Saturday, June 26, 2010 by Tj.

Special thanks to the Montebello High School students who requested to spend their free time cleaning up the beach from a mass of debris that floated in from what was believed to be a recent boat sinking off shore.

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Saturday, June 26, 2010 by Tj.

Volunteer’s provide a critical service to the camp operations as well as an opportunity to get to know the staff and have a lot of fun. Special thanks to Martin and Gina for their recent visit to the island. Martin was all over the place, helping in the kitchen as well as the waterfront. Welcome back Gina, a former employee of The Catalina Experience. Her services were much appreciated in the maintenance and waterfront area’s this past weekend!

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Tuesday, June 8, 2010 by Tj.

We recently had a juvenile seal resting on our beach.  There was quite a debate about what kind of seal it was so we did some research and came to the conclusion that it was a juvenile Elephant Seal, Mirounga leonina.  Northern and Southern Elephant seals are more commonly recognized by the distinguishing look of the male noses, which resemble an elephant’s trunk.  The trunk doesn’t begin to develop until the male is about two years old.

Male Southern Elephant Seals grow to be the largest seals at over 20’ long and weighing up to 8,800 pounds while the females are much smaller and rarely over 13 feet. While it’s not entirely clear why this juvenile elephant seal beached itself, we were happy to see that it returned to the ocean later that day to continue its voyage. You can learn more cool facts about elephant seals at the National Geographic site http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/elephant-seal/

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