Well, my job as the Director of Education at the California Wildlife Center is over... the Annenberg Foundation grant that has funded CWC's Education Program for the past 2 years is ending in September, and with it my position at CWC. Last Wednesday, August 30, was my last day working at the center. I submitted grants to other foundations, which CWC should hear from in the near future and I am hopeful that the center will receive a grant to continue the Wildlife Education Program at that time.
It's a bittersweet situation for me to be departing from the center for a new job-- I'm both excited for what's to come, and sad to be leaving a place that has had a very special place in my heart for the last 2 years. The friendships that I have made, the animals we've helped, the people we have reached with our message of co-existence...
I'll never forget carrying an emaciated, orphaned harbor seal for 30 minutes to the CWC rescue truck at Point Dume...
...going to 126 classrooms throughout Los Angeles and seeing kids' faces light up when I taught them about the variety of wildlife that thrive just minutes from their doorsteps...
...feeding a tiny baby hummingbird in the hospital who's mom had been killed by a cat...
...working with volunteers and staff to build a new outdoor enclosure for the animals...
...helping to save a sea lion on the beach in Malibu that had fishing line caught around his neck...
...releasing a Red Tail Hawk that had been hit by a car, after 3 months of rehabilitation and giving him a second chance...
I'm pretty choked up about leaving the center... I mean, I've had lots of changes and transitions in my life, but for some reason this one is really affecting me!! I had a thoughtful send-off this week from the staff and volunteers, and have had kind words from everyone at CWC, but those things all make it even harder to go! I cannot fully leave the center and be happy, so I plan to continue at CWC as a volunteer in any way that is needed.
The good news is that I will be continuing my career in the environmental education community with a new job at the non-profit, TreePeople. I start the day after Labor Day, and am excited about my project there and who I'll be working with. I'm still not sure what my long-term career goals are, if they're in the non-profit world or with a more stable, lucrative profession... but in the meantime all I know is I want to help my community in some capacity.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Reef Check Diving in Monterey
We just got back from a weekend of volunteering with Reef Check diving surveys up in Monterey Bay. Friday, after work and packing, we made the drive for about 6 hours up to Monterey... arriving at Veteran's Park Campground around 2:00 a.m., setting up our tent, and hitting the sack as soon as we could. Although I woke up with a little sore throat, I chalked it up to breathing in cold air from camping, and continued with our plan to board the boat "Sanctuary" at K Dock at 8:00 a.m. 3 other Reef Check divers were going out Hopkin's State Marine Reserve with us, with the hope of finishing 6 core transects and 12 fish count transects.
Here's a brief description of Reef Check: It's a "volunteer, ocean conservation organization designed to save coral reefs globally and temperate reefs in California. Reef Check is active in over 82 countries and territories throughout the world." While we were in Jamaica, we also volunteered with Reef Check (doing surveys in Portland Bight, Negril, and Drunken Man's Cay outside Kingston) but the field methods are pretty different than they are in California. Last April we were among 15 other divers as the first trained Reef Check California volunteers.
At different sites around the California coast and the Channel Islands, we do underwater research assessing the health of the fish, invertebrates, seaweed, and substrate. We collect data at each site twice a year, which shows the health and change over time of California's rocky reef ecosystem. We really love volunteering with this organization! ... now, back to yesterday...
After leaving the dock, we headed out to Hopkin's State Marine Reserve, which is near the Monterey Bay Aquarium (in my profile pic, you can see the aquarium in the background). First off, there were otters everywhere! I've never dove around sea otters, so I was very excited!!
We geared up and hit the chilly 51-degree water. Quite a temperature difference from the 76-degree water of Catalina Island we dove a couple weeks ago! We started to descend, but due to my "camping cold" I couldn't get my ears to equalize past 15 feet depth... I've never had a problem equalizing, so we surfaced and I decided to try descending again. This time, my ears popped and equalized! I was so glad I wouldn't have to call the dive off, after driving so far to do it! I took the descent extra slow, equalizing every few feet, and reached the bottom at about 50 ft. depth.
We took out our transect lines, and Bryan and I began our fish transect. The fish life in Monterey is extremely different than just a couple hundred miles down the coast- there's no garibaldi or sheephead (very common fish in southern CA), but there are tons of different species of rockfish-- black, blue, kelp, black and yellow, gopher... rockfish in southern CA are pretty rare to find (they're overfished), so it was quite a treat to see them. Since we were in a reserve, all the fish were very large, too, typically measuring 25-30 centimeters long. We also saw some Kelp Greenlings, a very unique-looking fish that you don't see in southern CA.
Our second survey was of invertebrates; unlike southern CA, I didn't see any lobster, urchins, or sea cucumbers-- but I did see huge sunflower stars, gumboot chitons, and tons of anemones, including a huge anemone called a "fish-eating anemone"! We finished 5 surveys during this dive, and ascended after about an hour.
After a brief surface interval on the boat drinking hot tea, we headed back in to complete 5 more surveys. During this dive, we were getting our fins tangled in the giant kelp pretty often, so when Bryan turned around to "untangle" his fin, he was surprised to be staring in the face of a harbor seal! The harbor seal kept biting his fin! Crazy! Also, at the surface above us, sea otters were lounging on their backs in the kelp. Since the seal was hanging around us on this dive, our fish count surveys didn't show too many fish, but we were still able to complete the 5 transects. Our last dive was a bit shallower, at around 25 feet, so we had to deal with surge, but we got the remaining transects done.
My "camping cold" hit me pretty bad :-( after we finished diving. So, now I'm a bit sick- but I at least I was able to get some diving in before the cold hit me hard-core! We finished off our time in Monterey by grabbing some clam chowder and sourdough in Fisherman's Wharf. Although we did a lot of driving this weekend, the dives in Monterey were worth it! Plus, we were able to help out a great organization.
Here's a brief description of Reef Check: It's a "volunteer, ocean conservation organization designed to save coral reefs globally and temperate reefs in California. Reef Check is active in over 82 countries and territories throughout the world." While we were in Jamaica, we also volunteered with Reef Check (doing surveys in Portland Bight, Negril, and Drunken Man's Cay outside Kingston) but the field methods are pretty different than they are in California. Last April we were among 15 other divers as the first trained Reef Check California volunteers.
At different sites around the California coast and the Channel Islands, we do underwater research assessing the health of the fish, invertebrates, seaweed, and substrate. We collect data at each site twice a year, which shows the health and change over time of California's rocky reef ecosystem. We really love volunteering with this organization! ... now, back to yesterday...
After leaving the dock, we headed out to Hopkin's State Marine Reserve, which is near the Monterey Bay Aquarium (in my profile pic, you can see the aquarium in the background). First off, there were otters everywhere! I've never dove around sea otters, so I was very excited!!
We geared up and hit the chilly 51-degree water. Quite a temperature difference from the 76-degree water of Catalina Island we dove a couple weeks ago! We started to descend, but due to my "camping cold" I couldn't get my ears to equalize past 15 feet depth... I've never had a problem equalizing, so we surfaced and I decided to try descending again. This time, my ears popped and equalized! I was so glad I wouldn't have to call the dive off, after driving so far to do it! I took the descent extra slow, equalizing every few feet, and reached the bottom at about 50 ft. depth.
We took out our transect lines, and Bryan and I began our fish transect. The fish life in Monterey is extremely different than just a couple hundred miles down the coast- there's no garibaldi or sheephead (very common fish in southern CA), but there are tons of different species of rockfish-- black, blue, kelp, black and yellow, gopher... rockfish in southern CA are pretty rare to find (they're overfished), so it was quite a treat to see them. Since we were in a reserve, all the fish were very large, too, typically measuring 25-30 centimeters long. We also saw some Kelp Greenlings, a very unique-looking fish that you don't see in southern CA.
Our second survey was of invertebrates; unlike southern CA, I didn't see any lobster, urchins, or sea cucumbers-- but I did see huge sunflower stars, gumboot chitons, and tons of anemones, including a huge anemone called a "fish-eating anemone"! We finished 5 surveys during this dive, and ascended after about an hour.
After a brief surface interval on the boat drinking hot tea, we headed back in to complete 5 more surveys. During this dive, we were getting our fins tangled in the giant kelp pretty often, so when Bryan turned around to "untangle" his fin, he was surprised to be staring in the face of a harbor seal! The harbor seal kept biting his fin! Crazy! Also, at the surface above us, sea otters were lounging on their backs in the kelp. Since the seal was hanging around us on this dive, our fish count surveys didn't show too many fish, but we were still able to complete the 5 transects. Our last dive was a bit shallower, at around 25 feet, so we had to deal with surge, but we got the remaining transects done.
My "camping cold" hit me pretty bad :-( after we finished diving. So, now I'm a bit sick- but I at least I was able to get some diving in before the cold hit me hard-core! We finished off our time in Monterey by grabbing some clam chowder and sourdough in Fisherman's Wharf. Although we did a lot of driving this weekend, the dives in Monterey were worth it! Plus, we were able to help out a great organization.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Roots, Rock, Reggae!
Yesterday was one of those awesome, perfect days in life! Saturday Bryan and I had ran errands (filling SCUBA tanks, getting the bikes tuned up) and cleaned the whole apartment (including washing screens, windows, etc.-totally clean!) Lots of work, but it made the rest of our weekend worry-free. So, Sunday was all about having fun!
We started by walking over to the beach and had a picnic, swam in the ocean, and layed out on our blanket catching rays. The weather was spectacular-- sunny, light ocean breeze, warm. The ocean was beautiful- shimmering blue, nice 2-3 ft. waves, water temperature 64 degrees. It's days like this when I feel so lucky for being able to live here... At around 3:00 we had to go take showers and leave for the Bob Marley Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival!
We caught a shuttle bus (Santa Monica Big Blue Bus) heading over to Hollywood to get to the concert-- didn't have to deal with traffic, parking fees, lines, etc. I highly recommend taking public transportation to concerts, it makes life so much easier! Once at the Hollywood Bowl, I started getting SUPER excited. Not only was I going to see my favorite musician, Ziggy Marley, (my cat's named after him) but also a living legend- Bunny Wailer (of Bob Marley and the Wailers). On the last song, 3 Marley brothers were on stage- Ziggy, Stephen, and Damien "Jr. Gong"! The concert also made me miss Jamaica-- it was nice hearing real Jamaican accents again. We had great seats, a bottle of wine, and the best music ever! The concert went on for hours... (as did my dancing) Just totally awesome! So, now I'm refreshed for the work-week...
We started by walking over to the beach and had a picnic, swam in the ocean, and layed out on our blanket catching rays. The weather was spectacular-- sunny, light ocean breeze, warm. The ocean was beautiful- shimmering blue, nice 2-3 ft. waves, water temperature 64 degrees. It's days like this when I feel so lucky for being able to live here... At around 3:00 we had to go take showers and leave for the Bob Marley Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival!
We caught a shuttle bus (Santa Monica Big Blue Bus) heading over to Hollywood to get to the concert-- didn't have to deal with traffic, parking fees, lines, etc. I highly recommend taking public transportation to concerts, it makes life so much easier! Once at the Hollywood Bowl, I started getting SUPER excited. Not only was I going to see my favorite musician, Ziggy Marley, (my cat's named after him) but also a living legend- Bunny Wailer (of Bob Marley and the Wailers). On the last song, 3 Marley brothers were on stage- Ziggy, Stephen, and Damien "Jr. Gong"! The concert also made me miss Jamaica-- it was nice hearing real Jamaican accents again. We had great seats, a bottle of wine, and the best music ever! The concert went on for hours... (as did my dancing) Just totally awesome! So, now I'm refreshed for the work-week...
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