Annette and I drove up the coast a ways to join the Channel Island Nature Journalers for a windswept nature journaling session at Carpinteria. (Note to my Australian friends: the emphasis is on the penultimate syllable, Car-pin-ter-REE-a) A good (blustery) time was had by all.
It’s Manatee Awareness Month.
I’ve never seen a manatee (or a dugong, the Australian member of the Sirenia order), but I would love to. Sirenia are the only extant herbivorous marine mammals and the only group of herbivorous mammals to have become completely aquatic. These large, slow, gentle creatures are more closely related to elephants than to other marine mammals.
Humans are the main cause of death for manatees—no longer hunting, but still habitat destruction, propellers, flood gates, fishing nets. Additionally, with the warming of the oceans, their behaviour patterns change, food sources are disrupted, and bacteria and parasites spread more quickly. All three species of manatees (West Indian, Amazonian and West African) have been listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since the 1980s. Another gentle giant could well disappear from the planet in our lifetimes.
The harbor (or harbour) seal, also known as the common seal, is found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Baltic and North seas.
Harbor seals are brown, silvery white, tan, or gray, with distinctive V-shaped nostrils. Individual animals possess a unique pattern of spots, either dark on a light background or light on a dark. The body and flippers are short, and the head is rounded. As with other true seals, there is no pinna (ear flap).
Their global population is 400,000 to 500,000. Seal hunting, once a common practice, is now mostly illegal. While the species is no longer under threat as a whole, subspecies in certain habitats are threatened. Many local populations have been reduced or eliminated through disease, conflict with humans, and encounters with ocean litter.
We had fun today, observing the antics of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in the bay near Morro Rock. This marine mammal is native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. It is the heaviest member of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals. The sea otter’s primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. This once led them to be extensively hunted. Since an international hunting ban was imposed, numbers have rebounded somewhat, but they are sill classified as endangered.
Although the sea otter can walk on land, it is capable of living exclusively in the ocean. It mostly eats marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, various mollusks and crustaceans, and some species of fish.The sea otter’s use of rocks when hunting and feeding makes it one of the few marine mammal species to use tools.
I think I was likely observing grooming behaviour today. As the ability of the fur to repel water depends on utmost cleanliness, the sea otter has the ability to reach and groom any part of its body, taking advantage of its loose skin and an unusually supple skeleton. They certainly are adorable!
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