With Bay of Life, Frans Lanting and Christine Eckstrom wanted to go past Monterey Bay’s natural beauty to explore its past, present and possible futures.
The Ocean
Bay Nature stories about the Pacific Ocean.
Can We Have More Whales and Fewer Whale Strikes?
September 23, 2022 •
Anchovies sparkled and seawater sprayed from the crusty maws of gray whales as they burst through the surface, again and again, off the coast near Pacifica, fifteen miles south of San Francisco. Groups of up to six gray whales devoured … Read more
How Your Beach Photos Are Helping CA Scientists: Snapshot Cal Coast 2022
August 11, 2022 •
This year’s Snapshot Cal Coast featured 4,083 people logging 46,683 observations of almost 4,000 species into the iNaturalist app from June 13 to July 4.
Modeling the uncertain future of Northern California’s bull kelp forests
August 2, 2022 •
For two years, scientists at UC Davis have been modeling a “Field of Dreams” hypothesis about bull kelp to understand what approaches could best help the recovery of the kelp forest ecosystem in Northern California.
Naturalist’s Notebook: Whale, Dolphin and Porpoise ID Guide
June 23, 2022 •
How to identify individual cetaceans in the San Francisco Bay.
The Second-Largest Fish In the Ocean Seems to be In Decline
April 12, 2022 •
Basking sharks can be over 30 feet long and are characterized by their enormous gill rakers and three-foot tall dorsal fins. But these mysterious, massive, filter-feeding cousins of the great white shark aren’t just a scientific curiosity – they also … Read more
Holding Fast for Abalone, Our Elder Relatives
March 25, 2022 •
Abalone are deeply important in Indigenous tribal cultures in California and all along the Pacific coast.
Annotated Nature: A Tidepool
January 7, 2022 •
Better understand a West Coast tidepool
Buried Treasure
October 11, 2021 •
You’ve seen their bleached skeletons lying on the beach or scattered in gardens. What does a living sand dollar do?
Kelp Forests Surge Back on Parts of the North Coast, with a Lesson About Environmental Stability
September 13, 2021 •
Some scientists thought kelp’s near-disappearance from the waters off California was likely a new normal. Then, at least temporarily, the kelp came back.