Elephant seal guides, visitors preparing for arrival of first adult male in San Simeon
Both elephant seal guides and visitors are preparing for the arrival of the first adult male in San Simeon.
"It's a highlight of the year," said volunteer Tim Bridwell.
It's nearing the "Battle of the Bulls" season, which typically brings more visitors to this popular spot in San Simeon. The viewing area draws in around 1 million people every year.
"To mate with the females, it has to be the most dominant male, so we see a lot of fighting between the larger and older males," Bridwell said.
It's a rare and captivating look into a side of nature most people will ever get to see.
Bridwell has been volunteering with Friends of the Elephant Seal for 10 years.
"We love spending time talking to visitors here and once we do, we can see how enlightened they are and at the end of the conversation, they say thank you. That's enough to keep us going," Bridwell said.
Bridwell says the average adult elephant seal male is around 5,000 pounds and on Saturday morning, Birdwell was on the lookout for a juvenile male with an entanglement around its neck.
"That ring, if you will, is usually plastic, rope or netting that will not grow but the seal is trying to grow so it gets tighter and tighter so it's very important it gets rescued," Bridwell said.
A few years ago, Dan White and his wife came to San Simeon to escape inland heat while on vacation and found the elephant seal viewing point.
"We found the seals. We didn't know that this place existed and that was a couple years ago. We were up dropping our daughter off at an event and said let's go see the seals again, so we thought we'd give it another look," said White, of Los Angeles.
White says they plan to explore Cambria after watching the elephant seals. He and others bring their business and dollars to the community.
"There was a cute little French bistro in downtown Cambria and we're going to find it," white said.
Friends of the Elephant Seal is currently having a contest for people to vote when they expect the first adult male to reach the viewing point.
Those seals are currently making their way down from the Gulf of Alaska.
