Christine Heinrichs
christineheinrichs.bsky.social
Christine Heinrichs
@christineheinrichs.bsky.social
A second pup has already joined Gingerbread, the first pup of the season, at the Piedras Blancas rookery.
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/c...
First elephant seal pup of the season born in SLO County. Meet Gingerbread
Docents report mother and pup are both resting well at the San Simeon viewpoint.
www.sanluisobispo.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:58 AM
First elephant seal pup of the 2025-2026 breeding season born last night. Named Gingerbread. Settled next to mother. Sex undetermined.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
December 13, 2025 at 2:15 AM
First elephant seal pup of the season born last night. More than 5,000 will join him or her during the breeding season. The pup hadn’t nursed yet when these pictures were taken, but was flipping sand.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
December 13, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Reposted by Christine Heinrichs
This morning's King Tide reached 7.4 feet at the Port San Luis tide gauge, a few inches higher than predicted, and flooded the Pasadena parking lot in Baywood Park.
December 5, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Christine Heinrichs
Bald eagles in a flooded marsh during #KingTides. Morro Bay State Park, December 4, 2025
December 9, 2025 at 4:55 PM
A senior bull announces his arrival — and a younger, smaller bull reacts. Bulls have unique signature calls, and can recognize each other.

🦊🦭#MarineMammal
December 9, 2025 at 3:07 AM
The vaccine against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza tested in elephant seal last summer worked. Now the vaccine is being given to the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/s...

Now, l;et's find a way to immunize elephant seals. www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influe...

🦊🦭
Inside the Bird-Flu Vaccine Trial for Monk Seals
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 12:14 AM
I can’t be with the seals on this Thanksgiving, but will post photos of the first bulls on the beach next week. In the meantime, here’s an article about how magic seal milk is.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/s...
🦊 🦭 #MarineMammal
Seal Milk Is the Cream of the Molecular Crop
www.nytimes.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
More on the elephant seal bulls, on their way to Piedras Blancas from their foraging grounds along the continental shelf for the winter breeding season. A big bull arrived today, he may be the first!

www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
Elephant seal bulls could arrive on SLO County shores any day now. What to know
Friends of the Elephant Seal is even holding a contest to guess when the first bull will arrive for the breeding season.
www.sanluisobispo.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Enter the First Bull contest! Friends of the Elephant Seal holds a contest every year, to guess when the first bull will arrive for the breeding season. mailchi.mp/elephantseal.org/firstbull2025. The winner gets an FES baseball cap, and praise from FES members and elephant seal admirers.
November 22, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Female elephant seals on the beach now are not pregnant. They are skipping this season, for reasons not well understood. Maybe lost last year’s pregnancy. How will they get pregnant this year? I don’t see any mating going on. Alpha bulls have not yet arrived. Elephant Seal mysteries!
November 18, 2025 at 5:42 PM
A happy reunion for this otter mother and pup. I could watch this video all day.
drive.google.com/file/d/1ocAq...
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
Marine Mammal Center Baby Otter and Mom.mp4
drive.google.com
November 16, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Here’s this morning’s King Tide at Piedras Blancas. Sunny. The juvenile seals are okay with being tossed around in the surf. They have migrated at least once and are comfortable under water. Seal pups who will be born in December and January can’t swim, and may drown.
🦊 🦭#MarineMammal
November 6, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Beach panorama of extreme low tide at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint, north beach.
🦭🦊 #MarineMammal
November 6, 2025 at 2:12 AM
King Tide Thursday and Friday mornings, the highest tides of the year, full moon tonight. The afternoon brings the lowest tides. The north beach at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint expands to its widest. The seals are clumped together after the morning’s high water mark.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
November 6, 2025 at 2:09 AM
This sweet young elephant seal, possibly a female, makes her way through the much larger males around her. Notice the cookie cutter shark wound on her side, and the scars on the larger males around she moves over. Cookie cutter sharks leave that distinctive circular wound.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
November 1, 2025 at 10:22 PM
From Sammy Roth, former L.A. Times journalist, author of the Boiling Point newsletter.

I'm launching Climate-Colored Goggles, an independent newsletter focused on climate and culture.

We have climate solutions, but politics isn't moving fast enough.

www.climatecoloredgoggles.com?r=4viug&utm_...
Climate-Colored Goggles | Sammy Roth | Substack
Finding climate solutions in pop culture, media and sports. Click to read Climate-Colored Goggles, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
www.climatecoloredgoggles.com
October 16, 2025 at 6:47 PM
These young bulls decide on a three-way fight. Whiling away the afternoon at the beach.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
October 14, 2025 at 7:11 PM
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
October 5, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Thousands of pelicans and gulls joined the seals on the beach.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
September 27, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Here’s what’s going on at Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint: www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
Young elephant seals practice fighting at SLO County beach. See their tussling
The immature juveniles are practicing for the big show when more adult elephant seals arrive on the beaches for breeding season.
www.sanluisobispo.com
September 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Northern Elephant Seals could be vulnerable to HPAI, as Southern Elephant Seals are. Scientists are testing a vaccine at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito.
🦊🦭#MarineMammals
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/s...
Scientists Begin Testing Bird Flu Vaccine in Seals
www.nytimes.com
September 9, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Scientists Begin Testing Bird Flu Vaccine in Elephant Seals
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/s...
Scientists Begin Testing Bird Flu Vaccine in Seals
www.nytimes.com
September 9, 2025 at 7:24 PM