So there’s this article in Oregon Live which documents the tale of a female leatherback turtle, known by its ID number - 27957, which swam at least 12,774 miles from the nesting beaches of Jamursba-Medi in Indonesia to the Oregon coast in 2003, and back out into the Pacific, according to a recent report of the marathon journey. That’s more than four times the distance across the continental United States. It’s a record for sea turtles, and the longest recorded migration of a swimming vertebrate species, scientists said. The turtle probably swam all the way back to Indonesia, but its tracking device failed before it got there. What’s so special about Oregon that a turtle would swim halfway around the Earth to get here? Jellyfish.
Lemme see if I got this right. This turtle swims from Indonesia to the Oregon coast, beacuse it has a thing for jellyfish, and then swims all the way back to Indonesia. I’m perfectly willing myself to migrate from the Sierra Nevada to the Pacific Coast and California’s golden beaches in search of food, sun and sand, but swimming across the pacific to eat some jellyfish and then back? Now that’s one heck of a culinary traveler, or maybe 27957’s migration settings just went out of whack….Either way, she sure racked up a lot of turtle miles…
Speaking of the Pacific and the bizzare, consider the case of Pacific Shores, in the middle of one of California’s most important coastal wetlands — a 12,000-acre area called the Tolowa Dunes State Park and Lake Earl Wildlife Area. Pacific Shores, as it was dubbed by a developer who sold lots on the cheap to far away dreamers, is a limbo land where the state has been able to prevent development but unable to get lot owners to give up their quest. The mix of fresh and salt water provides habitat for at least 15 threatened species such as the western snowy plover, the Oregon silverspot butterfly and tidewater goby. As many as 100,000 birds use the wetlands during seasonal migration.
People were conned into buying plots of land here, and when these people found they were not allowed to build anything here, most of them resold their plots to other unsuspecting fools who thought they getting hold of a slice of pristine California. Sad but true.
And lastly, speaking of pristine California, Allen Pierleoni, writing for The Modesto Bee, has a great writeup of his experience of Monterey in the winter.
“Outside of occasional storms, the Monterey Peninsula gets better weather in the winter than it normally gets in the summer,” said Jim Vanderzwaan, the lead forecaster for Salinas-based KSBW-TV, the area’s NBC affiliate. “With La Nina (now active), odds are better than even that we’ll have a calm winter and mostly clear weather.” Also, winter is the time when hotels, restaurants and attractions offer money-saving deals.
And there’s this: The tourists who crowd the peninsula in the high season will be absent. That means you’ll actually be able to tour the Monterey Bay Aquarium, find a parking space in Carmel, book a dinner reservation before 9:30 p.m. and ride on the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail without getting entangled in a six-bicycle pile-up. (Warning: Stay out of town the week of Feb. 4. That’s when the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf championship takes place.)
A visit to Monterey usually follows the standard agenda — the aquarium, an outing on a whale-watching vessel (in the winter months, that is), and visits to the shops and restaurants along Cannery Row and Fisherman’s Wharf. For something different, stroll Municipal Wharf 2, also called the commercial pier, across the marina from Fisherman’s Wharf. You’ll find the Monterey Abalone Co. The abalone farm is literally underneath the wharf and not open for tours, but knock on the door to the office if you want to buy some live red abalone.