Elephant Seals Surveys

Today I participated in a seal survey. I met with Dave Press and two other park workers and drove out to the tip of Point Reyes. I surveyed three separate sites for elephant seals on the point including Drakes Beach Elephant Seal Overlook, Dead Seal Beach, the southern tip of south beach. I also surveyed sea lions at the sea lion overlook on the south side of the point. For the sea lion survey they were merely counted. The elephant seal surveys were a little more complicated. With binoculars I first got a total count for the number of animals on the beach. Next I divided the animals into several categories. This is somewhat easy at this time of year due to the fact that only males are present on the beach. The males are divided into the category of yearling, juvenile, sub-adult one, sub-adult two, sub adult three, sub-adult four, or adult depending on the size of its body, chest shield, and nose. This information is gathered yearly in order to monitor flux in the seal populations, and potential problems.