Romper Room of the Pacific

I was giving a lighthouse tour at Piedras Blancas last week when we came across a bunch of elephant seal wieners romping in the cove on the south shore of the peninsula.  These little cuties (well, not so little at 125+ lbs.) have a merry time learning how to swim and hunt before they take the big step of following their parents to the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean. These guys were born in December and January and bulk up on their mother very rich milk for a month or so.  The mother abruptly leaves her baby to fend for itself and heads to the northern Pacific to finally feed after months on the beach. The wieners gradually learn the skills for survival by playing and trying things out in the relative safety of coves and the protection of rocks close to the beach where they were born.  Very soon now, they will begin their real life as an northern elephant seal out at sea.