Saving Our Seas: Inside the World's Largest Marine Mammal Hospital with Adam Ratner

What do marine mammals tell us about the health of our oceans? The answer might surprise you—and it's more urgent than ever as climate change transforms our coastal environments.

Adam Ratner, Director of Conservation Engagement at The Marine Mammal Center, takes us behind the scenes of the world's largest marine mammal hospital as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. From rescuing seven marine mammals in 1975 to today's operation saving up to 1,000 animals annually, the Center has become a global leader in understanding how these magnificent creatures serve as sentinels for ocean health.

The conversation reveals concerning trends, including the discovery that 30% of rescued marine mammals experience human disturbance or harassment before rescue. Ratner explains the Center's recent response to 14 whale deaths in the San Francisco Bay Area in just weeks—many showing signs of malnutrition related to warming Arctic waters where gray whales feed. These deaths echo the 2019-2021 Unusual Mortality Event that saw gray whale populations drop by approximately 30%.

Yet amid these challenges, there are remarkable success stories. The Center's work with endangered Hawaiian monk seals has helped increase their population from about 1,000 to over 1,600, with approximately 30% of all living Hawaiian monk seals owing their lives to conservation interventions. Ratner also describes surprising opportunities for urban wildlife viewing, like harbor porpoises visible from the Golden Gate Bridge and humpback whales feeding within view of city skylines.

Whether you're a wildlife enthusiast, concerned about climate change, or simply curious about the ocean, this episode offers practical guidance on responsible wildlife viewing and ways anyon

Planet Centric Media (non-profit)
Media for a Healthier Planet: Elevating The Interconnectedness of Life & Value of Natural Resources.

Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study
Founded by Scott & Tree Mercer to document the occurrence, diversity, & behavior of marine mammals.

Sea Storm Studios, Inc.
An audio/visual production company in the Sea Ranch, CA (US)

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Resilient Earth Podcast
• 1:40 Meeting Adam Ratner, Marine Biologist
• 3:25 Marine Mammal Center's Mission & Impact
• 5:26 Ocean Health & Marine Mammal Indicators
• 12:33 Climate Crisis: Gray Whale Mortalities
• 17:14 Bay Area Coexistence: Whales & Ships
• 23:55 Human-Wildlife Interactions: Beach Protocols
• 34:15 Hawaiian Monk Seal Conservation Success
• 41:05 Taking Action for Ocean Health
• 48:30 Closing & End Credits

Transcript

00:00:10:02 - 00:00:10:17
Welcome

00:00:10:17 - 00:00:15:02
to the Resilient Earth podcast, where we talk with speakers from the United States

00:00:15:08 - 00:00:18:13
and around the world about the critical issues

00:00:18:13 - 00:00:22:17
facing our planet and the positive actions people are taking

00:00:23:02 - 00:00:27:00
from the tiniest of actions to the grandest of gestures,

00:00:27:06 - 00:00:30:03
so that we can continue to thrive

00:00:30:03 - 00:00:33:03
and survive for generations to come.

00:00:33:14 - 00:00:38:13
I'm Leigh Anne Lindsey, producer and host, along with co-hosts and co-producers

00:00:38:18 - 00:00:42:13
Scott and Tree (Theresa) Mercer of Mendonoma Whale and Seal

00:00:42:13 - 00:00:46:14
Study located on the South Mendocino and North

00:00:46:14 - 00:00:49:14
Sonoma coast.

00:00:52:06 - 00:00:53:19
The music for this podcast

00:00:53:19 - 00:00:57:03
is by Eric Allaman, an international composer,

00:00:57:11 - 00:01:00:22
pianist and writer living in the Sea Ranch.

00:01:01:24 - 00:01:05:16
Discover more of his music, animations, ballet,

00:01:06:02 - 00:01:10:14
stage and film work at EricAllaman.com.

00:01:14:04 - 00:01:15:20
You can find Resilient Earth

00:01:15:20 - 00:01:19:10
on Spotify, Apple and Amazon podcasts,

00:01:19:20 - 00:01:25:12
iHeart radio, YouTube, SoundCloud and wherever you find your podcasts.

00:01:39:19 - 00:01:42:19
In this episode, we speak with marine biologist

00:01:42:24 - 00:01:46:13
Adam Ratner, who is the Director of Conservation

00:01:46:13 - 00:01:50:16
Engagement at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, which is in

00:01:50:16 - 00:01:54:18
Marin County, just north of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge.

00:01:55:03 - 00:01:58:10
He began at the Marine Mammal Center in 2009,

00:01:58:20 - 00:02:03:19
leading educational programs for high school students and visitors

00:02:04:08 - 00:02:08:16
for 50 years as the world's largest marine mammal hospital.

00:02:08:23 - 00:02:13:14
The Marine Mammal Center is leading the field in ocean health through marine

00:02:13:14 - 00:02:18:06
mammal rescue and rehabilitation, veterinary science and education.

00:02:18:17 - 00:02:20:15
Expert teams from the center

00:02:20:15 - 00:02:24:14
traveled around the world to work with emerging first responders,

00:02:24:23 - 00:02:27:22
and since 1975 has rescued

00:02:27:22 - 00:02:31:08
more than 26,000 marine mammals

00:02:32:00 - 00:02:35:03
We talk about that and more coming up next.

00:02:37:01 - 00:02:40:14
Welcome, Adam, to Resilient Earth radio and podcast.

00:02:40:15 - 00:02:42:03
It's good to see you again.

00:02:42:03 - 00:02:43:12
Well, thank you so much for having me.

00:02:43:12 - 00:02:45:01
It's a real honor.

00:02:45:01 - 00:02:48:19
And my friends and co-host and co-producers

00:02:48:19 - 00:02:52:02
Scott and Tree Mercer at the Mendonoma Whale and Seal Study.

00:02:52:03 - 00:02:54:15
They know you guys really well too.

00:02:54:15 - 00:02:55:12
Excellent.

00:02:55:12 - 00:02:57:21
so we're glad to have you on today, because

00:02:57:21 - 00:03:01:17
there are so many great ocean events that are happening About the ocean.

00:03:01:17 - 00:03:05:07
The ocean world Ocean Day is coming up on June 8th Sunday.

00:03:05:17 - 00:03:10:19
So perfect time to to speak with you about the things

00:03:10:19 - 00:03:14:07
that you do there at the Marine Mammal Center

00:03:14:22 - 00:03:18:10
about climate change and climate literacy

00:03:18:20 - 00:03:21:19
and human wildlife interaction.

00:03:21:19 - 00:03:25:17
So tell us more about what you're doing and how you're doing it.

00:03:25:17 - 00:03:28:20
I was so impressed to hear you talk there

00:03:29:05 - 00:03:32:05
at the panel at the International Ocean Film Festival.

00:03:32:07 - 00:03:34:03
Well thank you. That's so that's so kind of you.

00:03:34:03 - 00:03:37:03
So I've been fortunate enough to be at the Marine Mammal Center

00:03:37:05 - 00:03:40:05
for the last 16 years in a variety of different roles.

00:03:40:05 - 00:03:42:06
I am a marine biologist by training.

00:03:42:06 - 00:03:46:10
And really over the years have realized that I needed to move out

00:03:46:10 - 00:03:50:23
of the laboratory, out of the boats, studying animal behavior

00:03:50:23 - 00:03:54:07
and really thinking about ways that we can connect the dots for people

00:03:54:10 - 00:03:58:11
of how they can take action and be a hero for their environment.

00:03:58:16 - 00:03:59:21
Within their own community.

00:03:59:21 - 00:04:02:00
And that's what's so wonderful about the work,

00:04:02:00 - 00:04:05:06
the Marine Mammal Center, we run off of this community of support.

00:04:05:06 - 00:04:08:08
We're able to give animals a second chance at life,

00:04:08:14 - 00:04:12:23
but what we learn from those animals is hopefully able to keep them healthy

00:04:13:03 - 00:04:14:21
for generations to come, in a sense

00:04:14:21 - 00:04:17:21
that I want to stop getting these animals coming in sick and injured.

00:04:17:23 - 00:04:20:02
And my role is really to connect the science

00:04:20:02 - 00:04:23:05
and research that we get what's happening out in the ocean

00:04:23:14 - 00:04:26:15
with social science and behavior change research. So

00:04:26:15 - 00:04:30:07
how do we actually learn from the people, not just learn from the animals?

00:04:30:13 - 00:04:33:07
And then how do we empower people and get that message out there

00:04:33:07 - 00:04:34:19
in a way that's really impactful.

00:04:34:19 - 00:04:37:04
And there's very few places around the world

00:04:37:04 - 00:04:40:09
that I think have the opportunity to do this, like the Marine Mammal Center.

00:04:40:18 - 00:04:43:01
And it's the 50th anniversary.

00:04:43:01 - 00:04:43:19
It is.

00:04:43:19 - 00:04:48:16
We have done a lot over the last 50 years, 26,000 animals rescued,

00:04:48:16 - 00:04:53:05
millions of people reached and the next 50 years are even more vital

00:04:53:10 - 00:04:57:04
now as we think about the threats that are facing the ocean, but also the

00:04:57:04 - 00:05:01:02
opportunities that we have to create a healthier ocean for marine mammals.

00:05:01:02 - 00:05:02:03
And people will like.

00:05:02:03 - 00:05:03:14
You say 50. Years? Yeah.

00:05:03:14 - 00:05:04:06
50 years.

00:05:04:06 - 00:05:04:09
Yeah.

00:05:04:09 - 00:05:07:20
We were founded by three people in 1975.

00:05:08:00 - 00:05:09:00
And have grown.

00:05:09:00 - 00:05:11:16
We rescued seven animals, in that first year.

00:05:11:16 - 00:05:12:22
Fast forward 50 years.

00:05:12:22 - 00:05:15:09
We've got over 120 staff.

00:05:15:09 - 00:05:20:21
We've got 1400 volunteers that help support every aspect of our work.

00:05:21:00 - 00:05:25:17
And we rescue, on average, around 700 to 1000 animals a year.

00:05:26:02 - 00:05:29:08
Wow. I was I was asking because I was there the week that it opened.

00:05:30:15 - 00:05:31:12
Amazing.

00:05:31:12 - 00:05:34:22
Yeah, I was taking classes at College of Marine the center was a field trip.

00:05:35:24 - 00:05:36:24
That's so wonderful.

00:05:36:24 - 00:05:39:00
Yeah, we moved in.

00:05:39:00 - 00:05:39:10
Yeah.

00:05:39:10 - 00:05:42:24
Well, it's very lucky to have such an amazing community.

00:05:42:24 - 00:05:45:16
From the beginning of all these intersections, students

00:05:45:16 - 00:05:48:22
training a college of marine sciences that come and visit us.

00:05:48:22 - 00:05:52:16
It really is a testament to the community coming together that we serve

00:05:52:16 - 00:05:56:07
as this teaching hospital hub, for a marine biologist,

00:05:56:07 - 00:06:00:03
for researchers and budding stewards, teaching hospital.

00:06:00:12 - 00:06:05:03
And just an overview of the Marine Mammal Center for our listeners

00:06:05:03 - 00:06:07:08
who may not know much about it, even though you're

00:06:07:08 - 00:06:09:09
I think you're the largest in the world.

00:06:09:09 - 00:06:10:01
We are.

00:06:10:01 - 00:06:15:01
But you have animal care, you have science in conservation,

00:06:15:13 - 00:06:18:20
you've got education, and you've got ways

00:06:18:20 - 00:06:23:08
for people to get involved through volunteering or, educators,

00:06:23:12 - 00:06:27:12
how they can get involved and also how people can support.

00:06:28:00 - 00:06:30:17
So why don't you explain a bit

00:06:30:17 - 00:06:33:15
for everyone about the overview of the center itself?

00:06:33:15 - 00:06:35:15
Then we'll drill down.

00:06:35:15 - 00:06:38:15
Marine Mammal Center's work is really to advance ocean health,

00:06:38:19 - 00:06:41:19
and we do that through those key pillars that you mentioned.

00:06:41:19 - 00:06:45:14
So the animal care and the rescue and rehabilitation of sick and injured

00:06:45:14 - 00:06:45:24
animals.

00:06:45:24 - 00:06:49:03
We are the world's largest hospital for marine mammals.

00:06:49:16 - 00:06:51:08
We then learn from those animals.

00:06:51:08 - 00:06:54:13
So we were the first to discover different ailments that these animals face.

00:06:54:13 - 00:06:58:14
So whether that's cancer in California, sea lions or different toxins

00:06:58:14 - 00:06:59:24
like domoic acid, toxic

00:06:59:24 - 00:07:03:06
gases, we're also learning from animals when we release them.

00:07:03:06 - 00:07:04:06
So actually being able

00:07:04:06 - 00:07:07:11
to put trackers, figure out the migration patterns, behaviors.

00:07:07:18 - 00:07:10:21
And then there is this big teaching hospital aspect as well.

00:07:10:21 - 00:07:15:12
So we're able to train the next generation of scientists and veterinarians.

00:07:15:13 - 00:07:18:15
We have people from all around the world that come and train with us

00:07:18:15 - 00:07:20:22
and take that back to their own institutions,

00:07:20:22 - 00:07:25:11
and then the kind of more formal education use students.

00:07:25:11 - 00:07:27:01
And how do we really build that sense

00:07:27:01 - 00:07:31:06
of stewardship, of understanding early career pathway programs?

00:07:31:11 - 00:07:33:18
And we do that for visitors.

00:07:33:18 - 00:07:35:23
So anyone who wants to come through and visit us

00:07:35:23 - 00:07:39:00
for free to the public open Friday through Monday in Sausalito.

00:07:39:01 - 00:07:42:07
And we've got lots of different tours and hands on experiences for kids

00:07:42:14 - 00:07:45:15
to middle school programs where we train middle school teachers

00:07:45:19 - 00:07:47:13
on marine science curriculum.

00:07:47:13 - 00:07:50:13
We've got volunteer programs and stewardship programs

00:07:50:20 - 00:07:53:24
for high school students, for college students and internships.

00:07:53:24 - 00:07:56:07
So lots of different ways to get involved.

00:07:56:07 - 00:07:59:16
Our volunteers range from 15 to 97.

00:07:59:23 - 00:08:02:20
We don't even cut it off at 97.

00:08:02:20 - 00:08:04:15
So really lots of ways to get involved.

00:08:04:15 - 00:08:07:03
And anyone can always find more information on the website,

00:08:07:03 - 00:08:10:08
which is Marine Mammal center.org on how to either visit or

00:08:10:08 - 00:08:13:08
get involved with our work, no matter where you are around the globe.

00:08:13:11 - 00:08:16:10
As a matter of fact, on World Ocean Day, you've got a bark.

00:08:16:10 - 00:08:18:00
An event.

00:08:18:00 - 00:08:18:14
We do.

00:08:18:14 - 00:08:22:16
We we tend to have a lot of different kind of themed events, what we refer to

00:08:22:16 - 00:08:23:16
as marine science.

00:08:23:16 - 00:08:25:05
Some days where every month

00:08:25:05 - 00:08:29:06
we'll have, one of our marine biologists share on different topics.

00:08:29:06 - 00:08:32:00
So we're celebrating sea lions in June.

00:08:32:00 - 00:08:33:18
Most people might not realize,

00:08:33:18 - 00:08:36:20
but almost all California sea lions are born the same month.

00:08:37:03 - 00:08:40:02
They're all born in June, essentially down at the Channel Islands.

00:08:40:02 - 00:08:43:04
So we want to kind of celebrate that story a little bit,

00:08:43:04 - 00:08:45:12
give them a little bit of a shout out for their birthday as well.

00:08:45:12 - 00:08:49:11
But talk about why that's important, that all these animals are born

00:08:49:12 - 00:08:50:10
around the same time.

00:08:50:10 - 00:08:51:09
What it tells us

00:08:51:09 - 00:08:54:21
about the health of the ocean as we study how those animals are being born

00:08:55:04 - 00:08:57:06
and what it means for what we might be able to see

00:08:57:06 - 00:08:59:18
along our coastline in the coming weeks and months, as well.

00:08:59:18 - 00:09:03:03
You also have a podcast there that I was

00:09:03:03 - 00:09:06:05
watching you on episode two of Sentinels of the sea.

00:09:06:10 - 00:09:06:21
Yeah.

00:09:06:21 - 00:09:07:20
One of my colleagues,

00:09:07:20 - 00:09:11:22
John Carlo, really, has put together the Sentinels of the sea podcast.

00:09:12:03 - 00:09:13:23
We did one a few years back.

00:09:13:23 - 00:09:17:07
And we're able to kind of bring it back and do with some new topics.

00:09:17:07 - 00:09:20:17
So really just rich stories, of the work that's happening.

00:09:20:17 - 00:09:24:15
The thing that I probably love the most about the marine Mammal Center

00:09:24:15 - 00:09:26:21
is that every day is its own adventure,

00:09:26:21 - 00:09:29:00
you don't know what these animals are going to do.

00:09:29:00 - 00:09:32:05
So all of a sudden in the last few years, we started seeing all these whales

00:09:32:12 - 00:09:35:08
coming into San Francisco Bay when we had never seen them

00:09:35:08 - 00:09:37:07
really, before coming into the Bay.

00:09:37:07 - 00:09:39:10
And what does that mean?

00:09:39:10 - 00:09:41:00
And what's the deeper science there?

00:09:41:00 - 00:09:43:13
And a chance to kind of dive into those stories, diving

00:09:43:13 - 00:09:47:22
into two things, like zoonotic diseases, avian flu and Covid

00:09:47:22 - 00:09:51:18
and all these things that have gotten our attention over the last few years.

00:09:51:18 - 00:09:55:14
And how can marine mammals be sentinels for ocean health?

00:09:55:14 - 00:09:57:24
And what does it tell us about human health as well?

00:09:57:24 - 00:10:02:04
So some really, unique ways to tell these stories that might not

00:10:02:04 - 00:10:06:02
come front and center when you think about marine mammals, these kind of cute,

00:10:06:14 - 00:10:10:18
adorable, charismatic megafauna, animals that maybe you see a fair

00:10:10:18 - 00:10:11:12
amount of sea lions.

00:10:11:12 - 00:10:13:11
You got a pier 39, you can see a thousand of them,

00:10:13:11 - 00:10:16:04
but there are lots of animals that are threatened or endangered

00:10:16:04 - 00:10:19:01
that are right along our coast, like the Guadalupe, a fur seal.

00:10:19:01 - 00:10:24:11
how do we bring people's love and sense of awe and wonder for marine mammals

00:10:25:05 - 00:10:28:18
to a deeper level, where they can start to see the mysteries

00:10:28:18 - 00:10:30:04
that are around these animals?

00:10:30:04 - 00:10:33:10
The threats that might be under the surface, and the opportunities

00:10:33:16 - 00:10:38:10
to actually be involved in helping to care for them or protect their environment,

00:10:38:10 - 00:10:42:19
because we find the conversations around marine mammals, they're coastal.

00:10:42:19 - 00:10:44:24
Obviously, it's where you can see them.

00:10:44:24 - 00:10:49:08
But we live in this connected ecosystem, and human health, animal health,

00:10:49:08 - 00:10:53:15
environmental health is all connected under this one big one health picture.

00:10:53:20 - 00:10:58:24
And it means everyone has something to, to play in that story moving forward.

00:10:59:23 - 00:11:00:09
Scott

00:11:00:09 - 00:11:03:10
Tree, why don't you describe to some of the work you do

00:11:03:10 - 00:11:06:10
and how you interact with the Marine Mammal Center?

00:11:08:00 - 00:11:08:12
Sure.

00:11:08:12 - 00:11:14:14
Well, we, we do a daily, census of not just the numbers,

00:11:14:14 - 00:11:19:06
but also the behaviors of just about any cetaceans that go by our coast.

00:11:19:06 - 00:11:22:24
And many are within view right from the shoreline.

00:11:23:08 - 00:11:28:06
We interact a great deal with Bill keener, who you must know and love him.

00:11:28:12 - 00:11:32:07
Yep. And, he has an intern now working specifically

00:11:32:07 - 00:11:35:17
on those gray whales that are entering the bay.

00:11:35:17 - 00:11:38:14
Jose. Jose. Yeah.

00:11:38:14 - 00:11:41:10
any time we do see cetacean, I use whale alert,

00:11:41:10 - 00:11:43:05
And I believe you get that directly.

00:11:43:05 - 00:11:45:13
guys, to the Marine Mammal Center.

00:11:45:13 - 00:11:48:22
So, yeah, we bring in, you know, daily communication, you know,

00:11:48:22 - 00:11:50:17
through through that particular app.

00:11:50:17 - 00:11:55:01
And, another way is if when we see bottlenose dolphins, Scott immediately

00:11:55:01 - 00:12:00:03
contacts Bill and we try to get photos for photo identification of them.

00:12:00:17 - 00:12:02:17
we've been doing this now for 12 years.

00:12:02:17 - 00:12:04:01
Just amazing, amazing work.

00:12:04:01 - 00:12:08:14
And it speaks to it takes a village to do some of this stuff.

00:12:08:15 - 00:12:10:20
These animals, they don't stay in one location.

00:12:10:20 - 00:12:14:16
How do you how do you finish the puzzle in a sense,

00:12:14:16 - 00:12:17:18
because you've got these pieces in different areas of the coast.

00:12:17:18 - 00:12:19:07
You've got different elements

00:12:19:07 - 00:12:22:11
that people and experts can bring to the conversation.

00:12:22:16 - 00:12:26:11
And that's really how we understand the mysteries of ocean health and

00:12:26:11 - 00:12:30:09
the opportunities to protect these animals that are in our own backyards.

00:12:30:20 - 00:12:33:20
So you a huge testament to the work that you're doing, collecting

00:12:33:20 - 00:12:37:08
all that data and feeding into this bigger picture that not only the Marine

00:12:37:08 - 00:12:40:08
Mammal Center is using that data, but people all around the world

00:12:40:10 - 00:12:43:24
rely on this to be able to answer some key questions about marine mammals.

00:12:44:11 - 00:12:45:03
And. Absolutely.

00:12:45:03 - 00:12:46:11
And the marine mammals

00:12:46:11 - 00:12:50:09
can tell us a great deal about the overall health of the ocean,

00:12:50:16 - 00:12:53:24
which we know is critical to life on this planet.

00:12:54:12 - 00:12:58:13
So it is important to, you know, to monitor them, to see,

00:12:58:20 - 00:13:00:05
you know, like you said, try to understand

00:13:00:05 - 00:13:04:04
the threats that they're facing and what we can all do collectively

00:13:04:04 - 00:13:08:03
to help protect that environment and allow them to thrive.

00:13:08:08 - 00:13:11:08
And you've both mentioned ocean health.

00:13:11:09 - 00:13:12:21
a couple of times.

00:13:12:21 - 00:13:17:01
So describe what, is indicative of good ocean health

00:13:17:05 - 00:13:20:20
and then what are the signs that you see that when it's not healthy.

00:13:20:20 - 00:13:24:16
So one of the things with marine mammals is they're really ecosystem indicators

00:13:24:16 - 00:13:28:10
because marine mammals, they eat the same food that people do.

00:13:28:10 - 00:13:30:07
They breathe the same air and they're swimming

00:13:30:07 - 00:13:32:11
in the same waters that we swim in.

00:13:32:11 - 00:13:33:22
So they give us lots of clues.

00:13:33:22 - 00:13:37:11
I would say one of the biggest indicators is the presence of food,

00:13:37:21 - 00:13:39:16
and healthy food at that.

00:13:39:16 - 00:13:44:16
So our animals of the right size is we do monitoring for whales along the coast.

00:13:44:16 - 00:13:48:21
Are they skinny, or are they normal size as we think about animals washing up

00:13:48:21 - 00:13:52:15
on beaches, sick and injured, are they malnourished,

00:13:52:15 - 00:13:56:11
or are they facing different diseases or things along those lines?

00:13:56:22 - 00:14:00:00
The presence of toxins or trash

00:14:00:00 - 00:14:03:03
and pollutants and plastics is an indication.

00:14:03:15 - 00:14:05:23
The other aspect is a little bit more indirect,

00:14:05:23 - 00:14:09:11
I would say, which is around things like temperature of the water.

00:14:09:18 - 00:14:12:19
So you're not going to be able to necessarily see a sea lion

00:14:12:19 - 00:14:16:11
come up on the beach and be able to tell if the water is warmer than normal.

00:14:16:18 - 00:14:19:10
They're pretty resilient, just like we are when you can drive

00:14:19:10 - 00:14:22:14
and you might experience a ten degree temperature change.

00:14:22:24 - 00:14:27:21
But the food that sea lions and seals and whales depend on is much more sensitive.

00:14:28:04 - 00:14:31:11
So we're able to get a sense of is the food moving deeper

00:14:31:11 - 00:14:34:15
or farther offshore in search of cooler waters?

00:14:35:00 - 00:14:38:14
And what does that tell us about the big ocean food web and the health

00:14:38:14 - 00:14:43:03
of our ocean ecosystem as almost a proxy through their seals and sea lions?

00:14:43:09 - 00:14:45:07
So those are some of the things that we're looking at.

00:14:45:07 - 00:14:48:12
And obviously, it leads to a few of the big threats that marine

00:14:48:12 - 00:14:49:18
mammals are facing.

00:14:49:18 - 00:14:52:07
You're facing things like climate change,

00:14:52:07 - 00:14:55:08
ocean temperatures are warming, the water is getting more acidic.

00:14:55:08 - 00:14:58:20
That's playing a huge role in things like the food supply,

00:14:59:10 - 00:15:01:04
kind of tied to climate change.

00:15:01:04 - 00:15:03:21
That warming water is expanding.

00:15:03:21 - 00:15:07:11
So you've got sea level rise and that's shrinking or making some of these

00:15:07:11 - 00:15:11:11
breeding beaches and resting spots more vulnerable for the animals.

00:15:11:11 - 00:15:14:11
We see that a lot with the elephant seals and harbor seals.

00:15:14:20 - 00:15:17:12
You've also got things like toxins and pollutants

00:15:17:12 - 00:15:18:17
that are getting into the water.

00:15:18:17 - 00:15:19:05
And I mentioned

00:15:19:05 - 00:15:23:20
we were the first to discover domoic acid toxic gases back in the 1990s.

00:15:24:01 - 00:15:26:12
This is something that can affect people.

00:15:26:12 - 00:15:30:01
We work closely over the years with groups like the California Department

00:15:30:01 - 00:15:34:15
of Public Health that you see a sea lion come in with this toxin.

00:15:35:00 - 00:15:36:03
It can cause seizures.

00:15:36:03 - 00:15:37:15
It can affect the brain.

00:15:37:15 - 00:15:39:04
Treatable with cotton time.

00:15:39:04 - 00:15:40:22
But what we can do is we can actually talk

00:15:40:22 - 00:15:43:22
to the Department of Public Health and how the fisheries shut down.

00:15:44:08 - 00:15:47:01
It's almost like the canary in the coal mine example.

00:15:47:01 - 00:15:50:01
It's that we're able to save the canary a lot of the time.

00:15:50:02 - 00:15:51:04
So different ways

00:15:51:04 - 00:15:55:07
that we can study ocean health through the lens of marine mammals.

00:15:55:07 - 00:15:59:22
We're very, very lucky in California, we have arguably more

00:15:59:22 - 00:16:04:04
and diverse marine mammals than any other place around the world.

00:16:04:12 - 00:16:08:23
So it gives us a lot of puzzle pieces, to use that metaphor again,

00:16:08:23 - 00:16:13:04
of what's happening along our coast and what we can do to to help address it

00:16:13:04 - 00:16:14:09
and make it even better.

00:16:14:09 - 00:16:18:08
Scott and Tre were in a documentary a couple of years ago,

00:16:18:11 - 00:16:20:18
called Washed Ashore about the,

00:16:21:22 - 00:16:24:10
unusual mortality event back then.

00:16:24:10 - 00:16:26:23
And that was by a couple of Berkeley students.

00:16:26:23 - 00:16:30:10
And it seems like now, from what I've been hearing from you guys,

00:16:30:10 - 00:16:36:14
from you, Scott and Tre, that that there's that event possibly happen again.

00:16:36:14 - 00:16:38:12
And Adam speak to this too.

00:16:38:12 - 00:16:41:20
But what is happening with the whales along our coast?

00:16:41:20 - 00:16:42:14
Right now?

00:16:42:14 - 00:16:46:24
but I was just saying about, the health of the ocean reminded me in the late 70s

00:16:46:24 - 00:16:50:13
when I was back east working with College of the Atlantic in Maine,

00:16:50:22 - 00:16:53:15
we had an expression that when the marine mammals being hitting

00:16:53:15 - 00:16:55:19
the beach, we're going to know we're in big trouble.

00:16:55:19 - 00:16:57:20
Well, for decades I've been watching them hitting the beach.

00:16:57:20 - 00:17:01:05
I'm not sure it's sunk in yet with a lot of people that were in big trouble.

00:17:01:20 - 00:17:03:24
And now with the, just just ended.

00:17:03:24 - 00:17:08:06
And we may start again with great whales, we had so many, so many great whales and,

00:17:08:20 - 00:17:13:09
and the pinnipeds, they often get forgotten by the public in some ways.

00:17:13:09 - 00:17:16:09
But now we've had a lot of, sea lions.

00:17:16:17 - 00:17:18:05
The and and so forth.

00:17:18:05 - 00:17:20:02
So, yeah, there's,

00:17:21:06 - 00:17:23:02
quite a bit going on that's not.

00:17:23:02 - 00:17:24:24
Well, Adam. Yeah.

00:17:24:24 - 00:17:28:24
You guys have gone through a few events recently with one

00:17:29:01 - 00:17:34:19
specifically that washed up in the San Francisco Bay and others too.

00:17:34:20 - 00:17:37:24
Could you enlighten us on what happened there again? Yes.

00:17:37:24 - 00:17:42:01
Let me take a little bit of a step back, because starting in around

00:17:42:07 - 00:17:45:03
2016, 2017,

00:17:45:03 - 00:17:48:19
we started to see more whales coming into San Francisco Bay.

00:17:49:00 - 00:17:52:24
So gray whales and humpback whales in particular, and these weren't

00:17:53:00 - 00:17:54:13
necessarily sick animals.

00:17:54:13 - 00:17:56:20
They were healthy animals coming into the bay.

00:17:56:20 - 00:17:59:14
But we just had never seen them, really.

00:17:59:14 - 00:18:01:03
They were off the coast.

00:18:01:03 - 00:18:04:00
So this really kickstarted a lot of monitoring that the marine

00:18:04:00 - 00:18:07:05
mammal Center, other partners did to try and understand why

00:18:07:11 - 00:18:10:20
why were they coming into the Bay, what was happening here

00:18:10:20 - 00:18:12:11
and what are the benefits of this,

00:18:12:11 - 00:18:15:11
and what are some of the new threats and risks that they face?

00:18:15:20 - 00:18:19:10
And the kind of short story is they were coming into the Bay

00:18:19:10 - 00:18:21:00
because the bay was healthy.

00:18:21:00 - 00:18:22:09
There was lots of good food.

00:18:22:09 - 00:18:25:09
So humpback whales were coming into the bay and eating,

00:18:25:12 - 00:18:28:12
gray whales were coming in to the bay.

00:18:28:12 - 00:18:32:10
But that poses some new risks as well.

00:18:32:15 - 00:18:34:22
San Francisco Bay is a huge port.

00:18:34:22 - 00:18:36:17
There are massive amounts of ships

00:18:36:17 - 00:18:40:12
that are coming through and some at high speeds as well.

00:18:40:22 - 00:18:45:07
So we started to see some of these trends around things like ship strikes.

00:18:46:04 - 00:18:48:19
That would be a problem, particularly with humpback whales.

00:18:48:19 - 00:18:52:08
We also saw entanglements become a really big problem, particularly

00:18:52:08 - 00:18:55:15
with things like Dungeness crab fishing gear that the

00:18:56:05 - 00:18:59:05
humpback whales were essentially shifting their normal schedule

00:18:59:09 - 00:19:03:21
and where they were and where it used to be a really peaceful kind of division.

00:19:03:21 - 00:19:06:20
You had humpback whale season and you had crab season.

00:19:06:20 - 00:19:10:00
They were now overlapping and the gear is really dangerous.

00:19:10:08 - 00:19:13:22
So we started to see these opportunities

00:19:13:22 - 00:19:17:21
for coexistence, but it required changes.

00:19:19:00 - 00:19:19:16
At the same

00:19:19:16 - 00:19:23:21
time, the gray whale story started to pop up, where we started

00:19:23:21 - 00:19:27:05
seeing gray whales coming into San Francisco Bay

00:19:27:05 - 00:19:30:21
or right along the coast, and they were extraordinarily skinny.

00:19:31:19 - 00:19:36:13
Typically the way I describe this to young students, is with gray whales,

00:19:36:13 - 00:19:39:13
you've got your favorite restaurant and you've got your home.

00:19:39:24 - 00:19:43:06
It just so happens that their home is kind of down in, in Mexico.

00:19:43:06 - 00:19:44:03
It's the breeding ground

00:19:44:03 - 00:19:47:14
where they have the calves, they raise their young favorite restaurant.

00:19:47:22 - 00:19:49:17
It's like. Alaska.

00:19:49:17 - 00:19:53:02
It's it's a good distance to get to your favorite restaurant,

00:19:53:05 - 00:19:57:08
but you're not eating during that swim or that drive.

00:19:57:17 - 00:20:02:22
So if you've got an animal that is really skinny in San Francisco Bay, it's

00:20:02:22 - 00:20:07:04
because their favorite restaurant was probably having problems.

00:20:07:16 - 00:20:10:01
And when it turns out, is where they're eating up

00:20:10:01 - 00:20:13:15
in Alaska and Canada and the Arctic, it's warming.

00:20:13:15 - 00:20:17:01
It's warming twice as fast as every other place around the world.

00:20:17:01 - 00:20:18:22
It's shifting the ice cover.

00:20:18:22 - 00:20:22:01
It's reducing the amount of food, or it's shifting the amount of food

00:20:22:01 - 00:20:23:08
even farther north.

00:20:23:08 - 00:20:27:19
So these great whales are having to drive and swim farther to get their food.

00:20:27:22 - 00:20:32:02
They still got to get all the way back down to Mexico, have their babies,

00:20:32:08 - 00:20:37:08
and then swim all the way back up to get to their favorite restaurant again.

00:20:37:15 - 00:20:39:13
And essentially the gray whales,

00:20:39:13 - 00:20:43:06
they were running out of gas on that drive back up and that swim back up.

00:20:43:14 - 00:20:48:20
And they were coming into the, the Bay to try and find some food.

00:20:48:20 - 00:20:51:00
And luckily enough, we had food.

00:20:51:00 - 00:20:52:13
But we have other things.

00:20:52:13 - 00:20:55:20
We have boats that are going by at high speeds.

00:20:55:20 - 00:20:59:06
So we started seeing massive numbers of these gray whales

00:20:59:14 - 00:21:02:11
washing up onto beaches, dead,

00:21:02:11 - 00:21:05:11
either due to malnutrition and or ship strikes.

00:21:05:19 - 00:21:08:03
And I just wanted to point out that the panel

00:21:08:03 - 00:21:11:09
that you were on there at the International Ocean Film Festival,

00:21:11:22 - 00:21:15:10
there was another woman there from the Marine Mammal Center with you,

00:21:15:10 - 00:21:18:22
and you were all talking about positive things.

00:21:19:09 - 00:21:24:17
And one of her stories was how, happy she was to see the engagement

00:21:24:17 - 00:21:31:13
with the shipping industry in slowing down not only slowing down their ships, but,

00:21:31:21 - 00:21:35:20
altering their paths according to the passage of the whales.

00:21:36:12 - 00:21:37:04
Absolutely.

00:21:37:04 - 00:21:40:24
And this is what, is both amazing and so difficult about our work

00:21:40:24 - 00:21:44:05
because we've built systems that our society

00:21:44:05 - 00:21:48:11
runs off of based on consistent information.

00:21:48:11 - 00:21:52:19
We've had stable systems, for lack of better words, very predictable patterns.

00:21:52:19 - 00:21:56:19
When might animals be where our animals and things like climate change

00:21:57:01 - 00:22:00:20
are shifting those, and we're having to learn on the fly and adapt,

00:22:00:20 - 00:22:03:20
and it's really hard to shift global systems.

00:22:04:14 - 00:22:07:13
At the same time, we've seen an amazing

00:22:07:13 - 00:22:10:16
receptiveness on so many fronts for the whales in the bay.

00:22:10:21 - 00:22:15:08
So we've got this whole network of ferries and shipping containers

00:22:15:08 - 00:22:16:08
and all these groups

00:22:16:08 - 00:22:20:14
that are sharing data through whale alert and letting us know when

00:22:21:14 - 00:22:23:16
animals are there so that they can adjust things.

00:22:23:16 - 00:22:26:04
They're voluntarily reducing their ship speeds,

00:22:26:04 - 00:22:29:21
they're shifting the fishing season for Dungeness crab

00:22:29:24 - 00:22:33:04
so that it's not a threat to whales, or shutting it down

00:22:33:04 - 00:22:35:02
if there are too many whales in the area.

00:22:35:02 - 00:22:41:00
Using new, safer, whale friendly gear when they try and catch those things.

00:22:41:00 - 00:22:45:19
So we're seeing a huge community around helping to respond to these things

00:22:46:01 - 00:22:49:16
sometimes because they're things happening in the moment we have,

00:22:49:17 - 00:22:53:10
we see whales that are getting sick before we can come up with solutions.

00:22:53:10 - 00:22:54:05
And that's what's

00:22:54:05 - 00:22:57:05
been happening in the last few years, particularly with the gray whales.

00:22:57:23 - 00:23:02:02
To get back to the original part of this story, the last few weeks

00:23:02:02 - 00:23:05:10
have been incredibly traumatic, to be really honest.

00:23:05:11 - 00:23:08:12
We've seen 14 whales, die

00:23:08:12 - 00:23:11:12
in the Bay area in just the last few weeks.

00:23:11:16 - 00:23:12:19
That's tragic.

00:23:12:19 - 00:23:17:20
So luckily we've got a team that goes out, we evaluate these animals,

00:23:17:20 - 00:23:21:09
we try and figure out why they died and learn from death.

00:23:21:09 - 00:23:23:22
We're not able to get the answers in every case.

00:23:23:22 - 00:23:28:03
Sometimes the whale is inaccessible, or sometimes they're decomposed

00:23:28:03 - 00:23:30:02
and we can't collect certain data.

00:23:30:02 - 00:23:33:09
But we do know that malnutrition is playing a role in some of these.

00:23:33:09 - 00:23:37:13
The animals are struggling to find food, which ties in to the previous issue

00:23:37:13 - 00:23:40:23
that the gray whales faced in 2019 through 2021.

00:23:41:11 - 00:23:45:13
And we know that a few, unfortunately, are facing things like ship strikes as well.

00:23:46:12 - 00:23:48:11
It's hard to know,

00:23:48:11 - 00:23:52:05
if the ship strike happened before or after in some cases.

00:23:52:14 - 00:23:55:19
And typically with some of these, they're also malnourished.

00:23:55:19 - 00:24:00:14
So probably it wasn't the ship strike that was the bigger issue.

00:24:00:14 - 00:24:03:22
In a sense, it might have been the final straw that broke the camel's back,

00:24:04:05 - 00:24:06:04
but this was an animal that was already struggling.

00:24:06:04 - 00:24:09:11
So trying to figure out how do we tie this puzzle piece

00:24:10:04 - 00:24:14:22
together of scientists that are studying whales way up in Alaska and Canada

00:24:14:22 - 00:24:15:22
and the Arctic

00:24:15:22 - 00:24:19:14
that are at the feeding roots and noticing changes up their scientists

00:24:19:14 - 00:24:23:18
that are down in Mexico, that are studying the birthing patterns and calving rates,

00:24:23:24 - 00:24:26:22
and then everything in between as these whales are traveling.

00:24:26:22 - 00:24:27:07
And that's why

00:24:27:07 - 00:24:30:22
the monitoring that's happening up off the Mendocino Coast is so critical.

00:24:31:06 - 00:24:35:20
And it's why these partnerships across industry, across nonprofit

00:24:36:08 - 00:24:40:04
government, is so important as we try and keep these animals safe,

00:24:40:04 - 00:24:44:12
because the gray whale population in particular, that, unusual mortality

00:24:44:12 - 00:24:50:00
event in 2019 through 2021, dropped the population by, I think, close to 30%.

00:24:50:09 - 00:24:51:17
In just a few years.

00:24:51:17 - 00:24:54:20
They did jump back up over the last, few years,

00:24:55:00 - 00:24:58:17
but now we're seeing at least higher numbers in the Bay area.

00:24:58:17 - 00:25:02:18
We haven't seen that trend like we did in 2019 yet

00:25:02:23 - 00:25:06:22
with other strandings along the Washington coast, the Oregon coast.

00:25:07:01 - 00:25:10:11
So it might just be that we're seeing a higher number in the Bay area,

00:25:10:16 - 00:25:12:17
but it's not representative of the bigger picture.

00:25:12:17 - 00:25:14:03
It certainly tell some stories about

00:25:14:03 - 00:25:17:18
what's happening in the Bay area, though, that require a deeper dive.

00:25:18:05 - 00:25:20:17
And that's why Kathy George, the person you mentioned, who was on the.

00:25:20:17 - 00:25:21:23
Panel featuring.

00:25:21:23 - 00:25:27:14
Bill keener, members of our local zing cetacean conservation team, are doing

00:25:27:14 - 00:25:30:15
every day out on boats in the Bay area to try and answer those questions.

00:25:31:05 - 00:25:36:13
they also had a pretty, high mortality, in the Mexico area,

00:25:36:13 - 00:25:41:08
91 this year, which was higher than even the highest number during the,

00:25:42:15 - 00:25:43:21
Mexico is highest

00:25:43:21 - 00:25:47:23
count in, dead, gray whales was 88.

00:25:48:02 - 00:25:50:02
They've exceeded that this year.

00:25:50:02 - 00:25:54:06
But you're absolutely right about not so to many up in Oregon, Washington.

00:25:54:14 - 00:25:58:05
But there's obviously, you know, a cause for concern here.

00:25:58:05 - 00:26:03:08
And it's, and, you know, we so, so appreciative of the work that the Marine

00:26:03:08 - 00:26:08:07
Mammal Center does in connection with the California Academy of Science.

00:26:08:17 - 00:26:11:17
you guys, you scientists are out there every day

00:26:11:21 - 00:26:15:12
trying to figure out what's going on and to help this, population.

00:26:16:07 - 00:26:18:23
That's what I was going to say to how encouraging it

00:26:18:23 - 00:26:22:19
is that you're sharing data with all these other agencies

00:26:22:19 - 00:26:25:21
and with Scott and Tre, and they're sharing it with you.

00:26:25:21 - 00:26:29:21
And because of the way that climate,

00:26:30:01 - 00:26:33:17
the any discussion about climate and climate change right now

00:26:33:17 - 00:26:38:09
seems to be being eradicated off of so many government websites

00:26:38:09 - 00:26:41:12
that it people needing to find out the information.

00:26:41:12 - 00:26:47:15
So, you know, what, actions you can take to maybe mitigate or help the situation.

00:26:47:15 - 00:26:49:14
And Scott, you were about to say something.

00:26:49:14 - 00:26:53:03
Yeah, we had another there was a bit of an unusual,

00:26:53:03 - 00:26:56:08
temperature anomaly that we had reported to us from the lagoons

00:26:56:23 - 00:27:00:21
was that the water was a bit cooler this year in the lagoons.

00:27:01:07 - 00:27:05:10
So some of the pregnant females were taking the calves south

00:27:05:10 - 00:27:08:17
and around and into the Sea of Cortez, where the water was a bit warmer.

00:27:09:10 - 00:27:15:01
And, there were just reports of mortality in that area to what you'd been talking

00:27:15:01 - 00:27:19:10
about inside the Bay, on the face of it, it seems like an impossible situation.

00:27:20:03 - 00:27:23:00
You've got, ferry boats on a schedule,

00:27:23:00 - 00:27:26:00
zipping from the Embarcadero,

00:27:26:03 - 00:27:31:02
over to Maryland and back, tourist boats taking tourists out to Alcatraz and back.

00:27:31:13 - 00:27:33:11
And then in a different direction. You've got boats.

00:27:33:11 - 00:27:36:05
Enormous boats, going from the Golden Gate

00:27:36:05 - 00:27:39:05
to the, port of the San Francisco and the Port of Oakland

00:27:39:14 - 00:27:42:09
and all the tugboats that help them in and out.

00:27:42:09 - 00:27:45:12
And, then the tourist boats, it just seems impossible.

00:27:46:05 - 00:27:47:19
Like there should be a National Guard in

00:27:49:07 - 00:27:51:16
to, direct traffic in there.

00:27:51:16 - 00:27:52:03
Yeah.

00:27:52:03 - 00:27:55:16
As I mentioned, there's never a dull moment whenever going.

00:27:55:21 - 00:27:58:21
To have a huge sailboat race in there that just

00:27:58:24 - 00:28:01:18
that just, for my hair white.

00:28:01:18 - 00:28:01:24
Yeah.

00:28:01:24 - 00:28:04:13
And I used to sail on the bay, too, with my brother.

00:28:04:13 - 00:28:06:12
We'd sell out of Berkeley and go over

00:28:06:12 - 00:28:10:08
to, Tiburon and Angel Island and other places.

00:28:10:10 - 00:28:14:06
And I think one of the things that gives me hope, in the sense

00:28:14:06 - 00:28:17:22
when we think about how heavily trafficked, this is

00:28:18:10 - 00:28:22:08
what the what an opportunity to see whales.

00:28:22:08 - 00:28:25:23
I mean, people want to go out on whale watching, but it's all the time,

00:28:26:07 - 00:28:29:24
and arguably one of the best whale watching boats you can go

00:28:29:24 - 00:28:34:00
on is the typical ferry in San Francisco Bay.

00:28:34:05 - 00:28:35:19
we've mentioned Bill Keenan's name a bunch.

00:28:35:19 - 00:28:38:22
He's he studies every, every thing from the humpback

00:28:38:22 - 00:28:41:16
whales and gray whales to the smaller harbor porpoises.

00:28:41:16 - 00:28:44:20
Best place, probably in the world

00:28:44:21 - 00:28:47:22
to see harbor porpoises as you stand on the Golden Gate Bridge.

00:28:47:22 - 00:28:52:01
And he looked out, that's literally where our scientists are doing our research.

00:28:52:08 - 00:28:56:22
Like there is an opportunity here as we think about coexistence,

00:28:56:22 - 00:28:59:23
where people have this opportunity to connect with wildlife

00:28:59:23 - 00:29:04:13
in a really powerful way, in arguably a really easy way.

00:29:04:23 - 00:29:07:08
Like just take public transportation

00:29:07:08 - 00:29:10:23
and you can see whales, but there are systems that have to change.

00:29:10:23 - 00:29:13:12
And it's it's not going to be the status quo.

00:29:13:12 - 00:29:15:21
We we can't do everything the same.

00:29:15:21 - 00:29:18:22
But I would argue that doing everything the same might not

00:29:18:22 - 00:29:22:00
be the way we make progress on a wide range of different issues.

00:29:22:00 - 00:29:23:23
So it's not about sacrifice,

00:29:23:23 - 00:29:27:15
it's about progress to finding a way that we have happier lives, healthier

00:29:27:15 - 00:29:31:04
lives, healthier ecosystems, and new opportunities that people

00:29:31:08 - 00:29:34:09
probably didn't even dream of that they had when they think about

00:29:34:09 - 00:29:35:10
visiting the Bay area.

00:29:37:05 - 00:29:39:21
It's one of the reasons it's gotten tre to

00:29:39:21 - 00:29:46:02
they do all of their whale watching on the, Cliffs to Point Arena.

00:29:46:09 - 00:29:48:03
They don't you don't even need to get out on a boat

00:29:48:03 - 00:29:50:20
to see the great whales in particular, even the humpback whales.

00:29:50:20 - 00:29:52:03
That's been one of the big shifts.

00:29:52:03 - 00:29:54:17
Some big words used to say a lot farther offshore.

00:29:54:17 - 00:29:56:02
You had to get on boats to see them.

00:29:56:02 - 00:30:00:09
But there are all kinds of opportunities to see humpback whales these days

00:30:00:09 - 00:30:04:06
from from lands just get to a high place and lots of different resources out there

00:30:04:06 - 00:30:07:06
to, to find those, those best locations, if you will.

00:30:07:12 - 00:30:08:07
Absolutely.

00:30:08:07 - 00:30:11:17
Just last Friday or another place, we we usually do

00:30:11:17 - 00:30:15:05
most of our observations from Lighthouse Road in Point Arena,

00:30:16:00 - 00:30:19:09
that does extend about two miles out into the ocean.

00:30:19:10 - 00:30:21:00
It's it's a great spot.

00:30:21:00 - 00:30:26:07
But in northern Sonoma County at Salt Point, State Park, there's Gerstle Cove.

00:30:26:15 - 00:30:28:17
And just last Friday

00:30:28:17 - 00:30:32:07
it was we're watching and maybe hoping still for gray whale mothers and calves.

00:30:32:11 - 00:30:35:05
But what do we see? But for humpback whales?

00:30:35:05 - 00:30:38:13
less than a mile out, let's say you could see it with your eye.

00:30:38:13 - 00:30:40:16
Of course, the binoculars help.

00:30:40:16 - 00:30:44:02
And, a couple of years back, when there were a lot of anchovies

00:30:44:02 - 00:30:48:09
in the area, there were so many people at Crystal Cove.

00:30:48:09 - 00:30:52:01
There were three groups of feeding humpbacks and the people didn't

00:30:52:01 - 00:30:53:01
leave at them.

00:30:53:01 - 00:30:58:03
They stayed for hours watching these humpbacks lunge feeding.

00:30:58:04 - 00:31:01:04
And, it was an amazing day.

00:31:01:06 - 00:31:03:20
but these are now places that you think of whale watching.

00:31:03:20 - 00:31:06:06
that's how lucky we are at this point.

00:31:06:06 - 00:31:08:08
And there are ways that we can,

00:31:09:10 - 00:31:11:11
can make this coexistence

00:31:11:11 - 00:31:15:23
possible in a way that's really beneficial for so many different partners.

00:31:16:02 - 00:31:17:24
and groups throughout the area.

00:31:17:24 - 00:31:20:04
even right off the sea rich here,

00:31:20:04 - 00:31:23:15
there was reports of orcas, treated you guys hear about that?

00:31:23:24 - 00:31:24:24
We did, we did.

00:31:24:24 - 00:31:29:13
They were seen off Shell Beach on the Sea Ranch and then off Timber Cove as well.

00:31:30:24 - 00:31:33:12
And the other thing I did want to mention

00:31:33:12 - 00:31:37:12
is that this rope was gear for crab fishing.

00:31:37:18 - 00:31:39:17
Scott and Traeger, you guys know a lot about that.

00:31:39:17 - 00:31:44:06
To been connected to some of the people have been developing that technology.

00:31:44:06 - 00:31:46:10
our common friend Zach.

00:31:46:10 - 00:31:47:03
Zach likes.

00:31:47:03 - 00:31:49:15
Clever. Materials.

00:31:49:15 - 00:31:53:19
Eretria up in Washington, Zach's in Bangor, Maine,

00:31:54:08 - 00:31:56:11
where we're from and up from Maine anyway.

00:31:56:11 - 00:32:00:19
And, you know, Zach, our friends, Zach got himself involved in that,

00:32:01:13 - 00:32:02:18
Now, getting.

00:32:02:18 - 00:32:04:20
Arrested is live in homes.

00:32:04:20 - 00:32:07:03
Adopted by fisher folk.

00:32:07:03 - 00:32:11:05
So it's going to be a, challenge just because the cost of the gear.

00:32:11:15 - 00:32:15:00
But I think there may be other ways that foundations

00:32:15:00 - 00:32:18:00
might come in and help support the transition.

00:32:18:04 - 00:32:21:12
I'd like to find out more if that's even a possibility.

00:32:21:16 - 00:32:23:11
Have you guys heard anything about that? Adam.

00:32:24:16 - 00:32:26:21
So, Kathy, George, the marine mammal center,

00:32:26:21 - 00:32:30:18
they sit on the Dungeness crab gear, working group.

00:32:30:22 - 00:32:33:23
So they're part of the kind of collaborative that's

00:32:33:23 - 00:32:37:02
looking at when the fishing seasons make sense.

00:32:37:02 - 00:32:39:10
So some of those closures that have to happen

00:32:39:10 - 00:32:43:09
monitoring the whales, also supporting some of these things around gear.

00:32:43:09 - 00:32:44:12
You're exactly right.

00:32:44:12 - 00:32:48:16
That one of the biggest issues right now is the pure cost that it takes.

00:32:48:24 - 00:32:52:10
When we think about these industries and these businesses that have been set up

00:32:52:10 - 00:32:56:20
and doing things for decades and decades and decades, there is cost to change.

00:32:56:20 - 00:32:58:00
And and they need support.

00:32:58:00 - 00:33:01:22
They need tactical and technical support, and they need financial support.

00:33:02:00 - 00:33:06:07
if they're going to be able to make that switch, no one wants to hurt whales.

00:33:06:13 - 00:33:09:13
none of these groups, whether it's the shipping industry, whether it's

00:33:09:13 - 00:33:13:09
the fishing industry, have any animosity towards them.

00:33:13:11 - 00:33:15:00
It's just trying to find that balance.

00:33:15:00 - 00:33:19:13
And how do you transition some of these things that are so,

00:33:19:13 - 00:33:22:24
tough to move in a case, whether it's big ships

00:33:22:24 - 00:33:26:12
or whether it's schedules, for transporting goods and people

00:33:26:12 - 00:33:28:03
or whether it's the gear?

00:33:28:03 - 00:33:30:06
Right now, obviously there's some limitations

00:33:30:06 - 00:33:31:23
with funding from the government.

00:33:31:23 - 00:33:35:15
So that's an area that, probably isn't going to step up

00:33:35:15 - 00:33:38:22
as much as a lot of people would want them to on some of these issues

00:33:38:22 - 00:33:42:03
that carry real benefit for communities

00:33:42:03 - 00:33:45:03
that help support the global economy.

00:33:45:10 - 00:33:48:10
In a sense, both local and global economies, I should say.

00:33:48:15 - 00:33:50:21
So. The hope is it's philanthropic organizations.

00:33:50:21 - 00:33:53:06
And there certainly are some have been stepping up.

00:33:53:06 - 00:33:55:12
But we need to we need to ramp up awareness.

00:33:55:12 - 00:33:57:00
We need to ramp up opportunity.

00:33:57:00 - 00:33:59:13
We need to ramp up funding across the board,

00:33:59:13 - 00:34:00:15
for some of these big things,

00:34:00:15 - 00:34:03:15
whether it's in the shipping industry or whether it's in the fishing industry.

00:34:04:03 - 00:34:07:17
Let's go back to the engagement part,

00:34:07:24 - 00:34:11:23
an aspect of what you do, because we have so many tourists

00:34:11:23 - 00:34:15:09
and travelers who come to the San Francisco Bay area,

00:34:15:09 - 00:34:18:24
they come up the coast of Marin and Sonoma

00:34:18:24 - 00:34:22:20
and Mendocino and further north Humboldt help

00:34:22:20 - 00:34:26:23
people understand ways to interact with some of the marine life.

00:34:27:05 - 00:34:30:09
as I mentioned earlier, we're really lucky in in the Bay area

00:34:30:09 - 00:34:33:21
and throughout California, I would say for the opportunity to see

00:34:33:21 - 00:34:37:13
lots of marine mammals, different types of marine mammals,

00:34:37:15 - 00:34:40:14
and different experiences of marine mammals, I would say, as well.

00:34:40:14 - 00:34:42:20
So, let's start maybe with the one that gets

00:34:42:20 - 00:34:45:12
the most attention, which would be pier 39.

00:34:45:12 - 00:34:48:04
there were 2000 sea lions up here,

00:34:48:04 - 00:34:51:04
39 on one day last year.

00:34:51:09 - 00:34:56:20
How you're one 15ft away from them.

00:34:57:02 - 00:35:01:02
And that was a perfectly natural thing in a sense.

00:35:01:02 - 00:35:04:18
Like no one brings the animals, no one feeds them, no one keeps them.

00:35:04:18 - 00:35:09:05
At pier 39, they have chosen to come and use that as a resting spot

00:35:09:14 - 00:35:12:14
for the last 35 plus years.

00:35:12:19 - 00:35:17:09
And it's a chance that in a downtown urban hub, you have a chance

00:35:17:09 - 00:35:20:12
to interact with wildlife that isn't possible elsewhere.

00:35:20:20 - 00:35:22:22
So a great place to, to see them.

00:35:22:22 - 00:35:24:03
They put on a good show

00:35:24:03 - 00:35:27:14
and a sentence, barking and jumping on top of each other and all the things.

00:35:27:22 - 00:35:31:23
So that's one place that on your touristy trip where you want to go

00:35:31:23 - 00:35:35:19
to Girardelli Square and get a Sunday and you want to do all these other things.

00:35:36:01 - 00:35:39:00
You can pop by pier 39 and see this wildlife,

00:35:39:00 - 00:35:43:03
there are lots of other places, obviously, that are more natural settings for them

00:35:43:03 - 00:35:46:15
that they go to, whether it's, the elephant seal rookeries

00:35:46:15 - 00:35:48:22
along our coast, which are some of my favorites.

00:35:48:22 - 00:35:51:22
So, if you're in the Santa Cruz area, a place

00:35:51:22 - 00:35:55:05
called Onion Nuevo, is absolutely stunning.

00:35:55:05 - 00:35:56:05
You hike out over

00:35:56:05 - 00:36:00:05
sand dunes, and this is one of the major breeding grounds for elephant seals.

00:36:00:05 - 00:36:05:01
So every winter, is when you can see thousands of elephant seals that are

00:36:05:09 - 00:36:08:24
the males, fighting with each other like a natural geographic special.

00:36:08:24 - 00:36:11:24
You see the babies being born nursing for mom.

00:36:11:24 - 00:36:15:11
Same thing happens down around Hearst Castle, San Simeon.

00:36:15:19 - 00:36:19:12
And then Point Reyes is the other big breeding ground for elephant seals.

00:36:19:12 - 00:36:22:21
So every winter you can see kind of the breeding part of that cycle.

00:36:22:21 - 00:36:27:16
But other parts of the year, you can see them molting or resting up on the beaches.

00:36:27:22 - 00:36:29:12
There are harbor seal rookeries.

00:36:29:12 - 00:36:33:13
I forget, who on the call had mentioned, Sea Ranch.

00:36:34:00 - 00:36:38:08
But Sea Ranch is the home of, a rookery or a breeding ground for harbor

00:36:38:08 - 00:36:39:02
seals there.

00:36:39:02 - 00:36:44:01
Yes, I did, in fact, this photo behind me is stretching from lalala.

00:36:44:13 - 00:36:46:04
That's the river, right there.

00:36:46:04 - 00:36:49:12
And then back over here is the stretch of sea ranch.

00:36:49:21 - 00:36:54:09
And I even ride my horse right past that rookery area.

00:36:54:18 - 00:36:57:19
And we just went through the birthing season, and I

00:36:57:24 - 00:37:01:14
actually ride with another woman, Laura Cort, who is,

00:37:02:00 - 00:37:06:09
as you know, she is docent there and teaches all the other docents

00:37:06:09 - 00:37:10:12
and trying to help people understand when it's especially birthing season,

00:37:10:22 - 00:37:14:19
to have as little interaction as possible, especially dogs.

00:37:14:19 - 00:37:16:01
Watch dogs. Yeah.

00:37:16:01 - 00:37:17:13
And that's one of the things that,

00:37:17:13 - 00:37:21:08
the Marine Mammal Center has been doing research on over the last few years.

00:37:21:08 - 00:37:25:12
So we've got data for every animal that we bring in more rescue

00:37:25:13 - 00:37:28:13
between 700 and 1000 animals a year.

00:37:28:16 - 00:37:31:07
So we have a sense of why they're coming in.

00:37:31:07 - 00:37:34:22
What are they getting sick from where are they coming in what beach?

00:37:34:22 - 00:37:39:04
Within our 600 miles of California coast that we oversee

00:37:39:04 - 00:37:42:16
from the very tip of Mendocino to the very bottom of San Luis Obispo?

00:37:43:01 - 00:37:45:09
And then what are the interactions that these animals

00:37:45:09 - 00:37:48:09
are having on the beaches prior to being rescued?

00:37:48:12 - 00:37:51:23
Because they might come up on to the beach with maybe a piece of plastic

00:37:51:23 - 00:37:53:09
caught around their neck?

00:37:53:09 - 00:37:57:03
But then they might also be engaged with by people

00:37:57:03 - 00:38:00:24
on the beach that can cause additional stress or harm.

00:38:01:05 - 00:38:04:08
Or there's the potential for people getting too close to these animals

00:38:04:08 - 00:38:09:01
and actually scaring a mom and pop away, and you wind up having this abandoned pup.

00:38:09:09 - 00:38:13:12
And unfortunately, our data over the last few years has been rather consistent.

00:38:13:12 - 00:38:15:16
It's around 30%.

00:38:15:16 - 00:38:20:02
Three 0% of the animals rescued by the Marine Mammal Center face

00:38:20:02 - 00:38:24:19
some form of disturbance or harassment on the beach prior to being rescued.

00:38:25:03 - 00:38:26:03
Oh, that's a high.

00:38:26:03 - 00:38:27:13
So this is a huge number.

00:38:27:13 - 00:38:27:24
We're talking

00:38:27:24 - 00:38:32:14
hundreds of seals and sea lions every year that are being disturbed on the beach.

00:38:32:22 - 00:38:37:13
And what we did is we combined that data that shows what are the problems, people

00:38:37:13 - 00:38:40:14
getting too close, maybe trying to feed the animals or pour

00:38:40:14 - 00:38:43:15
water on them, thinking that they need to be in the water.

00:38:43:18 - 00:38:47:03
Mostly good intention behavior is actually just

00:38:47:11 - 00:38:50:18
really misguided and harmful in the end.

00:38:51:04 - 00:38:54:06
And we paired that with actually, public surveys.

00:38:54:06 - 00:38:55:09
We went out to beaches.

00:38:55:09 - 00:38:56:24
We asked people about their thoughts

00:38:56:24 - 00:39:01:00
about marine mammals, what they would do if they saw one, things along those lines.

00:39:01:06 - 00:39:05:05
And we realized there are two predominant camps or,

00:39:05:05 - 00:39:09:10
kind of archetypes of people out there, between both residents and tourists.

00:39:09:16 - 00:39:14:09
There's the wildlife protector, which is by far the most common thing that we saw.

00:39:14:16 - 00:39:17:11
These are people that want to help these animals.

00:39:17:11 - 00:39:19:22
They don't know the right way to do it.

00:39:19:22 - 00:39:23:04
And they're kind of defaulting to the things that are less helpful.

00:39:23:11 - 00:39:25:11
So they see an animal on the beach.

00:39:25:11 - 00:39:28:11
It's making a sound, and they run up to it to try and figure out what's wrong.

00:39:29:09 - 00:39:31:18
Well, it could be that that was a baby and its

00:39:31:18 - 00:39:35:10
mom was just in the water getting food and was going to come back.

00:39:35:16 - 00:39:40:04
But the presence of people now surrounding this baby animal makes it too scary.

00:39:40:04 - 00:39:41:23
And mom doesn't come back.

00:39:41:23 - 00:39:46:03
And you now have this two day old harbor seal pup that's become abandoned.

00:39:46:07 - 00:39:48:04
Same situation with dogs off leash

00:39:48:04 - 00:39:51:07
where maybe it's not the people, but a dog is really curious

00:39:51:11 - 00:39:54:11
and now becomes too scary and you have an abandoned animal.

00:39:54:17 - 00:39:58:15
Maybe it's people that are trying to help these animals because they see

00:39:58:15 - 00:40:02:08
a sea lion up on the beach and they think maybe it's like some of those dolphin

00:40:02:08 - 00:40:05:16
documentaries or whales, and it's like, oh my God, they shouldn't be out of water.

00:40:05:20 - 00:40:07:19
I need to help it before it dies.

00:40:07:19 - 00:40:10:19
So they try and drag an animal back into the water.

00:40:11:06 - 00:40:13:07
But seals and sea lions are very different.

00:40:13:07 - 00:40:16:03
They not only breed, they're like the whales and dolphins,

00:40:16:03 - 00:40:18:22
but they spend half their lives sometimes up on land.

00:40:18:22 - 00:40:23:24
And just like with a person, it's really tiring and energetic to have to swim.

00:40:24:04 - 00:40:27:02
So if an animal is already sick with a disease

00:40:27:02 - 00:40:31:12
or some type of ailment, being dragged can physically hurt them,

00:40:31:12 - 00:40:34:20
but also being put in the water means now they got to exert more energy.

00:40:35:06 - 00:40:37:21
Again, all of those behaviors are met

00:40:37:21 - 00:40:40:23
with the best intentions to try and help the animals.

00:40:41:08 - 00:40:44:02
But we're seeing hundreds of these cases.

00:40:44:02 - 00:40:45:08
So that's one of the things the Marine

00:40:45:08 - 00:40:48:12
Mammal Center is really trying to do is how do we empower

00:40:48:17 - 00:40:53:05
this community of wildlife protectors to know to do the right thing.

00:40:53:05 - 00:40:55:04
And it's really quite simple.

00:40:55:04 - 00:40:57:07
Keep your distance at least 50 yards.

00:40:57:07 - 00:41:01:01
So half a football field, if the animal is reacting to your presence

00:41:01:01 - 00:41:04:13
in any way, lifting its head, vocalizing, you're too close.

00:41:05:00 - 00:41:07:20
Keep taking a step back. Give it its space.

00:41:07:20 - 00:41:11:04
Keep your dogs unleashed just because dogs and seals,

00:41:11:04 - 00:41:14:06
just like dogs and any wildlife, they get excited.

00:41:14:14 - 00:41:16:01
They try and get close.

00:41:16:01 - 00:41:19:20
And by the time you get the dog back, perhaps that damage is done.

00:41:20:05 - 00:41:21:22
And then call the experts.

00:41:21:22 - 00:41:27:02
So the Marine Mammal Center has a hotline for 15289 seal.

00:41:27:07 - 00:41:28:23
We try and make it easy for you.

00:41:28:23 - 00:41:31:14
Let us come out there, let us evaluate the situation.

00:41:31:14 - 00:41:35:15
Just because the killer signs up on the beach doesn't necessarily mean it's sick.

00:41:36:12 - 00:41:40:10
But if we're getting too close, if we're causing harm, we're either

00:41:40:10 - 00:41:43:11
making that animal sickness worse or

00:41:43:11 - 00:41:46:11
causing new stress onto that animal.

00:41:46:11 - 00:41:47:13
So keep your distance.

00:41:47:13 - 00:41:50:13
Let the experts know we can get out there, evaluate it,

00:41:50:16 - 00:41:53:21
and if that animal needs help, we'll bring it to the world's largest

00:41:53:21 - 00:41:57:18
marine mammal hospital and do any tests that you can get at the human hospital.

00:41:57:22 - 00:41:59:05
And we'll get it better.

00:41:59:05 - 00:42:01:03
But we need the community's help.

00:42:01:03 - 00:42:03:10
They are our eyes and ears here.

00:42:03:10 - 00:42:07:01
And they're the first line of defense to hopefully get that animal on the best

00:42:07:01 - 00:42:11:04
path of recovery possible, when they might have the opportunity,

00:42:11:04 - 00:42:14:24
unfortunately, to make it even farther into the negative,

00:42:15:05 - 00:42:18:03
and make it harder to give that animal the chance it needs.

00:42:18:03 - 00:42:23:10
In fact, we have a whole network of people here along this coast of Mendocino

00:42:23:10 - 00:42:28:17
and Sonoma who are able to help the Marine Mammal Center,

00:42:28:17 - 00:42:33:07
because there's a truck of yours up here at the Well Island Veterinary Center.

00:42:33:07 - 00:42:39:06
I see it all the time, and I've seen it out to to go on an assignment.

00:42:39:15 - 00:42:43:18
So there are ways for people to call

00:42:43:18 - 00:42:46:21
and alert you to let you know they've seen something.

00:42:47:06 - 00:42:51:03
And there are people along these coast that are can go into action

00:42:51:12 - 00:42:53:06
and They know what to do.

00:42:53:06 - 00:42:53:16
Yeah.

00:42:53:16 - 00:42:56:16
And while our hospitals based in Sausalito,

00:42:56:16 - 00:43:00:08
that's kind of the headquarters where we want the animals to come to

00:43:00:08 - 00:43:03:13
if we can, where we can do all these fancy tasks and we can give them

00:43:03:13 - 00:43:07:00
long term care of a couple weeks or a couple months to get them better.

00:43:07:07 - 00:43:08:13
We've got volunteers

00:43:08:13 - 00:43:12:09
stretched out among that 600 mile range so that someone's available.

00:43:12:09 - 00:43:16:15
If you're in Mendocino County, it's not me caught in five hours of traffic

00:43:16:22 - 00:43:18:06
to try and get up there and help.

00:43:18:06 - 00:43:21:18
Same thing down in San Luis Obispo, all the way down there.

00:43:21:21 - 00:43:22:04
Yeah.

00:43:22:04 - 00:43:24:09
So this is ways that people, if they're really passionate

00:43:24:09 - 00:43:27:12
and they live along any of those coastal counties

00:43:27:12 - 00:43:30:12
that they want to get involved, there are volunteer opportunities.

00:43:30:15 - 00:43:33:02
There are other groups that help support our work,

00:43:33:02 - 00:43:36:02
like Seal Watch and some of these others that keep coming up.

00:43:36:03 - 00:43:39:09
So lots of ways to get involved, even if you're not in the Bay area,

00:43:39:09 - 00:43:42:22
which is where the Marine Mammal Center might have a little bit more,

00:43:43:17 - 00:43:45:21
I don't want to say name recognition, but presence,

00:43:45:21 - 00:43:47:21
just because we've got the physical site there.

00:43:47:21 - 00:43:51:13
But our work really stretches that 600 miles, and I would argue

00:43:51:13 - 00:43:55:07
is actually global in terms of the impact, the collaborations that we're having.

00:43:55:10 - 00:43:58:02
So no matter where people are, when they're listening to this,

00:43:58:02 - 00:44:00:05
there are ways that you can probably collaborate

00:44:00:05 - 00:44:01:16
and work with the Marine Mammal Center.

00:44:01:16 - 00:44:04:18
If you're really passionate about helping to protect these marine mammals

00:44:04:18 - 00:44:05:18
or the ocean.

00:44:05:18 - 00:44:08:11
Talk about the connection to Hawaii as well

00:44:08:11 - 00:44:12:03
and how people can actually visit your center there in Sausalito.

00:44:12:23 - 00:44:13:05
Yeah.

00:44:13:05 - 00:44:17:02
So we've been, as mentioned at the very beginning, around for 50 years

00:44:17:04 - 00:44:18:05
in California.

00:44:18:05 - 00:44:22:17
We were founded in 1975 and around ten years ago

00:44:22:20 - 00:44:25:17
identified that while our work in California

00:44:25:17 - 00:44:30:00
was incredibly impactful, we've been able to save tens of thousands of animals.

00:44:30:11 - 00:44:33:06
There was an animal that really needed help, and no,

00:44:33:06 - 00:44:35:13
no one was really present there.

00:44:35:13 - 00:44:39:06
And that was the Hawaiian monk seal out on, the Hawaiian Islands

00:44:39:10 - 00:44:43:08
and the most endangered seahorses line in the United States at the time,

00:44:43:08 - 00:44:47:06
the population was declining by a couple percentage points each year.

00:44:47:06 - 00:44:50:06
They were down to close to only a thousand individuals.

00:44:50:11 - 00:44:54:12
And NOAA, the government organization and a few community groups

00:44:54:12 - 00:44:58:08
have been doing really great work, but they didn't have the infrastructure

00:44:58:08 - 00:45:00:16
to be able to help save some of these animals.

00:45:00:16 - 00:45:02:03
So what we did is actually build

00:45:02:03 - 00:45:05:03
a hospital on the Big Island right near the Kona airport,

00:45:05:04 - 00:45:08:22
taking all of those decades of experience working with elephant

00:45:08:22 - 00:45:12:19
seals and harbor seals and sea lions and brought it out to Hawaii.

00:45:13:00 - 00:45:18:09
And, I'm thrilled to share that right now, that population has been growing.

00:45:18:11 - 00:45:21:10
So instead of dropping a few percentage points each year, it's now

00:45:21:10 - 00:45:24:10
at one of the highest levels we've seen in the last 30 years.

00:45:24:19 - 00:45:26:10
They're over 1600.

00:45:26:10 - 00:45:29:06
I think more importantly, when you look at that population

00:45:29:06 - 00:45:33:04
and so around 1600 of them, 30%

00:45:34:00 - 00:45:37:03
of Hawaiian monk seals alive today are alive today

00:45:37:03 - 00:45:41:10
due to conservation efforts from groups like NOAA and the Marine Mammal Center.

00:45:41:10 - 00:45:42:01
So we've been able

00:45:42:01 - 00:45:45:24
to truly save a species with the work that's happening out there.

00:45:46:05 - 00:45:48:14
So that's the one other area besides California

00:45:48:14 - 00:45:49:24
where we've got an active hospital,

00:45:49:24 - 00:45:53:14
but we've got the research projects and things happening all around the world.

00:45:53:23 - 00:45:57:07
The Wai hospital, it is a little variable

00:45:57:07 - 00:46:00:14
for your ability to visit just because we're dealing with an endangered species.

00:46:00:14 - 00:46:03:16
There may or may not be animals on site at any given point in time,

00:46:03:16 - 00:46:05:07
but you can always visit

00:46:05:07 - 00:46:08:20
our hospital in Sausalito, California, right next to the Golden Gate Bridge.

00:46:09:01 - 00:46:11:03
In the national park, the marine headlands,

00:46:11:03 - 00:46:12:20
we're open Friday through Monday.

00:46:12:20 - 00:46:15:22
It's free admission and lots of opportunities to do tours,

00:46:16:00 - 00:46:19:08
to look around, to actually look into rooms like our laboratory,

00:46:19:08 - 00:46:22:09
our fish kitchen, to talk with marine biologists.

00:46:22:13 - 00:46:23:22
So I highly recommend for anyone

00:46:23:22 - 00:46:27:09
who's in the Bay area to come and make a trip out and see it.

00:46:27:13 - 00:46:30:10
We can have upwards of 200 animals at our hospital

00:46:30:10 - 00:46:33:10
at one time, so a chance to see animals like elephant seals,

00:46:33:24 - 00:46:37:14
sea lions, hear stories of the sea otters that we're taking care of.

00:46:37:18 - 00:46:40:18
So a really unique experience that you can't find a lot of other places.

00:46:40:24 - 00:46:43:13
otters that you said you have, are Where do they come up from?

00:46:43:13 - 00:46:46:13
So typically with the sea otters, we're going to be rescuing them either

00:46:46:13 - 00:46:50:07
down in San Luis Obispo County or Monterey and Santa Cruz County.

00:46:50:08 - 00:46:53:14
Those are really where the otters predominantly are found.

00:46:53:19 - 00:46:57:02
Their population used to stretch all up and down the California coast.

00:46:57:04 - 00:47:00:14
They were hunted to near-extinction, over 100 years ago.

00:47:00:14 - 00:47:04:19
So at this point, we rarely see sea otters north of San Mateo County,

00:47:05:03 - 00:47:05:23
within our range.

00:47:05:23 - 00:47:09:04
And then they start up again once you get into Oregon and Washington State.

00:47:09:14 - 00:47:12:19
But typically sea otters that are getting caught in trash,

00:47:12:19 - 00:47:14:21
they might be facing different diseases.

00:47:14:21 - 00:47:19:05
Things like toxoplasmosis, is a big one that we see, shark bite wounds.

00:47:19:05 - 00:47:22:00
Unfortunately, is something we do see with some of the sea otters.

00:47:22:00 - 00:47:23:03
But predominantly

00:47:23:03 - 00:47:26:11
we're picking up animals from that southern part of our response range.

00:47:27:00 - 00:47:29:03
And hopefully over time, the sea otters are going to be able

00:47:29:03 - 00:47:33:04
to kind of start to rebuild that range a little bit and be able to expand.

00:47:33:04 - 00:47:36:12
I'm sure we can do an entire thing on Sea Otter natural history

00:47:36:12 - 00:47:38:03
and some of the threats that they're facing.

00:47:38:03 - 00:47:38:19
they are limited.

00:47:38:19 - 00:47:42:04
They're kind of boxed in a little bit in that, that southern range.

00:47:42:04 - 00:47:45:15
And that's playing a big role in why they're still a threatened species.

00:47:46:13 - 00:47:46:18
Yeah.

00:47:46:18 - 00:47:51:07
I work the, Cal Fish and I've called Cal Fish and Game back then.

00:47:51:11 - 00:47:57:07
Cal Fish and Wildlife now from I work the, the Cal Fish and Wildlife census.

00:47:58:21 - 00:48:01:18
In 77, I think it was.

00:48:01:18 - 00:48:04:03
And I had point sur, there's a Navy base,

00:48:04:03 - 00:48:07:05
and I needed, an escort to get in and out of there

00:48:07:22 - 00:48:13:05
just to count otters and, the count then was about was under 1500.

00:48:13:20 - 00:48:16:00
you see it now, it really hasn't been stopped, I think.

00:48:16:00 - 00:48:19:20
How many years ago that was, population really has not really

00:48:19:20 - 00:48:22:20
taken off any huge, huge bubble.

00:48:23:01 - 00:48:23:10
Yeah.

00:48:23:10 - 00:48:26:17
I mean, I'm pleased to share that it's at around 3300 right now.

00:48:26:17 - 00:48:30:13
So it's double, what it was from I mean, you said 78 or so, so

00:48:30:13 - 00:48:35:11
I mean, we're talking close to 30 years, but 3300 is not a lot.

00:48:35:11 - 00:48:38:04
You would expect significant more growth.

00:48:38:04 - 00:48:41:17
And it's been stable at that low 3000 for,

00:48:42:05 - 00:48:45:01
I think probably the last ten years or so.

00:48:45:01 - 00:48:47:24
And it really is that they, they just can't grow

00:48:47:24 - 00:48:51:04
north right now because of the lack of a kelp forest.

00:48:51:10 - 00:48:52:17
The predators with sharks.

00:48:52:17 - 00:48:54:08
Same thing down south.

00:48:54:08 - 00:48:58:16
So there are much bigger conversations happening about relocation efforts.

00:48:58:17 - 00:49:02:11
Is there a way that people can help support the otters get into these

00:49:02:11 - 00:49:05:08
more historic areas? But those are complicated.

00:49:05:08 - 00:49:06:17
They take a lot of time.

00:49:06:17 - 00:49:08:17
They're not always, effective.

00:49:08:17 - 00:49:11:07
They come with other impacts as well.

00:49:11:07 - 00:49:14:20
But those conversations are and have been underway for many years

00:49:14:20 - 00:49:17:10
as a way to try and think about how do we get them over that hump,

00:49:17:10 - 00:49:21:12
because we are talking decades now where the population hasn't been able

00:49:21:12 - 00:49:24:06
to move off that endangered species and threatened West,

00:49:24:06 - 00:49:28:14
and they're all in one area really prone to an issue if there's an oil

00:49:28:14 - 00:49:33:03
spill that happens in that area, if there's a massive heat wave

00:49:33:03 - 00:49:37:12
that affects the food supply, there's not a lot of resiliency.

00:49:37:12 - 00:49:43:04
If you think if your entire populations within a couple square miles in a central.

00:49:43:10 - 00:49:46:09
One tank are having trouble, there's the whole population right there.

00:49:46:09 - 00:49:50:02
Exactly One question that, you pretty much answered, but I want to

00:49:50:04 - 00:49:54:11
I was wondering was, is the center a destination?

00:49:54:16 - 00:49:57:07
You said you people are free to come down there.

00:49:57:07 - 00:49:59:03
Yeah. I never knew if you were charging.

00:49:59:03 - 00:50:02:02
Or you have a large donation

00:50:02:02 - 00:50:05:11
bottle out there for people, you know, you see a lot of people.

00:50:05:21 - 00:50:07:12
We definitely do have the donation box.

00:50:07:12 - 00:50:11:10
And we will gladly accept whatever people want to put into that as a nonprofit.

00:50:11:10 - 00:50:14:07
It's it's how we're able to support our work, really.

00:50:14:07 - 00:50:17:15
But we are a destination, so we're open Friday through Monday year round.

00:50:17:15 - 00:50:20:03
So think kind of long weekend in either direction.

00:50:20:03 - 00:50:21:19
It's free admission to come in.

00:50:21:19 - 00:50:25:00
We do ask that you just reserve a free ticket through our website

00:50:25:00 - 00:50:28:11
just so we can help monitor, traffic flow more than anything else.

00:50:28:17 - 00:50:32:00
And then we've got various tours that do have a little bit of a fee.

00:50:32:00 - 00:50:34:06
So if you want a deeper, richer experience,

00:50:34:06 - 00:50:37:00
you can get a guided tour with one of our marine biologists.

00:50:37:00 - 00:50:39:03
We've got behind the scenes experiences.

00:50:39:03 - 00:50:42:08
We might have the chance to go into the fish kitchen and see how we make

00:50:42:08 - 00:50:45:23
all the food for the animals, or look into the lab a little bit deeper.

00:50:46:02 - 00:50:47:18
But you have the chance to come out

00:50:47:18 - 00:50:50:23
and just explore and see the world's largest marine mammal hospital.

00:50:50:23 - 00:50:52:09
And it's really transparent.

00:50:52:09 - 00:50:54:24
So you can look into these rooms, you can see the animals,

00:50:54:24 - 00:50:57:15
you can see our veterinarians, volunteers taking care of them.

00:50:57:15 - 00:51:02:02
Highly recommend for any anyone who loves wildlife, or love

00:51:02:02 - 00:51:06:07
science, a chance to come out and learn about the animals in our backyard.

00:51:06:07 - 00:51:10:01
Learn ways that you can help protect them from the threats like climate change

00:51:10:01 - 00:51:11:03
and disturbance.

00:51:11:03 - 00:51:12:24
And be able to meet some like minded folks

00:51:12:24 - 00:51:15:05
that want to help protect the ocean as well.

00:51:15:05 - 00:51:18:05
I've heard that the center is self-sufficient.

00:51:18:07 - 00:51:21:07
You don't receive federal funds, federal funding.

00:51:21:24 - 00:51:25:01
So the last time I asked that question was when, Elon Musk

00:51:25:01 - 00:51:28:17
was arrived on the scene and funding was getting cut left and right.

00:51:29:11 - 00:51:29:20
Yeah.

00:51:29:20 - 00:51:32:20
So we we are a nonprofit at the Marine Mammal Center.

00:51:32:20 - 00:51:35:13
We run off donations through, 90%.

00:51:35:13 - 00:51:38:13
Of our budget comes from private donations.

00:51:38:17 - 00:51:41:23
there is some federal funding that comes in the form of grants,

00:51:41:23 - 00:51:44:08
just like anyone can apply for these things.

00:51:44:08 - 00:51:48:14
So I've gotten grants from Noah before to do climate change work.

00:51:48:16 - 00:51:51:07
The US State Department funded our work.

00:51:51:07 - 00:51:54:07
So there are elements that are federally funded and,

00:51:54:13 - 00:51:57:23
so to be upfront that we've, we've had that funding cut.

00:51:58:04 - 00:52:01:18
We've had some positions, through the AmeriCorps program

00:52:01:18 - 00:52:02:17
that that folks might have

00:52:02:17 - 00:52:06:17
heard was drastically cut, impact our work and a staff person,

00:52:06:17 - 00:52:10:22
we had a grant prematurely terminated, that was focused on climate change.

00:52:11:02 - 00:52:14:18
But we're really fortunate the same time that a bulk

00:52:14:23 - 00:52:19:04
of the vast, vast majority of our work is supported by people like you and me.

00:52:19:15 - 00:52:23:04
folks that knew the value of this work and want to contribute as little

00:52:23:04 - 00:52:26:17
as a couple dollars into our donation box when they come and visit to

00:52:26:21 - 00:52:29:20
to higher amounts and become a member and a supporter in that way.

00:52:29:20 - 00:52:33:09
So, we are supported in that way.

00:52:33:09 - 00:52:36:20
We're weathering a bit of a storm, just like I think a lot of organizations

00:52:36:20 - 00:52:37:17
right now.

00:52:37:17 - 00:52:40:23
And definitely, can benefit from, for more funding to be able

00:52:40:23 - 00:52:45:02
to do all this work, in particular some of these threats that are,

00:52:45:02 - 00:52:49:05
I won't even say emerging, but are here the things like the whale entanglements

00:52:49:05 - 00:52:50:01
and the whales

00:52:50:01 - 00:52:53:02
that are getting sick in the bay, the disturbance work, climate work.

00:52:53:07 - 00:52:56:15
But it is just a testament to the community that we're much

00:52:56:15 - 00:53:00:03
more reliant on people like you and me than we are on federal funding.

00:53:00:16 - 00:53:02:08
which is great. Right now.

00:53:02:08 - 00:53:04:15
And we totally agree know that

00:53:04:15 - 00:53:07:22
quality of the work that this marine mammal center does,

00:53:08:03 - 00:53:13:10
Scott and I are monthly contributors and I just yeah, I get newsletters.

00:53:13:10 - 00:53:17:24
I get so much communication from TMC

00:53:17:24 - 00:53:20:24
letting me know of all the wonderful things going on.

00:53:21:02 - 00:53:26:14
And I personally couldn't think of a more worthy organization to donate to.

00:53:26:15 - 00:53:32:11
I've I am not a trained rescuer, but in this area, I know many of them.

00:53:32:13 - 00:53:36:08
And sometimes I get to help out, you know, just as an extra body just,

00:53:36:12 - 00:53:37:19
you know, there.

00:53:37:19 - 00:53:41:04
And incredibly, rewarding work.

00:53:41:11 - 00:53:45:04
And to see that these volunteers, they are very highly trained,

00:53:45:10 - 00:53:50:05
they have training sessions and they attend and they are so skilled

00:53:50:13 - 00:53:54:19
and I'm just maybe some two strong arms to help, maybe move,

00:53:54:24 - 00:53:58:07
pull that big, cage up the hill to, get into the truck.

00:53:58:15 - 00:54:01:09
So, I do encourage anyone listening today,

00:54:01:09 - 00:54:05:17
if there's any way you can support this organization, please do so.

00:54:05:23 - 00:54:06:07
thank you.

00:54:06:07 - 00:54:08:19
That means a lot to us. We really appreciate all the support.

00:54:08:19 - 00:54:13:17
Tre and Scott, I'm so glad that you do what you do.

00:54:13:17 - 00:54:18:00
And Adam in these last few minutes is something

00:54:18:00 - 00:54:22:09
really important that we haven't covered that you'd like to convey to the audience.

00:54:23:18 - 00:54:26:17
have been pieces of this throughout, but I just want to reinforce

00:54:26:17 - 00:54:30:11
it really does not matter where you live or what you do,

00:54:30:12 - 00:54:34:08
you have the opportunity to connect with marine mammals.

00:54:34:08 - 00:54:38:14
You have the opportunity to help protect the ocean in every action that we do.

00:54:38:23 - 00:54:41:18
So whether it's when you're out along the coast,

00:54:41:18 - 00:54:43:18
some of those safe wildlife viewing tips.

00:54:43:18 - 00:54:46:21
So keeping your distance, putting our phone number in your phone

00:54:46:22 - 00:54:50:00
so you have it for 15289 seal.

00:54:50:00 - 00:54:54:10
So you can always get that expert advice if you want to try and help the animals.

00:54:54:16 - 00:54:56:24
So the actions that we take with our voice.

00:54:56:24 - 00:55:00:11
So raising awareness about the threats these animals face, issues

00:55:00:11 - 00:55:05:00
like plastic issues like climate change, we have an enormous power

00:55:05:00 - 00:55:09:19
right now as individuals to come together as a community.

00:55:09:19 - 00:55:14:20
And that is where I think our power really lies, is not as these individuals

00:55:14:20 - 00:55:19:15
in our own day to day lives, but using our voices together to ask for change

00:55:19:22 - 00:55:24:06
and to help really steer things towards less plastic, and the products

00:55:24:06 - 00:55:27:13
that we can have live healthier lives and have a healthier environment.

00:55:27:21 - 00:55:32:14
We can also ask for more renewable energy for less fossil fuels, for the things

00:55:32:14 - 00:55:37:16
that can help create a better life, not just for the Seals and Syrians.

00:55:37:17 - 00:55:40:11
I think that's going to be the gravy. That's the bonus.

00:55:40:11 - 00:55:43:11
But cleaner air for us, cleaner water

00:55:43:14 - 00:55:48:04
for us, healthier ecosystems and economies.

00:55:48:04 - 00:55:51:20
In a lot of cases, when we think about some of the businesses along the coast

00:55:51:20 - 00:55:57:09
and say for more, longevity in our fishing industry, that's suffering.

00:55:57:09 - 00:55:58:10
So there are lots of ways

00:55:58:10 - 00:56:01:11
that we can come together across all these roles and sectors

00:56:01:17 - 00:56:02:24
that make a really big difference.

00:56:02:24 - 00:56:05:19
So connect with us, connect with others in your community

00:56:05:19 - 00:56:08:08
for the thing that you are passionate about.

00:56:08:08 - 00:56:10:19
But I would say that no matter what it is you're passionate about,

00:56:10:19 - 00:56:14:20
it connects back to the ocean in some way, and that's the opportunity

00:56:14:20 - 00:56:17:01
that we have to create that healthy ocean for everybody.

00:56:17:01 - 00:56:18:18
As we look forward.

00:56:18:18 - 00:56:19:10
Thank you.

00:56:19:10 - 00:56:22:20
Adam, you really summarize things so well.

00:56:22:20 - 00:56:26:06
It's obvious that you've been doing this quite a while.

00:56:26:15 - 00:56:31:08
We appreciate your knowledge, your passion in everything that you're doing.

00:56:31:17 - 00:56:34:20
And thank you for taking the time to be with us here today.

00:56:35:06 - 00:56:36:22
Scott and Tree.

00:56:36:22 - 00:56:40:00
You know, Leanne took the words right out of my mouth.

00:56:40:00 - 00:56:43:13
I was just going to say exactly the same thing for sharing your knowledge,

00:56:43:20 - 00:56:46:16
your experience and your passion with us today.

00:56:46:16 - 00:56:48:21
Really appreciate it, Adam.

00:56:48:21 - 00:56:50:03
Like, likewise.

00:56:50:03 - 00:56:51:16
Thank you for the opportunity to join and thank you

00:56:51:16 - 00:56:54:23
for for all the work that your team is doing to help spread

00:56:54:23 - 00:56:58:14
awareness on all different issues related to the environment in the ocean.

00:56:58:19 - 00:57:03:00
It's it's wonderful to have these collaborations in these partnerships

00:57:03:07 - 00:57:04:04
and this microphone

00:57:04:04 - 00:57:07:11
to be able to connect people with stories that we know are really impactful.

00:57:08:04 - 00:57:10:08
And can we do action down the road?

00:57:10:08 - 00:57:11:01
You said it.

00:57:11:01 - 00:57:16:09
We have a voice and we can raise awareness and so can others, right?

00:57:16:22 - 00:57:18:08
Yeah. It was great to meet you.

00:57:19:09 - 00:57:20:08
We're not too far off.

00:57:20:08 - 00:57:24:22
We could fly down there, but, yeah, we can take a week to get anywhere here.

00:57:25:11 - 00:57:29:17
Wow. Well, any of you are welcome as well as anyone listening.

00:57:29:17 - 00:57:31:17
Come out and see us in Sausalito.

00:57:31:17 - 00:57:33:24
Marine Mammal center.org for more information.

00:57:33:24 - 00:57:36:24
But we would love to have you and host you at the Marine Mammal Center any time.

00:57:37:09 - 00:57:38:16
Thank you. Thank you.

00:57:38:16 - 00:57:41:16
Thank you.

00:57:49:04 - 00:57:51:20
Thanks for listening to the Resilient Earth podcast,

00:57:51:20 - 00:57:57:04
where we talk about critical issues and positive actions for our planet.

00:57:58:08 - 00:58:01:21
Resilient Earth is produced by Planet Centric Media,

00:58:02:07 - 00:58:07:03
a 501 C3 nonprofit, and Sea Storm Studios, Inc.

00:58:07:12 - 00:58:10:06
located on the rugged North Sonoma

00:58:10:06 - 00:58:13:06
coast of Northern California.

00:58:13:17 - 00:58:18:16
I'm Leigh Anne Lindsey, producer and host, along with co-hosts and co-producers

00:58:18:20 - 00:58:23:01
Scott and Tree Mercer of Mendonoma Whale, and Seal Study.

00:58:23:01 - 00:58:27:15
Located on the South Mendocino and North Sonoma coast.

00:58:30:21 - 00:58:31:18
The music for this

00:58:31:18 - 00:58:35:17
podcast is by Eric Allaman, an international composer,

00:58:36:01 - 00:58:39:11
pianist and writer living in the sea ranch.

00:58:40:06 - 00:58:43:24
Discover more of his music, animations, ballet,

00:58:44:10 - 00:58:48:20
stage and film work at EricAllaman.com.

00:58:50:06 - 00:58:51:22
You can find Resilient Earth

00:58:51:22 - 00:58:55:13
on Spotify, Apple and Amazon podcasts,

00:58:55:22 - 00:58:58:23
iHeart radio, YouTube, SoundCloud,

00:58:59:05 - 00:59:02:03
and wherever you find your podcasts.

00:59:02:03 - 00:59:05:18
Please support us by subscribing or donating to our cause.