on land, they actually need to keep themselves cool, not warm. They do this by using their flippers and covering themselves with sand to protect themselves from the heat of the sun.

          I hear it has a relatively high SPF rating!

          The Rookery has activity all year as the entire population comes and goes depending on the age and sex of the individual seal. So, if you are out this way, just drive by and you too will be treated to something that you cannot find anywhere else!

          It is now time to get out your Snacks.