Dancing with Kelp
It’s a dance as old as the tides. Long before whales sang or seabirds wheeled through salty air, forests rose from the seafloor, unfurling blades toward the sun. Over eons, kelp evolved exquisite ways to bend to the sea’s rhythms, but its ballet is no mere performance. With stipes stretching up to 100 feet or more, kelp forests produce oxygen, store carbon, prevent coastal erosion and shelter a vast array of marine life.
These vital ecosystems now face unprecedented threats. As ocean waters warm and voracious grazers like purple sea urchins multiply, California’s lush kelp forests have declined by up to 90 percent. Pushed to the brink, kelp is altering its choreography.
A Tribute to Marine Moms
A lioness licking her cub. An elephant twining its truck around her calf. A polar bear nuzzling its pup. These heartwarming images remind us that wild animals can be doting mothers, much like us. But in coastal waters, where survival depends on timing, camouflage and luck, motherhood takes extraordinary forms.
An Upwelling of Life
Native tribes called the Sonoma Coast the “place of churning waters.” The mighty Pacific never stops splashing, crashing, snaking into fissures, wearing away cliffs, grinding rocks into stones, stones into pebbles, pebbles into sand. But the force that parts the seas and moves the waters comes from the wind, which propels the seasonal explosion of life known as Upwelling.
A Rainbow of Wildflowers: Beyond Beauty
In Greek mythology Iris, goddess of rainbows, carried messages along multi-colored arcs from deities on high to the underworld. Every Spring her namesake blooms usher in a cavalcade of wildflowers that splash shimmering colors upon the earth. Their gifts extend far beyond beauty. In addition to attracting pollinators that ensure survival of their species, Spring’s living rainbows enrich the environment in distinctive ways.
The Amazing Journey of By-the-Wind Sailors
Years ago I learned to sail by the wind on a 26-foot sloop in San Francisco Bay. After the initial terror, I came to relish the exhilaration of skimming across the water, rocketed by gusts and tugged by currents. At times I’d imagine endlessly drifting on the open sea with the sun and the stars as my only companions.
Velella velella (from the Latin for “veil”), commonly known as “by-the-wind sailors,” live this fantasy. Ancient mariners found in oceans around the world, they have no need for seaworthy vessels. They are shaped like exquisite toy sailboats.
A Sea of Microplastics
On a blustery March day, a squad of volunteers and researchers from the Bodega Marine Laboratory and Reserve take up grabbers and gloves against a sea of microplastics. Our mission: Clear trash from a local beach and document the prevalence of plastic on the...
Splendor in the Seagrass
“Let’s meet in Bodega Bay,” the seagrass researcher suggested. It wasn’t until I saw him waving from thigh-high waters that I realized he literally meant in the bay. Since that soggy first encounter, I’ve acquired both waterproof waders and a deep respect for an overlooked, underappreciated and vitally important marine habitat. Seagrass may, in fact, be a silent savior of the ocean—and the planet.
Amazing Grays
Blues are bigger; fin whales, faster; humpbacks, more acrobatic. But the nobly named Eschrichtius robustus (aka Eastern Pacific Gray)— splotched, blunt-headed, stout and muscular–is nothing less than amazing. World Whale Day, celebrated the third Sunday of February, is an ideal time to celebrate their awesomeness.
The Wonders of Whales
“Do you know what whale breath smells like?”
Our captain doesn’t wait for a reply.
“Rotten broccoli!” he bellows as a humpback spouts a few yards from our boat.
Awed by its size and unexpected stench, I almost forget that these majestic giants are, like us, air-breathing, warm-blooded, baby-nursing mammals. But unlike us, some whales have bodies as long as two school buses, tongues that weigh as much as an elephant and hearts the size of a small car, with an aorta (main artery) wide enough for a human to slide through.
The Magic of Nature’s Vanishing Act
They appear like mirages in the dark of winter, burst into full-throated glory in Spring and fade away with the summer sun. Vernal ponds remind me of Brigadoon, the Scottish village in the classic musical that comes to life for one day every hundred years. The first time I came upon a gleaming pond in a field that had been dry just weeks before, I was as stunned as if a bag-pipe-playing Highlander had suddenly materialized.
