Thanks
for tuning-in to Coastal Zone CA! Our site endeavors to log the character
of coastal California’s natural and human history, as well as to highlight
the contributions of locals of the land doing great work and having fun. Please
check for regular updates. In the Zone
Interview we visit salt of the earth and hear their stories,
in the Real World we
examine pieces of the natural history of coastal California, and in Coastal
Roots we share a bit of California’s maritime history.
A BIG THANK YOU to the ultimate Zone Local - Zephyr Forest
- for constructing the Coastal Zone CA website!!
Yay for hi-tech teenagers!!
Enjoy
(Photos by Rowena
Forest unless otherwise noted)
The Latest – Fall 2011
Commercial crab season finally opened four days ago. The union
strike made headline news in the Bay Area, while fisherman awaited a fair
price offer from the seafood processors. Too bad there's a middle man to deal
with for these guys.. Makes me think of the commercial abalone fishery in
New Zealand, which somehow was a co-op with the fishermen/divers calling the
shots on processing and pricing. They made millions overnight, but the resource
management was poor and the decline was quick. Anyhow, a compromise between
the crabbers and buyers was reached and a bustling scramble to hit the water,
with stacks of crab pots on-deck, pored out of several central California
harbors the other day. If you get a chance to buy from the crabbers directly
at the dock, go for it.
This all is a reminder that we need to honor and preserve not only the heritage
commercial fishing community of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, but also
that of the small, historic harbors and fishing communities up and down the
coast, such as Half Moon Bay, Bolinas, Bodega Bay, and Point Arena. There
does appear to be a shot of young blood to the fleet in Bolinas, which was
rapidly dwindling to just two or three commercial boats per season out of
the harbor. It's nice to see. It's also nice to see the big crab numbers/tonnage
being harvested in this well-managed local fishery the last couple of years.
On opening day the tule fog whipped down the Central Valley, across the SF
Bay, and out onto the near-shore waters. This fog was so thick that visibility
on the water was reduced to a few yards at times, and getting in and out of
the Bolinas Lagoon channel proved hazardous, with one boat in the fleet flipped
after being caught inside a big set of breaking waves, not visible approaching
in the fog. The driver was thrown into the water, and escaped injury (or worse)
somehow, and he was quickly picked from the water by the next boat exiting
the channel behind him. The boat was towed-in, and small enough to manually
flip back over at low tide. Some crab pots were saved and some were lost.
The night before commercial crab opened huge "factory" boats from
Oregon and Washington could be seen poised for action anchored off the Marin
and SF coast, an unfair competitor for the small local boats. This scenario
could all change next year since the passing of California Senate Bill 369.
An unprecedented 66 Tundra Swans are currently rafting in the Bolinas Lagoon.
I recommend driving down Highway One to take a look at the spectacle.
I ’m writing this from New York of all places – Actually, from the 700 acre Greenwich, Connecticut Audubon Society property – in the kitchen of the 200 year old farmhouse, used as a crash pad for visiting researchers. Another great October adventure: maybe not as good as the tarantula sightings east of Big Sur in the Los Padres mountains/Fort Hunter Liggett region last Halloween, but a close second – passing by the real Sleepy Hollow today, with brilliant fall colors lighting the narrow winding country roads of southern New England, strewn with antique rock walls and even-older graveyards. New York city was our last stop before Connecticut. I never wanted to go, but an all-expenses paid trip including a Central Park-side hotel sealed the deal after 42 years of avoidance. Been there done that. San Francisco is still my City.. hands-down.
We spent a good amount of time at the famed American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, backstage conducting molt pattern research on parrots in the ornithological specimen collection. This specimen collection is the largest in the world, and I have to say, one of the funkiest and most unkempt. As were the museum’s exhibits. I was mildly shocked at the state of neglect both behind the scenes and in the exhibit halls at the AMNH, and realized how fortunate we are to have the inspired and interactive Oakland Museum of California, and of course the completely renovated California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, which has emerged a world-class showpiece among science museums. I’ve also grown to love the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and the fabulous Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) smack in the middle of the main harbor in town.
The SBMM features gorgeous, in-depth exhibits on most aspects of California’s maritime history and some coastal conservation. There are super displays about the little known historic “shore whaling” stations up and down the coast (including one in Bolinas!), and a must see is the abalone inlay long board on the second floor mezzanine: An unbelievably beautiful art piece of a surfboard.
The American Museum of Natural History in New York may be in need of a serious spruce-up in order to better serve the kids of New York (and to better represent the whole of the U.S. to the zillion tourists passing through this museum each year as a one-stop American cultural and natural history lesson), but the extensive exhibits of American Indian artifacts and reproductions is worth the visit alone. Featured were eastern woodland tribes, northeastern, southeastern, and Great Plains tribes, in addition to an unbelievable collection of Pacific Northwest tribal artifacts – housed in a dimly lit, cavernous, half under construction, freezing cold hall downstairs.
California Indians are non-existent at the American Museum of Natural History, but I did take note of the one exhibit in the whole museum that stopped the most people in their tracks, and gathered the largest lingering, photo-shooting crowd – which was the humongous cross section of the “Mark Twain Tree” – a Sequoia gigantea felled in the Sierra Nevada in 1891; on-end, the towering diameter reaching from floor to ceiling - definitely the biggest redwood slice I had ever seen on display.
The big news is the discovery of a new species of seabird for the U.S.: the Bryan’s Shearwater – found in the Pacific near the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It’s a big deal, and a fun story detailed on the Real World pages of this edition.
Also check the Real World for an important Japan tsunami ocean debris update.
Harvest time seemed like the right time to illustrate a topic for the Coastal Zone I’ve looked forward to for a long time: the complex natural history of the Napa Valley watershed region. We have a fun interview with Jerry Aman – passionate, lifelong Napa River observer, and a slew of resources on all aspects of the Napa Valley’s cultural and natural history on the Coastal Roots pages. Plus, don’t miss how Vitis californica saved the world – also on Coastal Roots. In Napa today we are left with the mega agri-biz of big wine, and tourism. Yesterday we left behind Indian people – possibly the oldest and most isolated tribes in California with an ancient language and traditions linked to no other – and a bioregion of staggering beauty and abundance. Remnants of the unique geologic features, endangered species, and native habitat zones hang on in Napa County, with good people committing to hard work for the long-haul, in order to preserve and enhance this watershed amidst the powerful pressures of money and development.
Harvest time!
-Rowena, and the Coastal Zone CA crew
Photos P. Pyle
Ferndale with CA Indian Basket, 2005
