Monarch butterfly (© Photographer: Gregg Williams | Agency: Dreamstime.com)

It’s spring on the Central Coast. The warming weather awakened the monarch butterflies who shelter here during the winter and sent them on the way north. Gray whales migrated past the California coast into Mexico for calving season. They will return soon, bringing their new calves with them. In the meantime, humpback whales have been visiting the coast on their way north to feeding grounds in Alaska. A pair of these humpbacks were in the news recently when a mother and her calf swam up the Sacramento River. You can read more about them below.

	California tide pools have fantastic biodiversity. (photo © Photographer: Publicimage | Agency: Dreamstime.com)

California’s Central Coast Becomes a Marine Protected Area
On April 13, 2007, in a landmark decision, the California Fish and Game Commission adopted regulations to create new marine protected areas (MPAs) along the Central Coast of California. This move effectively launches the state’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Program, which was designed to better conserve marine resources for their long-term sustainability while also enhancing outdoor recreation and ocean research opportunities along the coast.

The 29 MPAs cover approximately 204 square miles (or approximately 18 percent) of state waters with 85 square miles designated as no-take state marine reserves along the Central Coast, which ranges from Pigeon Point in San Mateo County south to Point Conception in Santa Barbara County. The newly established Central Coast MPAs are the culmination of a two-year public process. Regulations will go into effect this summer.

	Spiders use silk to wrap their prey. (photo © Photographer: Harvieux Agency: Dreamstime)

For The Rainbow Web: Spider Silk
Not all spiders spin webs, but all spiders do spin silk. Spiders use their silk in many different ways. Web-building spiders weave elaborate silken creations, from the intricate orb web to a dense sheet web, to trap bugs. The funnel-web spider builds a tube as part of its web then hides inside it until a bug lands on the web.

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For True Blue Friend: Underwater Noise Pollution
Whales rely on sound more than sight underwater. The ocean depths can be dark and murky, making it difficult to see objects clearly. Whales use sound to navigate, to find food, and to communicate. Sound travels much farther underwater than in the air. Toothed whales, like the killer whale, use echolocation to hunt for food. They send out sound waves that bounce off objects and echo back. The whales can determine the distance, density, and even size of an object based on the speed and intensity of the echoes that bounce back.

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Developing Observation Skills
Developing a child’s observational skills is an important first step in science education. As students make observations, they are learning to collect and organize information. Observation leads to questions, which are the basis of inquiry. Questions lead to a search for answers by making inferences, and then using more detailed observations and actual experiments to see if the inferences are true. Science is all about finding out “why.”

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You may have followed the plight of a mother humpback and her calf, named Delta and Dawn by the media, that swam up the Sacramento River. No one is sure why the whales ended up the river. With a shortage of krill this season, the whales have been coming closer to the bay to feed on bait fish. Both mother and calf were injured, most likely by a boat propeller. Their injuries could have caused them to become disoriented. For two weeks, scientists tried to lure them back to the ocean using a combination of whale sounds and loud noises. They even tried spraying them with fire hoses. The good news is that both whales seemed to have returned to the ocean.

Mother Humpback whale and her calf. (photo Dave Matilla - NOAA)

Scientists still have a lot to learn about whales and their behavior, and this visit gave them an opportunity to observe them up close. Spending almost two weeks in fresh water took a toll on the whales’ health. Biologists were able to treat the injured whales with antibiotics, the first time this has ever been done on a whale in the wild. They also learned from tests done on the whales that Dawn, the calf, is a female.

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