[CINC] World Ocean day at Carpinteria State Beach

[paul jr petrich]

Ahoy Ocean People,
 World Ocean Day, as well as Jacques Cousteau's 102nd birthday, were honored at Carpinteria State Beach last night before 74 attentive and inquisitive campers. Tara Brown, Myself, and Leanne, the Carpinteria Events coordinator, wore Red caps all day and during the evening Marine Mammals of Our CINP and CINMS power point presentation. Leanne donated an unbelievably large brush-like Gray whale baleen, and a huge whale rib bone, for us to display along with our whale kit items. All the recent cetacean good news stories in our channel were a hit, and  the  Bottle Nose dolphin that actually played in the very active surf at the State Beach that A.M. and P.M. generated many questions. 
  The local Harbor Seal rookery just down the beach from the campgrounds has just been opened to public use after seasonal closure, and many very healthy pups there can no longer be distinguished from the adults. This reality fit right in with the our coverage of the importance of our Channel Islands to the on-going recovery of so many pinniped  species of the North Eastern Pacific. We showed  slides and video clips of the CINP and CINMS success stories in relation to these successes as well.
 After a video clip of the Chumash Tomol crossing, Tara's wonderful telling of the Rainbow Bridge story, and a thorough explanation of how the audience, too, can travel out to their  CINP and CINMS, we closed with the new EDC-CINMS Public Service Announcement on the growing threat of Ocean Acidification: And the need to educate themselves on this new threat to our oceans and to what can be done about it. Many in the audience then came forward to view the whale kit items, and to ask how to go whale watching, or get out to the CINP. It was a good evening for all.  Paul
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