By Cately Olrich, Coastal Advocate Intern
On Saturday, June 17th, I learned why one of the requirements for being a Coastal Advocate intern was to take (and enjoy) long walks on the beach.
Alongside my fellow interns, Jessie Kamman and Ben Hodgson, I learned how to carry out community science surveys through the MPA Watch Program at four locations; Corte Madera Marsh, Drakes Beach/ Drakes Estero, Duxbury Reef/Agate Beach, and Limantour Beach. This is in the pursuit of conducting surveys ourselves, as well as training other volunteers to conduct their own surveys.
Each training is free and open to new volunteers, or existing MPA Watch volunteers looking to learn new transects. After being trained at a location, a volunteer carries out at least 2 surveys per month for the following three months. Of course, we hope many of the volunteers will choose to continue to participate in the program beyond their initial commitment. Through community science we take collective action to provide valuable information about the human use of our marine protected areas.
A recent of these MPA Watch tTraining on June 17th was at Limantour Beach, where we monitor the beach and waters adjacent to and including Point Reyes State Marine Reserve and Estero de Limantour. The estero is a State Marine Reserve, where there should be no take of any marine resources. Whereas most of Limantour Beach is a control monitoring site, it is also important to see how people are using the area surrounding the reserve.
With this in mind, our EAC team under the direction of Leslie Adler-Ivanbrook met a group of six volunteers at Limantour Beach. Most of us were from the Marin area, though two came from Sacramento, and one guest joined us from Southern California. We found that despite the different beaches we call home, we agreed that coastal areas deserve special protection. With that, we started the training with an overview of Marine Protected Areas, and what makes them both important and effective. We also explained how the Watch Program helps with that effort. I felt very grateful for all of the volunteers willing to donate their time at that moment.
It was a characteristically foggy morning at Limantour, which made for a relaxed walk with data sheets and binoculars in hand. The first transect Leslie prompted us to record started was a ‘snapshot’ of everything to the left and east of us, and below the high tide line. The count continued as we walked the beach to the right, and recorded what we passed.
Importantly, transect LIM_01 was paused to survey the Limantour Estero, otherwise known as LIM_02. Here we saw a flock of pelicans, though no people were there. Probably because the estero is tucked behind the dunes. Continuing on with LIM_01 by the oceanside, we counted activities as we passed people. We also spotted a whale off-shore, which was a first for me!
Finally, we closed out LIM_01 and recorded a snapshot observation of LIM_03 using binoculars to view boundary lines that Leslie and our MPA maps showed us, which extended across the water to Chimney Rock. We saw one sailboat in this transect.
And just like that, we were done! All there was to do was walk back, and because you cannot record any data on the way back (to avoid double counting), we focused on being present with one another. In the end, we had walked more than five miles, and had a great start to the day! Though it really was more than a long walk on the beach. I feel lucky to be a part of such important community science that has spanned over so much space and time.
