Retired biological sciences professor Julie Haugsness first learned about elephant seals during a visit to Año Nuevo in the 1980s. As part of a Scripps College course on coastal environments, she traveled down the coast of California with her classmates, camping and studying near shore habitats, including at Año Nuevo.
“It’s just the most unusual [animal],” said Haugsness, who now chairs both the new visitor center planning committee and the docent training committee for the San Simeon-based Friends of the Elephant Seal, a nonprofit dedicated to elephant seal stewardship, education, and interpretation.
Her background as a biological oceanographer was evident as she described the educational displays that the nonprofit’s new 1,000-square-foot visitors center enables them to have. These include a collection of elephant seal skulls ranging from adult male to pup, a giant flat-screen that livestreams video from cameras set up at the Point Piedras Blancas rookery, and a display about the primary food sources for female elephant seals.
Haugsness said their food sources are thousands of miles away, and the fish they eat live in the “twilight zone” of the ocean—deep, dark water—and “migrate up to the surface at night and down away from the predators by day.” Elephant seal females feed “on this deep sea scattering layer of this primarily bioluminescent lantern fish,” she added.
The new center has been open since May 25, and Haugsness said it averages about 50 visitors a day now, whereas it might have been five or fewer at the old visitors center, which is much smaller and doubled as an office space for the nonprofit. Friends is planning to use the larger space to host speakers, bring in book authors, and provide an educational space for big groups.
“It provides us with more ability to educate the public,” Haugsness said. “It expands our interpretive and viewing area.”
On July 16 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., Friends is hosting a grand opening celebration at the center, located at the Plaza del Cavalier in San Simeon. The day will include educational activities, guided interpretive walks, and a ribbon cutting ceremony, as well as sips of Champagne and coffee. The organization will also offer special prize drawings that day for visitors and for those who decide to become members.
Friends of the Elephant Seal formed in 1997 as the beaches near the Piedras Blancas lighthouse began to fill with elephant seals giving birth to their young. Now, those beaches support an estimated 25,000 elephant seals throughout the year.
“We are now the largest mainland rookery,” Haugsness said, adding that approximately 1 million visitors from all over the world find their way to the colony every year.
Working in collaboration with California State Parks, Friends of the Elephant Seal trains volunteer docents to man the viewing area just south of the lighthouse, about 7.8 miles from San Simeon. With about 100 trained docents, the nonprofit helps educate visitors about how to view wildlife safely (from a distance) and interprets elephant seal behavior. Haugsness started her volunteer work with Friends as a docent in 2019.
“We have a very large and dedicated group of volunteers because it is just so fun to go to the beach and meet people from all over the world,” Haugsness said.
She joined the board in 2021, and is the board liaison for education in addition to the committees she participates on. Traveling up from San Diego five or six times a year, she stays in the area for a week at a time to do what she needs to do for the nonprofit. Haugsness will be in San Simeon on July 16 for the new visitors center’s grand opening.
“We are really looking at this as a celebratory event. We are hoping to reach a lot of people,” she said, adding that it expands the nonprofit’s opportunities to reach people and hopefully provide education. “The health of the rookery and the importance of a safe breeding and molting beach. … It’s essential to the survival of this species.”
Fast fact
• The SLO County Public Health Department wants input from the more than 50,000 county residents who tested positive for COVID-19. Reaching out to them via text message, the county is asking questions that will help health officials better understand the long-term health impacts of the virus, according to a press release. Those who tested positive via at-home tests can answer questions at slopublichealth.org/longcovid. All response are confidential. Δ
Reach Editor Camillia Lanham at clanham@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 14-24, 2022.