My Salmon Fishing Experience

In the past I have fished for salmon off of the Point Reyes Peninsula. Back in the day the salmon were plentiful and within a few hours everyone on the boat would have caught his/her limits. (Limits for sport fishing were two 24’’ or larger fish per person per day.) The salmon often are found farther out in the earlier summer when the cool nutrient-rich water is off shore, during the l
ater months of the summer and into the fall, the salmon could be caught right off the beach where they fed. In the last couple of years people have been catching fewer and fewer salmon. This is due to a dramatic decrease in salmon populations, which has resulted in a ban on salmon fishing for the 2008 season.

Research Summary Salmon Populations

For the first time ever there is a complete ban on salmon fishing along a 200-mile stretch of the Oregon and California coast. This closure will last until April 2009 and was instated by Fish and Game officials. The ban followed steep decreases in the salmon population. The spawning salmon population in the Sacramento River has dropped from 800,000 six years ago to only 68,000 last year. Although it is not clear what is causing such a drastic decrease some of the blame can be placed on the fishing industry. The governor of California has appropriated $5.3 million this year to salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects, but it might take more than money to save the salmon.

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Bridge Status Update

Last Wednesday night the Park Service and county officials met at the Point Reyes Dance Palace to discuss the proposed trail and footbridge that would run from Point Reyes Station to Inverness Park and cross Papermill Creek near White House Pool. They also discussed an alternative plan that would involve widening the Levee Road. The non-vehicular bridge discussed is a 200 foot truss bridge and would extend 150 feet from one side of the creek to the other. The bridge would be able to withstand a 50-year flood and would be eight feet high, with 20 feet of ramp for every foot of height so that it would comply with the American Disabilities Act. The cost for the construction of this bridge would be at least $1.75 million. However, according to county officials the cost of widening the Levee Road would be much greater. In order for the road to be widened by 17 feet, the power poles would need to be moved, and the four existing bridges would need to be widened. Not only would this be more expensive, it would have more of an environmental impact on the marsh, which is traversed by the Levee Road. The project is currently in Phase One, which includes moving the current trail to the northern side of the creek 100 feet from the water and planting 16,000 new native plants.

Blum, Andrea. Thru the marsh. May 15 2008. West Marin Citizen
Francine Allen Interview, 5/14/08

To Build a Bridge

For the last 100 years, the southern end of Tomales Bay has been diked and used to graze cattle. Recently, the Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) purchased these 600 acres from the Waldo Giacomini family so that this area could be restored into wetlands. Since the end of 2007, the Seashore has been working towards total restoration of the wetlands. This includes tearing down the dikes and barns, and taking the cattle off the land.

The southernmost edge of the wetlands is skirted by Papermill Creek which plays host to countless species including the endangered red-legged frog, White-tailed kite, Northern Harrier, and Short-earred owl, river otters, sturgeon and salmon during spawning season. The Seashore hopes that the removal of the cattle will promote the growth of native plant species that will provide habitat for the animals that populate the wetland region.

Walking trails through the marsh have long surrounded Papermill Creek. The creek parallels the section of Sir Francis Drake Blvd. that connects Inverness Park to Point Reyes Station. Paths on the south side of the creek run from Inverness Park to the center of the levee road. So, in order to walk to Point Reyes from Inverness Park, one has to walk the last half along the narrow shoulder of a dangerous roadway. Children who walk or ride their bikes to West Marin School are forced to endanger their lives daily if they want to avoid being shuttled by automobile.

Whether or not PRNS should extend these trails and create a bridge across Papermill Creek to make possible travel from Inverness Park to Point Reyes without walking or biking on the roadway has become a major controversy among Pt. Reyes citizens and the Park. The major points of the conflict include:
--those who want “To provide a safe route to school and our town services…a pathway apart from the road” (Lisa Luzzi, Inverness Park, in a letter to the editor of the Pt. Reyes Citizen 3/27/08)
--“those who feel the new bridge and trail would seriously undermine the restoration…dogs and bikes would flush birds and scare wildlife. A thoroughfare through such a sensitive area creates a much wider impact zone than the path itself occupies.” (Ellery Akers, Point Reyes Station, in a letter to the editor of the Pt. Reyes Citizen 3/27/08)

One proposed alternative is to widen the shoulder along the levee road to provide more room for bicyclists and pedestrians. Although this plan might help, it will not completely eliminate the danger of cars, nor will it satisfy the community. As Nancy Stein puts it in a guest column in the Pt. Reyes Citizen entitled: Build the Bridge, “The levee road could be improved for bicycles but it will never serve the needs of the handicapped, the elderly, and people with strollers or children on bikes, and it will never meet the need of those who would like to take a quiet stroll to town.”

At 9:30 am on Sunday, March 31, nearly 100 activists on both sides staged a walk along Papermill Creek to show their strength in numbers and solidarity. Local photographer Art Rogers recorded the event. The Park Service has scheduled an event at the Point Reyes Dance palace for May 15 and it is expected that some sort of agreement will be made. According to a document written by park officials, “Engineering analysis of the section of road near White House Pool showed that the creek is actively eroding towards Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, and repairs should be completed before constructing facilities to accommodate public access.” If this park holds this opinion, it is unlikely that the bridge will be built in the near future if at all. Many people feel that if a bridge were built it would scar the natural beauty of the Giacomini Wetland. Still others feel that it would allow them to be close to nature and enjoy its beauty. This issue, it seems, will be resolved slowly as there are many good reasons for the bridge to be built, and many good reasons why it shouldn’t be.

The Elephant Seal Life Cycle

Elephant Seals spend 80% of their lives in the open ocean and range from Mexico to Alaska in search of food. One seal that was tagged in Point Reyes was even seen in Russia. Not only do they spend almost all of their time at sea they spend 90% of the time at sea underwater in search of food, resting, or just moving from place to place. Elephant seals dive deeper than most marine mammal diving an average of 1000 to 2000 feet and sometimes as deep as a mile. This dive lasts up to ninety minutes and is followed by about ten minutes resting on the surface breathing. The seals prefer the depths because they are below the radar of their natural predators. Although no one knows for sure it is speculated that they are able to feed the deeply because they have no competition, and their large eyes and the bioluminescence of their prey allows them to easily find food. It is also speculated that their whiskers, which are up to eight inches long also help them search for rays, rockfish, ratfish, and other delicacies on the ocean floor. Elephant seals are able to dive this deep because they carry the oxygen they need to survive in their muscles rather than in their lungs. After breathing, the seal exhales and collapses its lungs. As they begin to dive their fat also compresses allowing them to dive quickly with little effort.(Sarah Allen Interview) The seal are able to spend so much time under water because they have the ability to slow their heart rate from 55-120 beats per minute down to 4-15 beats per minute. The seal’s blood pressure remains normal because it is able to cut off blood supplies to its extremities supplying mainly its brain and vital organs.(Nps.gov/pore) During adult migrations the male and female seals travel thousands of miles apart and follow different feeding patterns. The males often return to the Aleutian Islands to feed each year, while the females generally feed in small eddies in the northwest Pacific and off the Hawaiian Islands. However the seals often break this pattern, sometimes feeding in the north Pacific Gyre. Males dive deeply and repeatedly for food for the first three weeks, females also dive deeply, but tend to travel deeper during the day. Generally the females tend to feed mostly on squid in the mid-water, while the males feed mostly on bottom fish and octopus. They have gastroliths in their stomach, small rocks that serve to break down bone matter. The seals feed, diving repeatedly for four to five months of the summer and fall. The seals do not sleep but rather take catnaps as they dive. They spend the majority of their lives under water and therefore are rarely seen in the open ocean. Currently there are about 500 elephant seals that have been tagged with GPS units that also record water temperature and depth.(Nps.gov.pore) This provides “3 dimensional imaging of what the seals are doing” and can be viewed at http://www.topp.org/species/elephant_seals. There is still much to be discovered about these fascinating creatures.

Point Reyes Seal Colony

Elephant seals are some of the most interesting and unusual creatures that can be found on the Point Reyes Peninsula. During the 1800’s there were countless thousands of these marine mammals ranging from Baja Mexico, to Point Reyes California. Not unlike whales the seals were hunted nearly to extinction for their oily blubber. Being extremely large one bull elephant seal will yield almost 25 gallons of oil. Although it is unclear how many elephant seals there were in the past it is believed that there were only 1000 left by 1910. In 1922 the Mexican government put a ban on hunting the animals in the attempt to protect them, and shortly after this United States followed suit. Thanks to government protection, and the fact that the animals spend almost all of their lives at sea the population has risen to an estimated 150,000.(Nps.gov/pore) In the 1970s, after being gone for almost 150 years, the seals were sighted again on the sandy beaches of Point Reyes. The first breeding pair was discovered near Chimney Rock in 1981.(Nps.gov/pore) Since then there has been a drastic increase in population with an annual average increase of 16%. The estimated seal population of Point Reyes is now between 1500 and 2000.(Npss.gov/pore) Dispersing from the original breeding spot the seals have formed several new colonies and continue to spread out onto popular beaches. Including the formation of a new colony last breeding season on Drakes Beach that included three females.(Sarah Allen Interview)

Elephant Seal Tagging

Today I hiked to North Drakes Beach with Sarah and three other park employees to tag elephant seals. While tagging it was important to walk lightly on the sand and stay downwind from the animals so that they would not wake up. I was surprised to see how many animals had left the beach. Over the course of the breeding season there had been over 200 females on this beach, today there were only four. The majority of animals on the beach were weined pups. These were the animals we focused on tagging, in order to identify their birth place. I played the roll of data recorder and tag dispensor. Between the tagging of the animals I would tally, record tag numbers, and tag placing on the flipper. All together we tagged 33 pups that will be able to be indentified by these plastic tags for the rest of their lives. We were not able to tag all the pups on the beach because they began to awake after a while. I am excited to do more tagging in the future and I better recognize the benefits due to the fact that I have done many surveys in the past.

Elephant Seal Survey

Today we drove almost to the Point Reyes Lighthouse at the end of the point. We hiked down an extraordinarily steep ravine to end up on the south side of South Beach. Sarah Pointed out the extent of invasive iceplant which now covers the hillsides which the park is now trying to remove. We walked along a creek in a narrow gorge to open up onto the beach where there was a small colony of elephant seal. On the beach to the left of the stream were about six immature males. To the right of the stream were seven females with their pups and at each end of the females the alpha and males positioned themselves. hgcd The alpha male was enormous and Sarah estimated his age to be eight years plus because of his fully developed nose and chest shield. All the elephant seals were sleeping peacefully as Sarah and John looked for flipper tags. They can tell by the color of the tag where these seals were tagged. Using the spotting scope was futile so Sarah had to get close to the animals in order to record their numbers from the tag. We then walked down the beach and spotted nine or ten more random seals. We made our way back to the car.

Today I braved the rain with Sarah Allen to investigate a new colony of Elephant Seals farther south along Drakes Beach. New colonies are often formed when lone males group together on new beaches. Eventually their activity attracts females, and if the spot they have chosen is preferable for breeding they will settle down and pup. On my last visit to the headlands Sarah and I spotted a large group of males farther down the beach. We tried to determine the presence of females with a spotting scope but the distance was too great. Today Sarah and I hiked the beach in order to survey these animals more closely. The males that we spotted earlier are now accompanied by pups and females. Hopefully this colony will continue to grow. It is situated on a wide sandy protected beach, which is in some ways preferable than the current main colony, although not as secluded. Given the chance and freedom these animals will continue to spread south along Drakes Beach.

Elephant Seals Surveys

Today I went on a survey with Heather Jenson and Sarah Allen. I surveyed North Drakes Beach, the Chimney Rock Loop, and Dead Seal Beach. A large majority of the animals had moved from the main colony to North Drakes Beach because of the protection it provides during the worst winter storms in which sand is often washed away from the main colony, leaving exposed rocks and nowhere for the animals to rest. I was amazed at how many more animals there were on the beaches, and I learned that the peak of the breeding season is the last week in January. We counted 50 pups from north drakes beach, which is considerably different than my last survey in which there were no pups being born yet. Along the chimney rock loop there were few animals scattered here and there, but I counted 7 pups at Gus' Cove, which is situated near the end of the point. Lastly we counted dead seal beach, which was made difficult by dense fog.