The eyes, ears and paddles of Cannery row

Fall 2008

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

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Ron Eby has been leading Team OCEAN since 2006.

by Mead Fischer

Lauren Hanneman knows exactly why she became part of Team OCEAN.

“Being surrounded by seal pups, barking sea lions, endangered otters and countless birds – isn’t that every conservationist’s dream? And to get paid to talk to people about the things I love so much,” she says.

“Or perhaps hanging out at seal bend and being surrounded by plunge-diving pelicans and terns during a feeding frenzy. I am a wetlands enthusiast; I cannot imagine anywhere else I would want to be, except for other wetland systems.”

Dani Lori on patrol with Team OCEAN.

I’d been paddling the incredibly rich and diverse waters of Monterey Bay for several years, sharing information, helping people and picking up floating trash, so when I saw a notice in the paper in spring, 2001, it caught my attention.

With the rapid growth in popularity of kayaking in the area, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was starting a pilot program and looking for people to staff it. They wanted kayakers who had some background or interest in environmental protection. The plan was to patrol the most popular stretches of water and serve as liaisons between the sanctuary and the visiting public. It seemed the perfect summer job. I applied and was accepted.

When three of us showed up for the first of several weeks of training, Team OCEAN was born. One day a week for eight weeks we learned all about the sanctuary, its history and more importantly, its flora and fauna and how to protect them.

We learned the ecological relationship between the kelp beds and the rich life off the Monterey coast and the incredible variety of sea birds, invertebrates and fish found along our shores. But most of all we focused on the threatened and endangered marine mammals that live in the area.

One of the sanctuary’s concerns was that since our seals, sea lions and otters (especially the otters) were cute, the tourists were loving them to death, chasing them about in attempts to get up-close photos.

By the time the season started, the one woman in our group had to drop out, leaving Jeffery and meto patrol Elkhorn Slough and Monterey’s Cannery Row four days a week. Jeffery drove down from San Francisco each day, so was clearly in it for more than the small pay.

Sea lions near the Monterey Harbor jetty.

We had different styles. He seemed to consider himself more a park ranger, while I saw myself as a docent, a twist on the “good cop, bad cop” game.

Six hours a day, four days a week was an exhausting schedule for two, but the joy of being out on the water, with the fog, wind and sun along with the wonderful sights and sounds we encountered daily, made it worthwhile. At the fall debriefing we offered our suggestions for the future. I suggested a volunteer program to augment the paid staff.

After a summer off I returned as a volunteer in 2003. Team OCEAN was thriving, with four paid staff and two dozen volunteers. It has continued to grow since then, and there are now six staff members.

The first new staff member in 2002 was Lori Beraha, now starting her sixth year. She also works on a whale watching boat in addition to other jobs. She is a world traveler and sailor who has crewed on boats to places I can’t even find on a map.

Lori decided to join Team OCEAN during a career workshop that involved brainstorming the perfect job.

“I imagined a ranger-like position, combing and monitoring the beaches and helping injured wildlife. When I saw the job ad I couldn’t believe it. Kayaking was even better.”

Before Lori signed on, we’d experimented with paddling Santa Cruz that first season. It didn’t seem worth the manpower, so we established the current pattern of patrols along Monterey’s Cannery Row and Elkhorn Slough, a five-mile-long estuary at the center of Monterey Bay. These are the most accessible and popular of Monterey Bay’s many great paddling spots.

Both locations are rich in wildlife. Cannery Row has massive kelp beds that are home for snails, octopi, anemones, schools of small fish and the sea urchins that are a favored food for endangered otters. The Monterey Harbor jetty is usually a mass of California sea lions, and each rock along the shore hosts a napping harbor seal. The air and rocks are filled with gulls, pelicans and cormorants.

Occasionally migrating whales appear beyond the kelp beds, and orcas patrol just a couple of miles offshore.

The slough also has an otter population, much of which congregates near the launch ramp at the harbor. I’ve seen up to 75 huddled together. Farther up the slough there is a haul-out beach for seals. While brown pelicans and gulls dominate the slough, it’s also home to egrets, herons, avocets, willets, sandpipers, terns, grebes, plovers and dozens of other coastal birds. At times we see white pelicans, a rare visitor in our area. These fascinating birds don’t dive for food like their brown cousins. They encircle a school of fish, creating a captive pool of food.

Elkhorn Slough is a favorite of our staff. Lauren Hanneman is passionate about saving the slough, which acts as a nursery for young fish.

“It loses more of it precious mudflats and pickleweed habitat due to erosion from tidal flow,” she says. “The migratory birds come here because California has lost over 98 per cent of its coastal wetlands. We all need these resources, no matter what our reasons are.”

Lauren is a veteran of five seasons with Team OCEAN, although she is still under 30. Her college degree more closely fits the job than anyone else, and she is still searching for that perfect career that combines what she loves about this program with a career. She is a natural when it comes to engaging and educating people about environmental issues, and that, plus the marine environment, motivated her to join.

Staff member Ron Eby took over the lead job in 2006. His new duties include scheduling staff and dozens of volunteers. Ron is retired from the navy, and is a man of unbounded energy, often biking to the launch site before starting his six hours on the water.

“I love the water, especially the slough, love to kayak and wanted to learn more about what I was seeing, and to share my enjoyment of our wonderful sanctuary with others. I am absolutely amazed at how fulfilling my time with Team OCEAN is,” he says.

There is also the camaraderie with fellow members and interacting with sanctuary guests, “many of whom have become friends and paddling buddies, and some who have become members of Team OCEAN,” Ray says.

Robert Scoles, a retired police officer, is in his third season. He remembers one particular Saturday on the slough.

“The gulls were agitated at Pelican Berm and Seal Bend because there was a fledgling gull about a third of the way across the channel. Apparently it had entered the water and was then washed away by the incoming tide. The parents found it and started making it swim back. The gulls flanked the chick and each time it tried to stop or change direction, the adults would peck it. Once they got it back on the berm, all the gulls quieted down.”

We all have favorite moments on the water. One of mine, from the first season, was being out on Elkhorn Slough at the end of summer, with not a tourist in sight, but a sky filled with hundreds of pelicans, diving all around us in a feeding frenzy.

Of course, there’s the people as well.

“Perhaps the most gratifying and memorable aspect of this program is the wonderful people and volunteers I have had the privilege of meeting and paddling with over the last five years,” Lauren says. “I have had job offers, met members of Congress and some of the most fascinating people.”

Ron feels he learns something new each time he paddles.

“Sometimes from other team members, sometimes from people on the water, sometimes from things I discover, and also from the staff of the kayak shops who paddle for a living. I see the sparkle in the eyes of guests as I interpret the sanctuary for them and share my fascination with what we are so blessed with.”

There are some downsides. For Lori it is having to reprimand the public. I recall, during the first season, finding a trail of oil at Cannery Row from some local spill, probably a small fishing boat, but being unable to track the source.

For Ron it's seeing wildlife being disturbed.

“While any one transgression may not seem to have a lasting impact on its own, repeated disturbances by tens of thousands of guests in the sanctuary can have a lasting effect.”

Robert has had some people become a little belligerent.

“They think we are the kayak police. By far I create my own negative experiences when, after talking to someone, I realize it is not within my abilities to make them experience what I am experiencing.”

Lauren unfortunately sees the same negative issues year after year. People still disturb wildlife in critical areas, the various interest groups such as environmentalists, duck hunters and fishermen still can’t resolve their differences, and most frustrating for her, needed signs are not being replaced.

Cannery Row and the slough have kayak outfitters, creating crowded conditions on summer weekends. One of the favorite tourist attractions is the otter, and their playful antics make visitors want to get closer. Team OCEAN members spend more time protecting otters than any other animal. We remind people that while these creatures appear carefree, they divide their time between feeding, grooming and sleeping, leaving little time for much else, and getting too close disrupts their survival schedules.

The current group of staff and volunteers patrol both areas Friday through Sunday from early summer to early fall. All have returned for this season.

“I think we actually do make a difference,” Lori says. “And I can feel it every time I go out, even if some things work against us.”

Meade Fischer is a part-time educator, writer, radio commentator, artist and environmental activist. He lives near Monterey Bay and can be reached at eclecticpress@baymoon.com.