[CINC] Santa Barbara Is:8/20

[paul jr petrich]

Ahoy Ocean and Island People,
   Last Monday I was a tourist type passenger with IPCO out to Santa Barbara Island fora day of R & R. Two of our CINC members were on duty, and did their respective interpretation missions so well, they were a positive topic of conversation amongst the passengers on the way back.  Carolyn Green was on the island as an overnight volunteer, and came back with us, along with 19 kayaks and the camper-kayakers who spent most of the week our there with her. Her campers were really impressed with Carolyn's special history lesson  ( in first person? ) of Buster Hyder's growing up on the island 1914 to 1929. Carolyn met with Marla Daily in Santa Barbara the morning of our CINP picnic to gain specifics about Buster and his experiences on the island. She stopped by Rincon Point for a splash in the ocean prior to most of you could show up for the social.

  Tara Brown had the SBI day hike. She did a fantastic job on the Montrose Settlement seabird restoration project as it applies to SBI, relating it to the ongoing plant restoration for nesting habitat, then to our MPAs. Message: It all starts with ocean health, even way out on SBI!

 Speaking of ocean health, on the trip back Captain Jimmy circumnavigated SBI and we were all treated to repeated air-born gliding displays by Flying Fish! I have not seen so many flying fish in action since Buster Hyder was my boss as the owner of 22nd Street Sportfishing Landing in San Pedro.

   I was a deckhand on one of Frank Hall's boats starting in S'55 out of the Landing. Frank was to buy out Buster for the Landing in the 60s after being a partner in the ownership for awhile.. I think it was under Buster and Frank's ownership when sportfishing boats out of the landing were Southern California pioneers in starting whale watching as a money making activity. They were encouraged to do so by the late John Olguin, who was a founding father of both the Cabrillo Museum > Aquarium ( when Chief of Lifeguards at Cabrillo Beach in the1950s! ) and the American Cetacean Society, both in San Pedro.

  And again, speaking of ocean health, Captain Jimmy gave us all a wonderful lesson on how to enhance it.  As we left the flying fish display for home, he diverted his boat to have deckhand and co-skipper ,Poncho, scoop up a floating party big party balloon. We soon all got a lesson about how said balloons break up into tiny pieces, never to decompose, and contaminate the ocean food chain that., Not too many links away in that chain, these particles would find their way to sea creatures to do them ill (like Flying Fish as well as whales).  The crew in the Galley led the passengers in a round of applause. I Sari Wa, Paul