Marine Mammal Monitoring
Harbor Seal Surveys -- Every year, volunteers at Fort Ross help Point Reyes National Seashore Marine Ecologists with fortnightly harbor seal surveys. This is a great excuse to walk along the Fort Ross State Historic Park coast with a pair of binoculars. Bring family or a friend along with you! The extra pair of eyes will be helpful. The spotted seals are surprisingly good at camouflaging against the rocks.
To get started, there is a one-hour training video. The walk along the coast for the survey is also about one hour. Fortnightly surveys are scheduled every year between March and July. Survey dates are on every second Saturday and can be done two days either side of the specified date (Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday).
Sea Lion Surveys -- Every month, volunteers meet to count the Steller and California sea lions on the islands off Fort Ross. We walk for about 1.5 hours along the coast (with a chocolate break) and then have lunch together at the visitor center.
Each month is different; the sea lions are endlessly entertaining. We see them swim, play, jump off cliffs, and seemingly have arguments with each other.
The first surveys started in 1997 and the more data we collect, the better we understand the local sea lions.
Sea lion surveys start at 11 am and the survey date is on weekdays and based on volunteer availability.
