Updates from the Field, December 2019: wildlife, staff changes, and restoration

Morro Bay estuary with bat ray pits, Morro Bay National Estuary Program

Wildlife observations The fall is a great time for observing invertebrates along the mudflat in Morro Bay, and lucky for us, we are out monitoring eelgrass every fall. This often leaves us wondering, “What is this?!”, but sometimes we find the answers while monitoring eelgrass health. For example, we have been seeing a number of egg masses such as this one, tucked away on blades of eelgrass. Considering the diverse array of organisms that utilize eelgrass as habitat, we were left wondering which creature had been laying the eggs. Sometimes though, you wander along the right part of …

Help Scientists See the Future: California King Tides Project 2020

January 3, 2020 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program CA King Tides california king tides California King Tides Project citizen science climate change coastal flooding community science King Tides morro bay morro bay estuary sea level rise Blog Posts

What is the California King Tides Project? Scientists need you to be their eyes on the ocean between January 10–12 and February 8–9, 2020. On these dates, the California coast will experience the highest tides of the year, commonly called King Tides. These extreme tides often encroach on infrastructure, submerging coastal access stairways, swallowing beach-side trails, overwhelming boardwalks, surging into storm-drains, and flooding roads. They can also inundate coastal habitats that aren’t typically submerged, like higher marsh areas or even dune scrub. With the rate of sea level rise increasing worldwide, what we consider ultra-high tides today may be …

Your Top Blog Posts of 2019

December 27, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program eelgrass Gena Bentall monarch butterflies morro bay morro bay estuary nudibranchs Robin Agarwal sea lions in Morro Bay sea otters sea slugs top blog posts 2019 wet weather wildlife wildlife spotlight Blog Posts

During 2019, you tuned in to the Estuary Program blog to follow field work projects, to learn about local wildlife, to track the health of the bay, and to see how you can help the estuary and watershed. Today, we’re sharing the posts readers visited most often this year across these four categories. If you haven’t read them yet, now’s a great time to catch up! Top Field Work Post Field Updates February 2019: Wet weather, Eelgrass Restoration, and Creek Monitoring This post shares rainfall totals, details the process of sediment sampling and analysis that we use, and explains …

How to be environmentally friendly during the holidays!

December 20, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program Christmas environmentally friendly estuary green ideas morro bay Morro rock recycling Blog Posts

Whether you’ve been counting down the days with your festive sweaters or hiding in a cave under a box, hoping to avoid the hustle and bustle, the holidays have arrived. Since we know you care about the health of Morro Bay and beyond, we’re here to help you avoid the holiday season becoming a season of unintended wastefulness. That’s right, ’tis the season to get environmental! Here are some simple ways to be more eco-friendly this year. Gift giving Want to get something really cool for your loved ones? Try picking up presents locally. Look up local artists and craftspeople, or visit collective art galleries or holiday fairs, to get unique gifts for …

Sea Clowning Around: Triopha maculata and Triopha catalinae, by Robin Agarwal

December 13, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program anudibranchmom belly biology estuary program iNaturalist morro bay morro bay national estuary program morro bay nudibranch nudibranch Robin Agarwal Sea Clowns sea slug sea slugs in Morro Bay Spotted Triopha T. catalinae T. maculata tidepooling etiquette tidepooling in Morro Bay Triopha catalinae Triopha maculata Blog Posts Sea Slug of the Month Wildlife spotlight

Triopha Maculata Sun Salutation, photographed in Santa Cruz, CA by Robin Agarwal

Spotted Triopha or Triopha maculata One of the most charming creatures found along the Central California coast is the Spotted Triopha nudibranch (Triopha maculata). With its colorful body, white polka dots, and bushy “beard”—properly called papillae—on the edge of its oral veil, this engaging sea slug is one of the most common you’ll encounter year-round, either on a dive or during a casual inspection of tidepools at low tide. Triopha maculata color variants The only minor difficulty is realizing that you’re looking at one. Spotted Triophas come in at least two color variants that caused even veteran scientists to …

Field Updates November 2019: Eelgrass, wildlife sightings, weather

December 6, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program eelgrass field updates field work fieldwork MBNEP monitoring morro bay morro bay national estuary program multispectral imaging restoration sea grass Field Updates

November was a busy month for our field staff. Mapping eelgrass and algae The Estuary Program has been mapping submerged vegetation, such as eelgrass and algae, for more than fifteen years. This is done by having a plane fly over the bay taking a series of images, including a multispectral image. We try to repeat this survey about every other year, with 2019 being an eelgrass flight year. Multispectral imagery Multispectral imagery is produced by sensors that measure the reflected energy within several bands of the electromagnetic signature, usually capturing light not visible to our eyes. You can …

Exploring Abundance and Balance in the Morro Bay Estuary with Sea Otters, Whale Falls, and Bait Balls

November 28, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program bait ball bait fish California sea lions cycle of life estuary feeding frenzy humpback whale MBNEP morro bay national estuary program Morro Bay sea lions Nautilus discovery Nautilus Live sea otter whale fall Blog Posts Thanksgiving

We are grateful for the many people—volunteers, supporters, partners, lovers of the bay and the wild lands that surround it—who make the health of the Morro Bay estuary a priority. We are grateful for the slopes of the Morros that send freshwater running down the creeks, carrying detritus to feed the bugs, bringing bugs to the fish, and tempering the salty bite of the incoming tide when the waters mix inside the bay. If the video above doesn’t load, click here to watch a timelapse of a twelve-hour tide cycle in Morro Bay. We are grateful for the push …

Help Scientists Track the Dwindling Population of Monarch Butterflies

November 22, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program butterfly migration citizen science help monarchs MBNEP monarch butterflies monarch butterfly monarch count monarch decline monarch grove monarch migration monarch population morro bay thanksgiving count Xerces society Blog Posts citizen science Thanksgiving Volunteering

Monarch butterflies cluster on eucalyptus leaves in Sweet Springs Nature Preserve. Photograph courtesy of Michael "Mike" L. Baird, bairdphotos.com by Flickr Creative Commons license.

Monarchs come to the Central California Coast when cool weather hits Starting in October, monarch butterflies fill the branches of eucalyptus, Monterey pines, and other trees along California’s Central Coast. They cluster together high above the ground, looking much like bunches of dead leaves unless you use a spotting scope to take a closer look, or catch a flash of their black and orange wings as a butterfly moves away from its cluster to a sunny spot where it will open its wings and take in the sun’s warmth. Monarch butterflies come here to ride out the winter in …

Field Updates, October 2019: Eelgrass Mapping, Ground-truthing, and Cal Poly Partnerships

November 8, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program cal poly CalPoly eelgrass eelgrass loss eelgrass map eelgrass restoration estuary program field update fieldwork mapping MBNEP monitoring morro bay multispectral imaging restoration seagrass volunteer Field Updates

Eelgrass fieldwork depends on tides Fall is a busy eelgrass season for field staff at the Estuary Program. The exact timing of our field work depends on when the good low-tides occur, which varies slightly from year to year. This year, October had a few days that had tides low enough to expose the eelgrass during daylight hours. This doesn’t always happen—sometimes the low tides we need happen after sundown and before sunrise. We were glad to see good tides in combination with good timing because we have a few different projects going on. Monitoring permanent eelgrass plots First …

Be Sea Otter Savvy 3: More Than Just a Pretty Face

October 25, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program brent hughes california sea otter dr. james estes elkhorn slough fur trade Gena Bentall kelp forest keystone species monterey bay monterey predator diversity project morro bay otter-star project sea otter sea otter extinction sea otter savvy sea star wasting disease sea star wasting syndrome southern sea otter trophic cascade urchin barren what is a keystone species Be Sea Otter Savvy Blog Posts Guest post

This is the third post to our blog series, Be Sea Otter Savvy, written by Gena Bentall, sea otter biologist and Program Coordinator for Sea Otter Savvy. Posts in this series include tips on how to help sea otters thrive and information about sea otters’ behavior, biology, and their role in the estuary and ocean ecosystems. When I was a little girl holding my mom’s hand on the shore in Pacific Grove in 1970, looking out at two sea otters rising and falling on a gentle swell, I knew them only from their faces in books. I knew nothing of …