Channel Islands National Park

I lied when I said Joshua Tree National Park was hot. It was hotter in the Channel Islands. Because of some freak show weather we saw 90+ degrees on our first day with absolutely no wind.

On an island.

Coming from an area with a lot of islands, we had prepared for mid 60 degree temperatures and a constant breeze - because you'll be hard pressed to find a coastal area without one. Throw all of that knowledge out the window for this trip. I was glad I threw some t-shirts into my bag as an afterthought before I left.

With that being said, the Channel Islands are remarkable. The literature does not lie when it states that this National Park is one of the least visited but not to be missed. If you are nearby and have a day to spare, the Channel Islands need to be on your list.

Day 1: Santa Cruz Island South

Island Packers will take you on boat ride for a little over an hour each way to get to a few of the islands. Santa Cruz and Anacapa were open to visitors while we were there, so we spent two days on Santa Cruz and one on Anacapa. Every single commute is essentially a whale watch/wildlife trip. You cannot go one day without seeing whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, otters, and sea birds galore.

Once on the island, we made the decision to hike to Smuggler's Cove (about 8.5 miles round trip). It was ambitious considering the elevation gain, the heat, and the time constraints due to the boat departure. There were only five people (including the three of us) that did this particular hike and it was incredible.

We made it back just in time for the boat where we doubled our water intake for the day. We'd already gone through six giant water bottles and it wasn't enough. So hot!

Day 2: Santa Cruz Island North

The boat ride!

On day 1 we didn't find any Channel Island foxes or wildflower fields and we really wanted to see them. Day 2 did not disappoint. We decided to head north and explore the Potato Harbor loop and the Cavern Point loop trails - about 7 miles total.

Watching the gray whales from the cliffs.

Foxes! They were everywhere on this part of the island.

The Potato Harbor trail:

Day 3: Anacapa Island

First of all, there were tons of gray whales on the boat ride over. Not only did they breach, but a large group of common dolphins joined them and they all started to play together. This was the best boat ride.

Once on Anacapa, we had to climb over 150 stairs to get to the trails. Since the portion of the island open to the public is relatively small, we got to explore the entire thing. There had to be at least 5000 seagulls hanging out there (the largest colony in the United States). They were everywhere. And a lot different than the classic seagulls we were used to. 

For the most part, they were sitting in the grass and flowers and completely silent. We would hear the occasional seagull sounds, but they were generally aimed at others sneaking into established territory. They also didn't beg for your food. In the afternoon, we were walking to the lighthouse when every single seagull on the island flew into the air and started screaming. It was the weirdest and coolest thing I've ever seen seagulls do. Then they all returned to their areas and silenced again.

Odds and ends

The beginning of my 2015 could have gone...better. After the horrid trip to the DMV, I had some things stolen, unexpected expenses, got stung (most likely) by a scorpion, I found out our lab supervisor is moving away (nooooooo!), and that really awful Superbowl happened. I'm not talking about it.

Here are some of the better odds and ends of 2015!


The pet tank

As all of you know, we have a few pet tanks at work where the stowaway animals from other shipments are kept and raised by the lab. One of the sea stars was apparently very hungry...

Collectively, the lab reacted this way:

Hey did you see the sea star in the tank? It looks like it might eat the urchin.
Do sea stars eat urchins?
I don't think so - they have spines for a reason.
Hey do sea stars eat urchins?
Do you think it's just crawling over the top of it to get to the other side of the tank?
They don't eat urchins right?

It ate the urchin.

After seeing the carnage the next morning we put some more mussels in the tank for meal time. The murderous sea star actually ate one of the mussels against the glass, so we got a great view of what it looks like. You can see it's stomach wrapped around the mussel.

The other urchins in the tank can take a hint. They've grabbed those mussel shells from the bottom and are currently holding them with their tube feet against their spines. Like armor. 

Kelp tests

I learned my very first advanced test at work. Kelp! Essentially we test the toxicity of different effluents using kelp spores. If they germinate successfully in the test water, then the effluent isn't considered toxic to kelp (a classically sensitive species).

On the left is the full batch of kelp spores. We washed the kelp blades, let them dry overnight, and re-submerged them in cold seawater, where they released all of their spores. The containers on the right are less dense spore dilutions. We go through a system where we count the number of spores under a microscope and make a solution containing the correct number of spores for the test (the one used is the "inoculum"). 

Water fleas

One of our project managers did a plankton tow on a local lake and found an exceptionally large water flea in the sample. I guess this specific species was so abundant in the plankton that he wanted to find out what exactly it was. Side note: it is also twitchy, and gross. It naturally only has one eye! A cyclops!

It turns out that this species is an exotic, introduced zooplankton. It's scientific name is Daphnia lumholtzi and it's natural distribution is restricted to Australia, southwest Asia, and Africa.

So how did it get here?!? This was one of the more interesting things I've learned in a while:

It literally floated over on the wind from Africa.