FRANK S. BALTHIS


FRANK S. BALTHIS

Close-ups are wheelchair accessible.


FRANK S. BALTHIS

Each year 15,000 schoolchildren come
to the reserve.


GALEN B. RATHBUN, USGS

Elephant seal pups on Highway 1 near Piedras Blancas.
BACK IN 1921, ELEPHANT SEALS were believed to be extinct. But then a fisherman spotted a colony of 20 to 30 on Guadalupe Island in Baja California, and the New York Museum of Natural History rushed some scientists out to look. They shot nine of them to bring back as specimens and to stuff for exhibits. The Mexican government responded by setting up a garrison to protect the rest of the colony.
Scientists' attitudes toward species on the brink of extinction have taken a 180-degree turn since then, and so have the prospects of the northern elephant seals. They number 60,000 or more now, and are reclaiming more and more of their ancestral range, from Baja California to British Columbia. The best-known rookery is at the 4,000-acre Año Nuevo State Reserve in San Mateo County, where up to 4,500 seals--and 210,000 human seal-viewers--appear each year. To accommodate both species and make sure neither harms the other is a formidable challenge, one that the preserve has been meeting with great success.
During the breeding season, December through March, the seals may be approached only under the watchful eyes of docent naturalists, who have trained for two months to volunteer at the reserve. Every 15 minutes these docents take groups of up to 20 (400 people a day) into the dunes to watch the huge creatures lolling about in the sand. Bulls sometimes fight, and it would be a big mistake to get in the way. Each season 46,000 visitors, including 15,000 schoolchildren, take the tours, and up to 35,000 are turned away.
"We could easily add more visitors," says Supervising Ranger Gary Strachan, "but these animals have the highest degree of protection. Our mandate is to protect the resource and to educate the people of California. The elephant seals draw the crowds," he says, "and we use them as a vehicle to get the State Parks message across. The tour takes two and a half hours, and by the time people head home they have learned what a reserve does, what coastal protection is about, and much more." (Only two tours a day are reserved for commercial tours, because the reserve is dedicated first of all to educating California's population--the main stewards of their natural resources.)
Volunteerism is a major component of Año Nuevo's success. The reserve would not be able to afford this kind of service to the public if it had to pay for the work done by docents. "It would cost us $350,000 a year," says Strachan. "We do it all on a shoestring budget. The few rangers we have are wrapped up in administration and training."
Since it was preserved in 1958, the Año Nuevo State Reserve has become such an asset to this stretch of the coast, and to people of the San Francisco Bay area and their visitors, that it is hard to imagine what was planned for this area a few decades ago: a marina and a hotel. That seems as absurd now as does shooting an endangered species for the sake of science.
But hindsight is, of course, clearer than foresight. Downcoast in San Luis Obispo County, a large colony of elephant seals, numbering up to 5,000, has become established. In 1990 they began to pup on a cove beach near the Piedras Blancas lighthouse, one of the few secluded beaches in that coastal region, and have since spread toward Twin Creeks Beach, beside Highway 1. No docent-led program exists here. People pull off the highway and sometimes get too close, or behave in a foolish manner, courting injury. Some even try to pet the seals. "It's a regular zoo, and it's been a safety problem for some years," says Norman J. Scott Jr., biologist at the Piedras Blancas field station of the National Biological Survey, U.S. Geologic Survey. Elephant seals have wandered onto the coastal highway, and at least one has been hit by a car.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors recently voted to revise the Local Coastal Plan for the northern part of the county so as to permit considerably more development, including a major, highly controversial project by the Hearst Corporation. There is no mention of plans for the elephant seal colony in the revised plan, which is scheduled to be considered by the Coastal Commission at its August 12 meeting in Los Angeles.
The seals are likely to continue expanding in a southerly direction, toward the proposed Hearst Corporation resort. Who will get the beaches--people or elephant seals? Although they are officially protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, only in the cove by the lighthouse are they free from disturbance by people and dogs, says Scott. The task of protecting them is assigned to the National Marine Fisheries Service, but its hands are full with far more urgent duties. Caltrans, which is straightening the highway in this area (in another controversial project), is preparing an interim management plan which includes two vista points, fencing for one of them, parking spaces, and interpretive signs.
Elephant seals can be a problem or an asset, depending on the response to their growing presence. "There's an incredible opportunity [at Piedras Blancas] to educate the population of southern California the same way we do it here," says Strachan at the Año Nuevo preserve, "by using elephant seals to protect the magnificent resources of the coast. We have taken that opportunity. They can too."


CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS
 Elephant seals are at Año Nuevo year-round. Guided walks are offered daily during breeding season, December 15--April 30 ($4). Reservations are accepted 8 weeks in advance. Call (800) 444-7275. May 1--November 30 admission is free, and self-guided walks are available with a permit from the Reserve office. Auto parking is $5. The Reserve is closed December 1--14.
For more information call (415) 879-0227 to hear a recording, or (415) 879-2025 to talk with someone; visit the website at www.anonuevo.org; e-mail to anonuevo@ southcoast.net; or write Año Nuevo State Reserve, New Years Creek Road, Pescadero, CA 94060.

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