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Ocean Wild Things

The California Wildlife Center is amazing!

April 18, 2013 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

I had the chance to visit the California Wildlife Center during their recent Open House and was completely blown away by all the amazing work they do. The Center is located about halfway between Malibu and Calabasas off Malibu Canyon Road. It’s tucked away in the middle of the woods surrounded by hills and greenery,… [read more]

Filed Under: Ocean heroes Tagged With: bird, California brown pelican, California Wildlife Center, hummingbird, mourning dove, pinniped, sea lion, seal, wildlife photography

Gray whales are heading north!

March 19, 2013 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Yesterday, the volunteers at the ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project had a whale of a day so to speak. They spotted 27 gray whales headed north! But that’s not all, they also saw tons of other wildlife doing all sorts of interesting things. Here’s a quick recap: Bottlenose dolphins playing with one of… [read more]

Filed Under: Whales Tagged With: bottlenose dolphin, breach, cetacean, common dolphin, dolphin, fin whale, humpback whale, Pacific white-sided dolphin, pinniped, sea lion, whale, whale watching

Synchronized swimming sea lions

August 8, 2012 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

Here is another shout out to the 2012 Olympics in London, this time to synchronized swimming! There is actually more synchronized swimming in the ocean than you might think. For starters, many species of small schooling fish look the same and swim the same way traveling en mass for protection such as the Pacific sardine.… [read more]

Filed Under: Seals, sea lions Tagged With: pinniped, sea lion

List of sea lions

July 7, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 2 Comments

Visit any beach or pier in California and there is a good chance you will see a California sea lion. In fact, California sea lions seem to be everywhere enjoying one of the following activities: lounging on buoys, sinking small boats, stealing fish from fishermen, swimming with dolphins, resting on prime pier real estate, and… [read more]

Filed Under: Seals, sea lions Tagged With: pinniped, sea lion

Fun anecdote about California sea lions

March 7, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Recently, I was cleaning my desk and going through stacks of papers and discovered the interview notes from my very first article on California sea lions. Wow, time flies, I wrote the first column for Easy Reader almost two years ago! For that first story, I interviewed Fullerton College professor and California sea lion researcher… [read more]

Filed Under: Seals, sea lions Tagged With: pinniped, sea lion

TOPP is another cool website

January 27, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 7 Comments

TOPP is another great website I recently discovered that I wanted to share. TOPP actually stands for Tagging of Pacific Predators. On the home page you can see where tagged animals have traveled including a white shark, a tuna, a male elephant seal and a leatherback turtle to name a few. There is so much… [read more]

Filed Under: Marine mammals, Seals, sea lions, Whales Tagged With: cetacean, elephant seal, pinniped, whale, whale watching

Great time to see elephant seals

January 10, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Now is the perfect time to go see the elephant seals! December through March is breeding and birthing time for Northern elephant seals and according to the Friends of the Elephant Seal website the peak birthing time is the middle of January. So that means this coming weekend is the best time to visit Piedras… [read more]

Filed Under: Seals, sea lions Tagged With: elephant seal, pinniped, seal, sexual dimorphism

Elephant seals are lucky to be alive

September 13, 2010 by Carolyn Kraft 2 Comments

I just learned about some fascinating elephant seal history that is a must share. It turns out that the two male elephant seals going head to head in the photo are truly lucky to be alive. In fact all northern elephant seals are lucky to be alive for reasons that are both predictable and shocking.… [read more]

Filed Under: Seals, sea lions Tagged With: elephant seal, pinniped, seal, sealing

Climate change near the equator

July 20, 2010 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Climate change in warmer parts of the globe could also mean a loss of habit. It’s the reverse of losing ice habitat because where is all that excess water going to go? Three words…sea level rise. All that excess water has to go somewhere and it’s quite possible that it could end up flooding crucial… [read more]

Filed Under: Climate change, Marine mammals Tagged With: endangered, pinniped, sea lion, seal, threatened

Climate change at the poles

July 19, 2010 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Well, I have been seriously neglecting my project to blog through the entire Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, so it’s time to revisit the “C” section, which brings us to climate change. The concept of climate change has become so political that it’s easy to ignore sometimes. But based on all the numbers I’ve seen something… [read more]

Filed Under: Climate change, Marine mammals Tagged With: fissiped, krill, pinniped, polar bear, seal, threatened, walrus

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