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April 4, 2007

Moss Landing State Beach: A Natural Graveyard

The beach is a natural graveyard. Things inevitably wash up, and for the most part, this an integral part of the shoreline ecosystem. Shore creatures rely on this rotting stuff as a source of food. Low tide may not smell particularly good, but its one of the best times to see birds, since they arrive to pick through the ocean's leavings.

I've been spending a lot of time at the beach lately, photographing Monterey Bay wildlife like the Northern Elephant Seals, the Southern Sea Otters, and various other marine life and shorebirds. Today I went down to Moss Landing.

I went to Moss Landing to photograph the resident raft of otters. Obligatory cute Southern Sea Otter photo below:

There certainly were a lot of otters there (upwards of 60). Floating about, grooming, eating, playing. There is also a small colony of harbour seals, including a couple of very young pups from this season (March-June). Since it's still winter, the number of bird species is ridiculous. It was the shere abundance of wildlife - both in the sea and the skies - along Elkhorn Slough that attracted me there in the first place.

I'm used to seeing dead animals, especially young seals, washed up on beaches. It's a fact of life that the nearer you are to a rookery (mating colony), the more likely you are to see carcasses. Only the strongest will survive, and that's the way it should be. The weaker ones certainly don't perish in vain. They become a meal to some predator like a great white shark or a killer whale, not to mention all the scavenger fishes and birds. Their demise also keeps the living population strong, genetically. There are a lot of stupid and lazy people out there, but nature isn't as forgiving - stupid and lazy animals get munched.

I cannot think of a place in the Monterey Bay where I've seen more diverse species that at Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing Beach. It's not really where I'd go to see a seal rookery - for that I'd go to Año Nuevo, but I cannot think of another place, other than at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, that I can always spot at least a few otters.

So I stalked some otters, shot their cute little faces. I think that California schools should teach the marine mammal act - and the stay back 25 feet rule. Too often I see people harassing the wildlife. Even beyond the 25 feet, if you are bothering the animal, you should not approach closer. Some animals, like the elephant seal, don't seem to fussed with people. Harbour seals, however, are quite a bit more skittish.

Anyway, so I was tromping around in the low tide. About 30 seconds from the car, I ran across a dead young harbor seal. I'm no forensics expert, but I've seen the holes in animals before and thats usually from the birds and scavengers. The fact that the seal's head was rather non-existent makes me think it more likely got run over by a boat or something. Unfortunately the seals have taken up residence a stone's throw from the yacht harbor, and the boats are forced to go by them each time they want to leave the harbor. Then they have to sail through the raft of otters and out past the getty, also full of otters. Its basically a wildlife gauntlet and its basically impossible to keep the 25ft distance.

This is when I decided to take some pictures of otters. Happy, live otters. I noticed that the beach was covered with bones and large abalone shells, which I attribute with the otters, since they are nawing away on such things not 50 feet from me.

After a while, I decide to walk down a bit to see if the baby harbour seal is available for an Easter photo. Oh, and that's when I saw a little bunny in the coastal brush. So as I'm walking down the beach, I see a dead bird. Then another. And another. Not little birds, big birds. Duck-sized and larger. You know I cannot identify birds in life, so don't ask me what they were.

Shorebirds... Dead ones.

At first, I just told myself it was normal, but after the 10th dead bird, I was starting to feel a bit uneasy. There are a lot of birds here, so does that mean its normal to have a lot of dead birds?

When does the sheer number of dead birds become enough to be a concern? When does it become a red flag that something is very wrong here, something that needs to be addressed? The answer is: I don't know. I'm curious what other people think on this.

So much is going on here that could be having a negative impact. It's a very strange wildlife refuge, to be honest. Moss Landing is also home to a rather large power plant that cycles over a billion gallons of water a day. Huge smokestacks, surrounded by artichoke fields and guarded by otters. Very ironic. Sometimes the water the plant expels is quite a bit hotter than the ocean water, which causes problems. There's also the harbor pollution and boat traffic from the fishing docks and the yacht harbor. The surrounding land is all farmland, with pesticides potentially washing into the slough. The list goes on and on. Winter is bird migration time, maybe it's bird flu?

I tell myself, though, that there must be a reason so much wildlife settles here. Something must have been done right or they would move on. I like to think the otters choose to be there.

What do you think?

Posted by sorsha at April 4, 2007 3:55 PM