Young elephant seals are back at SLO County beaches after months at sea
Smoky haze covers the beach at Piedras Blancas north of San Simeon.
The Dolan Fire has been burning for more than a month near Big Sur, its flames stretching from Highway 1 to Fort Hunter Liggett.
Visitors need to use their judgment as to whether it’s worth it to view the elephant seals.
The seals, as usual, seldom notice visitors. They show no sign of being bothered by the smoke. The young seals are returning, keeping their usual annual schedule.
From September through November, juvenile seals return to Piedras Blancas for six weeks or so of rest. They’ve been at sea since May.
They may have traveled as far as 5,000 miles on this migration, perhaps to the Aleutian Islands. They are due for a rest.
A few adult males remain on the beach, completing their annual molt. Most bulls will return in December, for the breeding season.
Look for young elephant seals
Take advantage of a clear day and look for the young of the year. They’re the smallest seals on the beach — the pups that were born last January and February.
Those who survived their first migration may not be much bigger than when they left the beach in March.
Any pup that survives is a success. Only about half make it. They will gain weight next year.
Juvenile seals are those younger than 5 years old, but females mature earlier than males. By the time they are 5, most females already have given birth to at least one pup, so they are no longer in this juvenile group.
Most of the seals on the beach are young males. They don’t even begin puberty until age 4.
As adults, males are always larger than females, but until the male nose starts to grow, young males and females are difficult to tell apart.
Wildlife crime
A person was charged in August with killing a northern elephant seal, nearly a year after the marine mammal was found shot dead on a beach near San Simeon.
Jordan Gerbich, 30, was charged Aug. 25 in connection to the female elephant seal’s death, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. If convicted of hunting, capturing or killing an animal covered by the Marine Mammals Protection Act, he could face a maximum sentence of one year in federal prison.
The animal’s carcass was found Sept. 28, 2019, on the beach in northern San Luis Obispo County, according to the agency.
The deceased seal had been shot in the head and dismembered, with its tail fins cut off and chest cavity cut open.
Seals in the time of COVID-19
Seal viewing allows visitors to stay socially distant during the coronavirus pandemic. Most visitors wear masks.
The site remains open, with printed copies of E-Seal News available free. The docent program continues to grapple with ways to resume in-person talks with visitors.
The seals remain a constant on the Central Coast. Smoke, fire and COVID-19 affect only their human visitors, not the seals.
What other changes from the climate catastrophe may be rippling through the oceans — from temperature rise, salinity changes due to melting ice, changes in ocean ecology — remain unseen from the boardwalk.
The seals toss sand and sleep in the sun, Central Coast residents constantly coming and going.