It's unclear
whether the initial incursion happened stealthily at night or brazenly during
the day - though authorities are almost certain the invasion occurred by sea.
And federal
employees who returned from the month-long partial government shutdown decided
that it was probably not worth the effort to relocate the roughly 90
individuals involved. That's because some of them were pregnant or newborns,
and all of them were opportunistic elephant seals that have taken over what
used to be the tourist area of Drakes Beach, California.
Across the
nation this week, returning federal workers slogged through backlogs of voice
mails, sifted through bursting email inboxes and tried to remember the name of
the childhood pet at the beginning of their log-in passwords.
At Drakes
Beach, part of the Point Reyes National Seashore, employees had a much bigger
problem. Literally. Some of the elephant seal squatters weigh as much as a car.
A colony of
nearly 1,500 seals inhabits nearby Chimney Beach, which is protected from binocular-wearing
tourists by 100-foot-tall cliffs. But Drakes Beach, with its wide swath of sand
and spectacular views of the Pacific, has been claimed by humans.
Park
officials have used a decidedly low-tech method to enforce an armistice between
the mammal species: They waved blue tarps to annoy the seals away from the
areas most popular with the homo sapiens.
"It
doesn't scare them, and it's a standard technique used with elephant
seals," John Dell'Osso, chief of interpretation and resource education for
the seashore, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "This would have kept them
farther away from tourists."
The annoying
tarps were an effective plan, usually chasing all but a seal or two away from
the beach, which is a 90-minute drive from San Francisco.
But the
federal government apparently does not regard the tarp-wavers as essential
federal employees, so the workers who did it were among the 800,000 furloughed.
During that
time, according to the Chronicle, high tides and storms battered the seals' normal
habitat.
So the seals
showed up to the suddenly-deserted Drakes Beach and brought friends, and
apparently family, too. Seals give birth during the winter months, and the
suddenly-deserted Drakes Beach appears to be an excellent place to raise pups.
On Jan. 27,
Point Reyes National Seashore notified eager would-be visitors that Drakes
Beach and other popular locations would reopen after the shutdown. Then, four
days later, officials posted this:
"Drakes
Beach and its access road from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard are temporarily
closed to all vehicle, foot, & bicycle traffic due to elephant seal
activity in the area."
Pictures of
the beach's newest residents showed seals of all sizes sunning themselves in
the sand, basking on a beach that provides some of the best views in northern
California.
A few have
made forays into more human territory. According to Vice, two adult males have
been spotted in the parking lot, one on the ramp to the empty visitor center
and another beneath a picnic table.
Bulls can
weigh as much as 4,500 pounds and, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration warns, "despite their sometimes docile and clumsy
appearance, elephant seals can be extremely quick and sometimes vicious if
humans, or their pets, get too close."
For the
humans of Drakes Beach, it might not be a total surrender. Dell'Osso said staff
are exploring the possibility of offering guided tours of the Drakes Beach
elephant seal colony.
A similar
program happens at Año Nuevo State Park. Visitors who wanted to see the seals
at that park are encouraged to bring a warm jacket, water and sturdy walking
shoes.
At Drakes
Beach, visitors might also consider carrying white flags.
This article
was originally published by The Washington Post.
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