Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

HUMAN INTERACTIONS   MBNMS Home Introduction Sancutary Program Accomplishments Intertidal Systems Rocky Subtidal Systems Open Ocean & Deep Water Systems The Physical Environment Wetlands and Watersheds Endangered & Threatened Species Marine Mammals Bird Populations Marine Mammals & Bird Surveys Harvested Species Human Interactions Further Reading Credits The people of California's Central Coast can't help but interact with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. We surf and swim in its waters and walk along its shores - even dispose of our sewage within its boundaries. People from around the country and the world also come into contact with the Sanctuary as tidepool visitors, recreational fishers, and travelers aboard vessels transiting the California coast. This section illustrates some of the many human/Sanctuary interactions that occur every year. It is by no means a complete accounting; we have simply compiled some examples and - where possible - given relevant statistics for 1998. (For example, Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is only one example of many tidepool locations within the Sanctuary, and Monterey Bay Kayaks represents only one of many kayak rental companies.) Footnotes describe the limitations of, and sources for, these statistics. Some of these interactions are generally considered harmful (such as oil spills or effluent discharge) and some are beneficial (beach cleanups, docents). However, often the line is not clear-cut; many of these interactions could have a positive or negative effect, depending on the behavior of those involved. Activity Details Tidepoolers Visitors to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve - approximately 110,0001 Whale Watchers Monterey Bay Whale Watch - 8,145 people2 (see article p. 25) Kayak Trips Monterey Bay Kayaks - 15,400 kayak trips (via rentals) (from Monterey and Elkhorn Slough) Divers Southern Monterey Bay giant kelp forests - over 60,000+ divers/year.3 Of the above total, Pt. Lobos - 3,720 divers4 Fishers Commercial Fishing Licenses, by county5: Marin - 196 San Francisco - 204 San Mateo - 308 Santa Clara - 44 Santa Cruz - 209 Monterey - 648 San Luis Obispo - 574 Charter Boats (Recreational fishing) Charter Boats Licenses, by county6: Marin - 11 San Francisco - 25 San Mateo - 9 Santa Clara - 6 Santa Cruz - 16 Monterey - 9 San Luis Obispo - 17 Great American Fish Count (5th Annual) Total Locations - 20 Total Bottom Time - 95:57 hrs Total Species Counted - 81 Total Surveys Completed - 127 (For more details, see p. 3.) 1998 Coastal Cleanup Coastal Cleanup Beach Debris Collected, by county7: Marin - 17,263 lbs trash; 3,597 lbs recyclables; 1,181 volunteers San Francisco - 5,492 lbs trash; 792 lbs recyclables; 2,718 volunteers San Mateo - 32,902 lbs trash; 3,190 lbs recyclables; 1,546 volunteers Santa Cruz - 5,020 lbs trash; 1,750 lbs recyclables; 1,850 volunteers Monterey - 12,902 lbs trash; 2,521 recyclables; 2,665 volunteers San Luis Obispo - 4,741 lbs trash; 730 lbs recyclables; 760 volunteers Volunteer Docents Contacts with the public: Save Our Shores Sanctuary Stewards - 45,000 (Santa Cruz and San Mateo Chapters) BAY NET - 23,000 (Santa Cruz and Monterey Peninsula) Friends of the Elephant Seal/BAY NET* - 60,000+ (San Luis Obispo County) *Friends of the Elephant Seal was created from over 60 volunteers trained initially by BAY NET. The two programs worked closely in San Luis Obispo County during much of 1998. Wastewater Treatment Both the Santa Cruz and Watsonville wastewater treatment plants were upgraded to secondary treatment level in 1998. Activity Details Volume of Permitted Effluent National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permits - 65 Average dry weather flow from these discharges: approx. 1.77 billion gallons/day State Waste Discharge Requirement (WDR) Permits - 220 Maximum design flow for these discharges: 91.4 million gallons/day Sanitary Exceedances and Unauthorized Discharges Sanitary Exceedances and Unauthorized Discharges, by county8: San Mateo (Mid Coastside WWTP): 54 reported violations, either effluent exceedances or overflows/bypasses, directly to the Sanctuary Santa Cruz: Effluent exceedances in watershed - 14 Effluent exceedances w/direct discharges to Sanctuary - 6 Unauthorized discharges in watershed - 2 Unauthorized discharges w/direct discharges to Sanctuary - 5 Monterey: Effluent exceedances in watershed - 31 Effluent exceedances w/direct discharges to Sanctuary - 4 Unauthorized discharges in watershed - 3 Unauthorized discharges w/direct discharges to Sanctuary - 1 San Luis Obispo: Effluent exceedances in watershed - 10 Effluent exceedances w/direct discharges to Sanctuary - 2 Unauthorized discharges in watershed - 0 Unauthorized discharges w/direct discharges to Sanctuary - 0 Beach Closures Beach Closures, by county9: Marin: Not available. San Mateo: 19 beaches closed for a total of 278 days Santa Cruz: 6 beach closures for approx. 3 days each and 1 closure for 1 day, for an approximate total of 19 days Monterey: 2 beach closures for a total of 14 days San Luis Obispo: 1 beach closed for 3 days (outside Sanctuary boundaries); advisories posted at all beaches during big storm events Shipwrecks 1) The Vaya Con Dios was wrecked north of San Pedro Point (technically out of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary boundary, in the exclusion zone off San Francisco) in June. The wreck was eventually removed. Four crew died in the accident. 2) The Lovely Day sank and washed ashore north of Point Joe (Pebble Beach) on the Monterey Peninsula in mid-December. Both crew members aboard died. No oil or petroleum products were observed on the ocean's surface. Oil Spill Responses 1) Pt. Reyes Tarball incident, Nov. 97 to Feb. 98. Most activities occurred outside of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary, in the Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary. (See p. 2 for details.) 2) San Mateo Coast Oil Spill, Sept.-Oct. 98. Fifty to 100 barrels of an unknown oil product were spilled west of Half Moon Bay. The Coast Guard tracked down a possible responsible party. (See p. 2 for details.) Enforcement Actions under the Marine Sanctuaries Act -Three fines were issued: two for harassment of marine mammals; one for operation of a jet ski out of prescribed zones. (Fines ranged from $200 to $750 dollars.) -A homeowner and builder were issued official warnings for constructing a seawall without authorization from the Sanctuary. -Several verbal warnings were issued to jet ski operators operating in unauthorized areas. Notes: This number is low (1996 was 135,000, for example) because the Reserve's sign was destroyed in a traffic accident. This is thought to be a low number for the average operator, because this company includes interpretation in its trips, and so takes fewer than average trips. Saunders, R., Okey, T.A. and Sobel, J. 1997. Recommendation for the establishment of the Edward F. Ricketts Marine Park. Center for Marine Conservation, San Francisco, 17 pp. Estimates, provided by Judy Pollack, Point Lobos State Reserve Source: California Department of Fish and Game Source: California Department of Fish and Game. These are not necessarily exclusively doing sport fishing; they may also do whale watching tours, marine mammal tours, etc. Source: California Coastal Commission Sources: San Luis Obispo Regional Water Quality Control Board (for Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo counties). Data were not available from the Oakland RWQCB, which includes Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties; Pat Cotter (Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary) provided details from Mid Coastside Waste Water Treatment Plant in San Mateo County. Sources: County Environmental Health Departments. Note that all counties except Santa Cruz test weekly, so that in those counties a beach, once closed, usually remains closed for seven days. In Santa Cruz County, a closed beach will normally be tested every day until it is safe and opened again. Human Interactions Statistics compiled by Lisa de Marignac, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and Jenny Carless. Sanctuary Vessel Traffic at a Glance Number and type Approximately 4,000 large vessels (>300 gross tons) traverse the Sanctuary each year 500 - 750 are tankers the majority of the remainder are large container ships and bulk product carriers Distance from shore Most U.S. crude oil tankers voluntarily travel 50+ nm* from shore Large container ships and bulk product carriers usually travel 2.5 to 15 nm from shore *nm: nautical miles (Note: for further information on Sanctuary vessel traffic, see page 2.) Boaters/Harbors: Monterey Moss Landing Santa Cruz Pillar Point Number of berths 413 0.25 1,140 371 Number of moorings (permanent) 200 0 0 30 % Commercial 34* 50 5 60 % Recreational 66* 50 95 40 Ratio of recreational sail/power 50*/50 Not avail. 65/35 50/50 Visitors/night/year (transients) 10,000 Not avail. 12,000 7,952 Launches/year 8,000 9,00 15,000 10,976 *except for those boats moored in the lee of Wharf #2 (approximately 40), where 100 percent are recreational, with a breakdown of sail/power at 75/25. Sources: Harbormasters Friends of the Elephant Seal Friends of the Elephant Seal (FES) was formed and incorporated in March 1998 by concerned members of the Cambria community. These activists formed FES under the guidance of the Center for Marine Conservation's BAY NET program to establish and operate an elephant seal docent program on the Central Coast. There is a large and growing colony of northern elephant seals located in the Piedras Blancas area just north of Cambria. Over the years, the colony - which is easily viewed from Highway 1 - has become an attraction for tourists and nature lovers. Unfort-unately, many of the people who came to view the elephant seals unwittingly harassed or interfered with the seals' natural activities. By posting trained docents at the elephant seal viewing areas, FES has been able to educate thousands of people on the natural history of the elephant seal and how to view and enjoy them without disturbing their environment. Over sixty volunteer docents also provide the public with information on the seals' habitat and the other marine mammals, such as gray whales, harbors seals, sea lions, and sea otters, which frequent the area. The program has been instrumental in preventing incidents of harassment to the seals through its educational programs and presence on the beaches. Since the program first began posting docents in November 1997, docents have contacted over 60,000 people who stopped at the viewing areas along Highway 1. The visitors are local residents, tourists from around the world, tour groups, and school children. FES is now expanding its efforts by developing a portable educational program to be taken to public schools and other interested groups. William Raver Friends of the Elephant Seal Whale Watching Whale watching is becoming a common means for the average person to experience the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Monterey Bay Whale Watch conducted year-round trips during 1998 to observe the diversity of marine life within the Sanctuary. Our biologists documented all marine mammal species including location, group size, and behavior. We also photo-identified individual humpback whales, blue whales, and killer whales, and contributed that documentation to scientists working on these species. The year started off with the southern migration of the gray whale, which was a bit delayed due to El Niño conditions. The migration peaked off Monterey between the second and third week of January with over fifty whales sighted per 3-hour trip, with whale group sizes ranging from ten to fifteen. The highlight of the season was our observation of a gray whale giving birth to her calf inside the Bay off Pacific Grove. For unexplained reasons the northern migration of the gray whale was early, with the first northbounders observed during the second week of February. As the main migration of adult and juvenile whales passed us by early April, the migration of mothers with calves was just beginning in our area. This is a time of danger for the young calves, as killer whales prefer to hunt them in Monterey Bay as they cross the deep canyon and are away from the protection of shore. Although this is an unpredictable event, we observed three full attacks and the end of a fourth. The killer whales generally work as a group to tire the gray whales, separate the mother from calf, and eventually kill the calf. Spring marked the beginning of the upwelling season, coinciding with the arrival of humpback and blue whales to feed on the abundance of fish and krill in the Monterey Bay region and along the Central Coast. May and June offered incredible opportunities to watch multi-species feeding aggregations in the Bay involving humpback whales, thousands of long beaked common dolphins, hundreds of California sea lions, and up to 10,000 seabirds - mostly Sooty Shearwaters. Both humpback and blue whales were consistently sighted through the summer and fall. An abundance of sardines and krill was the mainstay for these whales. As during the winter and spring, common dolphins - both long beaked and short beaked species - were the most abundant dolphin in the Bay through the end of fall, often encountered in groups of over 2,000. They displaced the normally abundant and frequently-sighted Pacific white-sided dolphin, which was still occasionally present but in smaller group sizes. Baird's beaked whales were sighted several times during October, as in past years. Killer whales were sighted two to five times per month, with peaks in spring and fall. October marked above-average sightings and numbers (1,000 per group) of Risso's dolphins, often in the company of northern right whale dolphins. Another late burst of upwelling in October created huge krill concentrations off the coast between Point Pinos and south of Point Lobos, near the canyon edge, lasting through most of November. This late season krill brought, on some days, up to 100 whales to the area, including humpback, blue, and fin whales. Fin whales are not commonly seen in most years, but were a consistent presence during October and November. Nancy Black Monterey Bay Whale Watch

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Last modified on: June 1, 1999