February 8th, 2012
When you gaze at the ocean from the beach or bluffs of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, you often can spot large ships and smaller boats just offshore. Check out this Live Ships Map at MarineTraffic.com to see some of the shipping traffic that passes the San Mateo County coast.
Positional information is collected from transponders aboard vessels and used to help ships avoid collisions and give port authorities traffic control information. You can look up the traffic in other geographic areas on their web site as well.
Posted in conservation, people, science | No Comments »
January 25th, 2012
Photo of Rhinoceros Auklet from cs.birdwatchingdaily.com
Right now, northern elephant seal mating season is in full swing at Ano Nuevo State Reserve, a wildlife hotspot about a one-hour drive south of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. The seals are the loudest, largest, and most obvious beneficiaries of that reserve’s protected status, but the island just offshore provides critical breeding habitat to a number of seabird species.
Of special interest is the rhinoceros auklet, a puffin-like bird that grows a distinctive horn on its bill during mating season. The species ranges around the Pacific rim from Japan to California, but because it nests in burrows, it needs a place like Ano Nuevo Island, which is free of animals (bobcats, foxes, coyotes, and their domesticated kin) that prey on nestlings. In fact, Ano Nuevo Island and the Farallon Islands are the only spots in California where these birds breed, which makes it a “species of special concern” to the California Department of Fish and Game. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in birds, conservation | No Comments »
January 18th, 2012
Some FFMR volunteers have recently been trained to monitor and report activity within the Montara State Marine Reserve of which FMR is a part. (See page 11 of our December 2011 newsletter for more about our local monitors.) They and other citizens all along the California coast have signed up to help protect the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that have been established over the past few years. Observing through binoculars, the monitors will track and report activities such as fishing, setting crab pots, and other illegal harvesting.
Enforcing the no-take law falls to the extremely understaffed California Department of Fish and Game. The department has just one large vessel plying the waters along the Central and Northern California coast, and fewer wardens per capita than any other coastal state. Poachers take advantage of wardens being spread so thin; recently crab traps were set within the boundaries of Montara State Marine Reserve. The low fines meted out by judges for poaching, set against the current price of crab, makes the gamble worth taking for some fishermen. Read more about the challenge of protecting MPAs in this San Jose Mercury News article.
Posted in Volunteers, conservation, sea life | No Comments »
