Tag: California
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The Abalone Song (or what to do while pounding the abs)
Abalone: from Sea to Table. Photo Credits: CBS SF News (left and right); Right Around We Go Blog (center). Abalone are definitely one of the most exquisite things to eat from the sea. Their sublime flavor is both buttery and slightly salty and tastes like a cross between a scallop and calamari. But it is even…
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Gone with the Tide: the Abalone Divers of Isla Natividad
During the summer of 1986 we embarked on the ultimate surfing ecology road trip. Combining my interests of surfing and marine biology we set off looking for abalone and good, uncrowded waves. I had just established study sites and tagged black abalone in northern and southern California. Baja was next.
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The Elephant Seals of Año Nuevo
The year was 1987 and I was searching for a place where black abalone were largely undisturbed so I could complete my dissertation. The island was the perfect location: isolated, difficult to access, federally protected, and surrounded by seal- and shark- infested waters. During my first low tide on the island I was ecstatic: blacks…
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Cortes Bank: the Largest Wave on the Planet
…Dawn’s early light revealed a shimmering plume of spray. A Himalayan peak rose to life far off the bow. It was shaped like a great, volcanic cone– 43 million pounds of water, terrible and unrideable. Its foam exploding an unknowable number of feet into the air and churned the surrounding water into a 360-degree maelstrom…
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Shore Whaling at Trinidad, California in the 1920s
Standing there today you can imagine it. Just walk outside the Seascape Restaurant near Trinidad Pier and you are on hallowed ground. Ground consecrated by the blood and guts of thousands of magnificent whales and a few brave whalemen. Here, for six years in the 1920s, whales were brought ashore and butchered by men for…
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The Call of Nature and the Renewal of the Nature Fast
Hiking into the Washington Cascades. 2006. “To perceive the true nature of existence was one reason for the performing a vision quest; after four days of fasting alone in a high rock, in the great silence and solitude of earth, one is bound to discover that what was thought of as a separate self is…
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Growing up in the 60s: How the Murder of our Heroes Changed the World
I will never forget that day: the announcement over the school loudspeakers, the nuns at my Catholic school stricken with grief, the confusion, but most of all I remember the change in my parent’s behavior. I was six years old and it was Nov. 22, 1963. On that day my world changed.
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Dr. Abalone’s Field Guide to the Six Species of Surfers
After traveling the world these last four decades searching for interesting creatures and critters, I, Dr Abalone, have discovered a consistent pattern among the creatures that inhabit the waves and beaches of the known planet called surfers.
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The Search for Monster Great White Sharks
You’re gonna need a bigger boat. — Chief Martin Brody (Jaws) First of all let’s get something straight: Great white sharks are not the biggest shark in the ocean. That distinction belongs to whale sharks (40+ feet) and basking sharks (30+ feet). However, since these are gentle plankton-munching giants most people don’t focus on their huge size.…