Elephant Seals, Piedras Blancas, CA

Dave and I, along with our friends, Greg and Betsy, who are staying in Pismo Beach for a month, took a day trip to see the elephant seals.  The rookery is located four miles north of Hearst Castle and fourteen miles north of Cambria on California Highway 1.

The entire Piedras Blancas population of 23,000 elephant seals is never in the rookery at the same time.  The number of seals on the beach ranges from hundreds in July and August to thousands from January through May. 

In late November and early December the adult male seals, weighing over two tons, arrive at the rookery and fight for dominance over a portion of the beach.  A dominant or alpha bull emerges from this competition along with a few beta males that are lower in the hierarchy. 

The pregnant females begin arriving about mid-December forming harems around the alphas, apparently choosing the beach rather than the alpha.  Birthing takes place within a week of arrival and usually takes less than an hour.   The new pup is born either head first or tail first and weighs around 70 pounds.  Right after the birth the mother vocalizes to her pup, bonding so that they can keep track of each other on the beach.

Pups nurse for four weeks.  After the four weeks of nursing the pup’s weight has quadrupled and the fasting mother has lost twice as much as the pup has gained.   Mother seals abandon their pups after they are weaned and return to the ocean.  The newly weaned pups have to make their way to the coastal tide pools, learning to swim and shedding their fat content.  When they feel ready, the pups go to sea and begin a foraging trip that will bring them back to the rookery in October or November.

The elephant seals have been coming to Piedras Blancas only since 1990.  Most of their rookeries are on islands along California and Baja, Mexico.  Heavily hunted in the 18th and 19th centuries for the oil from their blubber, their numbers were reduced to fewer than 50.  The development of kerosene and refined petroleum left them with no commercial value and their population has grown to over 200,000.  A free brochure at the rookery contained these details as more details about the molting of the males.  A seal cam may be viewed at http://elephantseal.org.

Betsy and Greg

The Piedras Blancas Lighthouse

After viewing the elephant seals, we drove south to Cambria and went for a walk and then lunch at Moonstone Beach.

Greg and Betsy on the boardwalk at Moonstone Beach

Unfortunately, this elephant seal didn’t make it back to the rookery and died along Moonstone Beach.