Remaining adult elephant seals after most of the breeding season is over. The males here are not dominant males; those have already taken off to sea. Nevertheless, we saw them snorting and charging each other, and even mate with a female!
Here is Dr. Robinson showing the students the data loggers that are glued to the seals' skin and to collect information about depth, temperature, conductivity (used to calculate salinity), and light. The seals naturally shed their skin on land every year, so the tags just fall right off!
Then we visited the rocky intertidal at Davenport Landing, where I truly came to understand how I have realized my childhood dream of understanding (to some level) all the creatures that live in the intertidal zone.
Obligatory neon green anemone photo. Neonness courtesy the zooxanthellae. The students totally noticed that some anemones were more neon, so I got to explain the symbiosis! Photo credit Emmet P.
You're really between a rock and a hard place when you find yourself between being eaten by a sea star and an anemone... until you realize you're the only one with an exoskeleton here. Then I guess you're just between an echinoderm and a cnidarian.
We only found one singular nudibranch who was all tucked up and not very happy looking, but the students loved the trip nevertheless. Then I took them all to Whale City bakery, where I always went after fieldwork at Davenport, and we enjoyed hot drinks and snacks to warm ourselves from the frigid wind.
Finding the shiny slugs is always my primary goal. This one was less shiny but just as sluggy.
I feel so lucky that I get paid to do such fun and rewarding things!!
