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Elephant Seals

BY JEANETTE TROMPETER, KSBY NEWS

You know how it goes... a friend visits the Central Coast for the first time, and it’s never the last. Suddenly, they’re annual guests in your home. That’s kind of how it goes with a bunch of “beach bums” near San Simeon. And, they’re really kind of hard to miss.

The Northern Elephant Seals have chosen this little stretch of coastline to birth, breed, and bathe in our Central Coast sunshine for the last 20 years. And each year the crowd grows. “Every year the population increases a bit. They like it here, it’s protected, kind of,” guide Bill Cook explains.

The latest estimates indicate that there are somewhere between 16,000 and 18,000 Northern Elephant Seals along our coast. The males can weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. And, though they may not be pretty, they’re pretty impressive to see up close.

You’ll see the most activity in January and early February when it’s birthing and mating season, but they’re pretty much hanging around all year.

Right now, it’s the pups cuddling up, and cussing at each other. They have reason to be a little cranky. Their mothers fattened them up, and then took off for the Pacific Northwest already pregnant with future siblings. “When they’re born they will weigh about 60 pounds. They will nurse about 28 days and will be about 300 pounds in that 28 days,” says Cook.

So these pups are on their own until their instinct takes over and they learn to swim and find food.

They’ll return next month with adult females to shed their winter coats. And seeing a beach full of these blubbery bodies may help you shed any inhibitions you have about bearing your winter bod come springtime.

It’s always entertaining at this beach near Piedras Blancas, and the only admission is the time it takes to pull over and get out of the car.

It’s one of the few places in the world where elephant seals live. At most of those places, you can’t get close enough to see them. But you can here, and it’s right in our own backyard. It’s more proof, that there’s No Place Like Home.

SLO LIFE

Jeanette Trompeter, KSBY News anchor and reporter, hosts the “No Place Like Home” series every Thursday evening at 6pm.