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OARRA's Year-to-Date Report: 2023
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California Sea Lions haul out on a mooring near the Port of LA, snow-capped Mt. Baldy framed behind. Credit: OARRA
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So much is new at OARRA in 2023 — including this inaugural newsletter!
This year to date has kept our crew busy with our ever-expanding survey, monitoring, and mortality response programs, as well as with developing exciting new data mapping and analytical interfaces while welcoming aboard many new alliances and collaborators. We're very excited to share our work with you.
Read on to see our favorite photos, recaps, and sea life sightings from the field in the first half of the year.
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Your support makes OARRA's conservation missions possible.
Our conservation and research work is kept afloat by the compassion, curiosity, and enthusiasm of dedicated volunteers, donors, collaborators, and citizen scientists.
Please consider contributing to OARRA to help give the marine animals of Southern California a voice through OARRA's research and response programs. 100% of your generous donation will directly benefit our:
Donating to OARRA's programs is now available through Aplos and Venmo.
Every donation makes an incredible difference. We are thankful down to the oceanic depths for your support! Donations are 100% tax-deductible.
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A happy harbor seal "banana poses" on a breakwall near Long Beach, CA. Credit: OARRA
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Survey and Monitoring Program Recap:
So far in 2023, OARRA embarked on 26 survey and monitoring trips, despite an unprecedented stormy start to the year. Our sightings in Los Angeles County and Orange County included:
- 4,207 Pinnipeds
- 3,828 California Sea Lions
- 379 Harbor Seals
- 6,655 Cetaceans
- 6,525 Common Dolphins
- 128 Bottlenose Dolphins
- 1 Sei Whale
- 1 Blue Whale
- 4 Ocean Sunfish
- 2 Great White Sharks
- 84 Flipper Tag Sightings Reported
- 12 Pelican Band Sightings Reported
- 27 Entanglements Reported
- 14 Injuries/Shark Bites Reported
Explore sighting details and data maps online on OARRA's website.
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Female California Sea Lion W4950 shows off her orange flipper tag on a buoy. Credit: OARRA
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Have you spotted a flipper-tagged marine animal? Citizen scientists like you can help OARRA and our alliances by reporting a tag sighting! Monitoring tagged animals in the wild is critical to marine mammal science, management, and conservation.
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A deceased Common Dolphin and California Sea Lion lie side by side in the sand awaiting examination in Torrance, CA. Credit: OARRA
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Mortality Response & Research Program Recap:
So far in 2023, OARRA has responded to 111 marine animal mortalities in Los Angeles County:
- 84 Pinnipeds
- 80 California Sea Lions
- 3 Harbor Seals
- 1 Northern Elephant Seal
- 25 Cetaceans
- 20 Common Dolphins
- 2 Bottlenose Dolphins
- 1 Risso's Dolphin
- 1 Pygmy Sperm Whale
- 1 Unidentified Whale
- 2 Sea Turtles
- 1 Olive Ridley Sea Turtle
- 1 Green Sea Turtle
Explore case details and data maps online on OARRA's website.
OARRA’s Mortality Response Program crossed significant benchmarks and broke mortality response tally records for Los Angeles County this summer. This benchmark speaks to OARRA's ever-expanding presence on the Los Angeles County coastline thanks to volunteers, collaborators, and public reports – and also a challenging stranding season to date. A significant fraction of this year's cases were examined as part of a severe regional Domoic Acid (DA) event that struck the Southern California coastline in June and July. As always, we are grateful to work with these animals in life and death; caretaking the gift of their bodies and giving them a voice through comprehensive examination and sampling is a critical part of understanding the health of their populations and the threats they face in our oceans.
Please report marine mammal and sea turtle mortalities in Los Angeles County to OARRA's Marine Animal Mortality Response Hotline: (949)-276-2237. Your reports ensure that every animal's story gets told.
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A sweet California Sea Lion pup nurses on its mother under a dock in the Port of LA. Credit: OARRA
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Current Events:
The Southern California coast is always teeming with a complex network of marine seasons and cycles. What's going on in our local waters?
In June, sea lion pupping season kicked off an annual celebration of the new pups of 2023! California Sea Lions experience synchronized reproduction as a species, so pups are all birthed at the same time of year in the summertime. Their collective symbolic birthday is June 15th, which marks their population's statistical peak of birthdates. OARRA crew looks forward to seeing more of these sweet little animals on coming survey trips.
Pups are quite cute, but please remember to Share the Shore and keep your distance if you are lucky enough to spot one during your summer fun; these animals need plenty of space and security to thrive, as human interaction and interference is energetically expensive and often ends up acutely harmful. In the field, OARRA utilizes telephoto lenses and binoculars to observe marine animals in detail from an appropriate distance. Please respect wildlife's rights to an undisturbed environment and enjoy their natural behaviors from afar. Check out NOAA's Marine Life Viewing Guidelines to ensure wildlife safety.
June also saw the region's most severe domoic acid event in some time, resulting in the stranding and deaths of hundreds of sea lions and dolphins. A sustained harmful algal bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia algae produced a large amount of domoic acid, which acts as a potent neurotoxin that can concentrate and accumulate up the marine food chain. At its peak, OARRA responders documented 80 mortalities in just 60 days on the Los Angeles County coastline. You can help OARRA continue to respond to, examine, and research the animals stranded during this resource-intensive time by reporting ongoing mortality sightings and donating to our Mortality Response and Research Program.
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A blue whale flukes as it takes its terminal dive just outside of Newport Harbor. Credit: OARRA
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Summer was a wonderful time to be out on the water, as the season means one thing to many cetacean-celebratory people: whales! The summer months are considered some of the best time to spot species like blue whales off the Southern California coast, as many populations come to the region to feed in our rich waters. Recreational boaters enjoying the last of summer and the beginning of fall should reduce speed and keep an appropriate distance from sighted whales in order to enjoy a glimpse of these gentle giants without distressing or harming them.
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OARRA Founder & CEO Keith Matassa and the California Science Center crew survey and record hauled-out harbor seals aboard the California Science Center's vessel, Ocean Endeavour. Credit: OARRA
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OARRA's S.E.A. State:
We are excited to continue our Service, Education, and Alliance work in 2023!
This year, we introduced our live data mapping project on OARRA.org in collaboration with WatchSpotter. This project collects and visualizes years of locative data from OARRA's Survey and Monitoring and Mortality Response programs, providing keen insight into population movement, locality, and health in coastal Southern California.
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OARRA's interactive data map in collaboration with WatchSpotter shows all the Spots in the Southern California Bight that we have recorded marine animals at. Explore our aggregation of locative and biometric data at these spots on our website. Credit: OARRA
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In April, OARRA hosted a booth for public outreach and education at Orange Coast College's 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Dennis Kelly Public Aquarium. Interacting with the public and our campus collaborators was thrilling as we celebrated all things marine science!
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OARRA volunteer Kat F. discusses a plate of whale baleen with students at Orange Coast College; OARRA's booth features demonstrations of our WatchSpotter map, infographics of field sightings and mortality cases, California sea turtle identification diagrams, and more; OARRA Founder & CEO Keith Matassa engages and educates the public with stories from the field. Credit: OARRA
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One OARRA volunteer, Kevin Contreras, later presented his ongoing research as a member of OCC's Marine Mammal Research Group at the college's annual Giles T. Brown Research Symposium, sharing excellent and engaging work on our survey, monitoring, and mapping projects with students, faculty, and the public. Congratulations, Kevin! We look forward to continued partnership with OCC's Marine Science department as the summer session concludes and the fall semester gets off to a strong start.
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OARRA volunteer Kevin C. presents research on California Sea Lions at Orange Coast College's annual research symposium; Kevin awaits the next animal sighting with binoculars and data sheet at the ready aboard a Survey & Monitoring trip. Credit: OARRA
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Throughout 2023, OARRA has been privileged to collaborate with the California Science Center in an ongoing series of survey and monitoring trips aboard their vessel Ocean Endeavour. OARRA crew also enjoyed a night out to the movies to support the California Science Center's world premiere of Blue Whales 3D: Return of the Giants in an evening full of conversation and celebration of our local big blues and their ongoing conservation success story. See it on their giant 7-story IMAX screen! Save with promo code SCIENCE. (Only valid towards purchases at californiasciencecenter.org, valid through December 31, 2023, not valid with any other offers or events, limit 4 discounted tickets.)
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A night at the movies! OARRA Founder & CEO Keith Matassa smiles on the blue carpet at the California Science Center's world premiere of Blue Whales 3D; the Blue Whales 3D title card displays on a screen befitting the largest animal on the planet in the IMAX theatre; OARRA crew and other attendees admire a life-size inflatable blue whale at the California Science Center's reception after the film. Credit: OARRA
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We are also incredibly grateful to our NOAA West Coast Stranding Network partners and the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches & Harbors for enduring and navigating a challenging stranding season to date with us.
If you are interested in outreach, education, and collaboration opportunities with OARRA, please contact us at info@oarra.org.
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California Brown Pelican 3A7 is spotted mid-flight as it takes off from a breakwater near the Port of Long Beach in April 2023. Credit: OARRA
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Sighting Spotlight:
Though marine mammals are often the charismatic focus of marine wildlife programs, they are just one piece of the biodiversity puzzle that OARRA monitors through our comprehensive research and response programs. The grand narrative of the marine community is written through many interwoven relationships between species and their movements.
That's why California Brown Pelican 3A7 is our first Sighting Spotlight of the Month!
This beautiful bird was recorded on an OARRA survey and monitoring trip near the Port of Long Beach in April 2023.
Our band report to the International Bird Rescue revealed that this individual had originally been rescued with a fishery entanglement in Sausalito, CA, in September 2021 and released at Fort Baker in October 2021... a fantastic ~400 miles from OARRA's sighting over a year and a half later! Brown pelicans can travel incredible distances to feed, breed, and gather. Tracking this incredible change in regional residency also underscores the utility of tracking individual animals' movements, as an individual could bring different environmental health factors to the local nearshore environment from miles away.
Bright blue pelican bands like these indicate animals released by International Bird Rescue's rehabilitation program. Reporting bird band sightings is a crucial way you can help researchers and responders monitor individual animals' continued health and movement long after they've left a rehabilitation facility.
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Thank you for your support!
"Sea" you soon!
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