 Story By Lee Juillerat
If seeing really is believing, interpretive trips along the Oregon Coast near Bandon and Cape Arago with docents from SEA are some of the best ways to believe what you're seeing.
A trip to the tide pools at Coquille Point in Bandon with Bill Russell, the president of SEA, Shoreline Education for Awareness, Inc., made me a believer. With the help of SEA, I, like thousands of others, gained a better appreciation for tide pools, birds, and marine mammals.
Since the organization was founded by Russell, his wife Joan, and others in 1990, SEA has provided on-site interpretation on weekends in the spring at Coquille Point in Bandon and in summer at Simpson Reef Overlook on Cape Arago. At other times of the year, on-site interpretation can often be arranged by request.
Winter seminars begin in January and continue through May on second Saturdays. All are held at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology Boathouse Auditorium in Charleston with registration starting at 8:30 a.m. and the programs beginning a half hour later. Seminars are free to SEA members and a moderate charge to others.
Tours last from one to three hours or longer and include instruction on marine mammals, bird habitat sites, and the diverse habitat found on the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, a chain of 1853 rocks, reefs, and headlands.
During the interpretative walk I joined at Coquille Point, Russell told about mussels, sea stars eating mussels, and how to determine the age of mussels. While clambering along the tide pools and dancing over rocky reefs exposed by the outgoing tide, he chatted about classifications of tidal zones, pointed out clusters of sea stars, whelks, barnacles, and limpets, and discussed other features.
Later, back on the bluff, he set up spotting scopes that helped us see dozens of lounging harbor seals and, more impressively, flocks of pelagic cormorants, pigeon guillemots, tufted puffins, and black oystercatchers perched on the rocky outcrops and cliffs of Face, Table, Elephant, Cat, and Kitten rocks, all of which make up a series of offshore sea stacks.
"We're excited about what we do!" exclaims Russell. "It's very satisfying to help people of all ages appreciate our beautiful coast and better understand what they're seeing."
For more information about this year's seminars and interpretive programs, contact SEA. (541-347-3683; www.sea-edu.org) |
