by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here)
I’m convinced elephant seals are beautiful, in a Rubenesque sort of way. Peering through a telephoto lens from the bobbing boat, I’m convinced their eyes are kindly.
I just returned from my first trip to San Miguel Island since its two-year closure and found them to be stately, horizontally speaking.
We departed on a Truth Aquatics boat in the middle of the night, arriving at San Miguel in time for a hearty breakfast up top and humpback whale sightings soon after.
They lob-tailed, dorsal fin-waved and lunge-fed in groups of two to four wherever we looked.
Ranger Ian Williams met us on the beach as we unloaded, skiff by skiff, into surf that allowed all but the shortest of us to keep our knees dry.
The crew’s wave-timing had a lot to do with this. Williams, who has been the ranger for 24 years, kept his regular schedule during the closure.
He led a group around Cuyler Harbor while I took charge of those who wanted to hike to the caliche forest.
One advantage of the drought may be the unusually brilliant buckwheat. That’s my theory, anyway.
Some hillsides were as red as the Antelope Valley poppy preserve is orange. Santa Cruz Island buckwheat, tarweed and a few bush lupines were still blooming.
The Navy closed the island a couple of years ago. They searched for ordnance from the bombing days before the National Park.
Indeed, they found over a hundred pounds of munitions including bomb fragments, fuses and shards, some just beneath the surface of the main trails.
It reopened Memorial Day with the caveat that visitors must hike with a guide because only the sections right by trails were searched.
The 35-acre island may not be bomb-free, but it has been free of non-native animals since the 1930s, when thousands of sheep were removed.
The result is a fantastic example of island recovery, both of plant and animal life. The island fox, whose San Miguel population plunged from 450 to 15 in the mid 1990s, has recovered so well it will soon be delisted, according to the National Park.
The fox’s recovery across the island chain involved various combinations of captive fox breeding, golden eagle removal, re-introduction of bald eagles and restoration of native habitat.
Elephant seal recovery has been just as remarkable. In 1882 they were on the verge of extinction after years of being hunted.
The population has recovered to as many as 30,000 on San Miguel, mainly by leaving them alone.
It is the world’s largest elephant seal rookery: Point Bennett and other beaches on San Miguel and now Santa Rosa are the nursery for around 14,000 pups per year.
The beaches we viewed from the boat were a cacophony of elephant seals, California sea lions, harbor seals and northern fur seals.
We visited some of the other islands on the return trip. Santa Cruz Island’s Scorpion Harbor pier, closed in last winter’s storms, is set to be rebuilt.
The National Park is hoping to dedicate it in late September during the National Park Service’s 100th Anniversary year. Meanwhile, Santa Barbara Island’s dock rebuild project is still at least a year away.
Rebuilding the human structures eases the way for more people to experience the islands, for better and worse.
The wildlife gets along just fine — better than fine — without us, but we don’t get along fine without natural spaces like the islands.
We need to experience beauty in forms as diverse as the gold hues of geology on a sedimentary cliff to a hulking male elephant seal squaring off against an opponent on a crowded pinniped beach.
Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist
Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.