MOSS LANDING >> In a secret hiding place not all that far from the traffic whizzing along Highway 1 is a world few have seen, but anyone can experience. Elkhorn Slough is a wonderland of exotic birds and fascinating marine animals, feeding, frolicking and, in some cases, giving birth, especially right now.
“It’s pretty magical,” said marine biologist Giancarlo Thomae, who helps conduct several daily excursions through the wetlands aboard a 17-foot pontoon boat with a company called Elkhorn Slough Safari. “The weather has been beautiful and there’s a lot of activity in the slough right now. Just about two minutes after we leave the dock, we’re going to see hundreds of harbor seals and lots of sea otters with their pups.”
Birthing season for seals and otters will be near its peak over the next three weeks, enlivening a hideaway that serves as both a resting area and a playground for wildlife.
“My personal favorites are the harbor seal pups. There have been about five born every day over the past week,” said Thomae, who is also a nature photographer whose work has been published internationally. “Our captain, Yohn Giddeon, actually got pictures of a mother giving birth a couple of days ago.”
Giddeon and Thomae counted 239 harbor seals and 53 otters during three excursions on Tuesday.
“This year has just been amazing,” said Giddeon, who did an eight-year stint as an officer in the U.S. Navy. “I don’t think we’ve ever had better weather than we’ve been having, and the harbor seal pups started earlier this year than we’ve seen in the past. I think the first one was born on March 21, and usually we don’t have any until around April 1. We’ve been having about five or six births a day for the last two weeks.”
Thomae says harbor seal pups weigh 25-30 pounds at birth and learn to swim alongside their mothers almost immediately.
“They’re also very sensory-oriented. You’ll see them actually kiss their moms,” he said. “Their whiskers are especially sensitive, and that’s how they recognize each other.”
Otter pups, he says, tend to be more mellow, often riding on their mother’s chests.
“Until they’re about 3 months old, otter pups are covered with a yellow fur called natal pelage,” Thomae said. “It makes them very buoyant — unable to dive for food in those early months — so they’re completely dependent on their mothers.”
About five newborn otter pups are spotted regularly in the slough, which also has been ranked among the 10 best birding spots in North America. And the birds are another show altogether.
Current residents of Elkhorn Slough include American white pelicans — majestic birds with a wingspan of about nine feet, making them the second-largest flight birds in North America — along with brown pelicans, terns, great blue herons and three species of cormorants.
“Right now we’ve been seeing a lot of what we call commensal feeding, which is when a lot of different bird species will feed together on one patch of fish,” Thomae said. “The cormorant, which is a deep-diving bird, will chase fish to shallower water, where the pelicans and terns will dive to pick them up. It’s really quite a spectacle.”
About 350 species of birds have been counted in Elkhorn Slough, which is a stopover on the Pacific flyway for the birds coming through the area.
“What’s fun about Elkhorn Slough is that each season — actually each day — is different,” Giddeon said. “There are different animals migrating through at different times a year. The slough is seven miles and 3,000 acres of wetlands, but a lot of folks don’t even know it’s here.”
The wildlife also can be seen from a kayak. Harbor seals pose no threat to humans, Thomae said, but too much traffic in the slough will make the mothers more likely to abandon the pups, which usually results in the death of the pup.
Thomae also warns that there are strict federal guidelines in place to protect the wildlife in the slough. Anybody caught harassing a marine animal can face a fine of up to $10,000.
Birthing season is expected to last through the first week of May. Whisper Charters also offers boat tours of the wetlands. Kayak companies touring Elkhorn Slough are Monterey Bay Kayaks, Kayak Connection, Blue Water Ventures and Venture Quest Kayaking. Each of those business has a website where additional information can be found.
Dennis Taylor can be reached at 726-4371.
