Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--Penelope has once again graced Año Nuevo State Reserve with her presence! After another long foraging trip at sea, Penelope has returned to give birth to her 7th pup. Last winter Penelope was returning to shore wearing satellite, time depth recorder, and vhf tags. Penelope's tags were recovered shortly after she had her pup.

This is the first time we have spotted her since last winter! Penelope returned to the same beach where she gave birth last year, a large harem called Tarsands Central. Hundreds of seals gather at Tarsands during the breeding season deeming that stretch of beach one of the largest harems at Año Nuevo.
Penelope and her pup last winter. Photo: Nicole Teutschel

Penelope pregnant at Tarsands Central. Photo: Lauren Randall

Penelope picked the perfect time to come ashore, just when OCEAN in GOOGLE EARTH was launched! We may have not been watching Penelope’s journey through her satellite tags this year, but she was still very much a part of our outreach and education endeavors. This week Google launched a new version of Google Earth, which this time, includes the Ocean. 70 percent of the worlds surface covered with seas and now the Ocean has it’s rightful place within Google Earth, and so does Penelope!

The North Pacific Ocean in the new Ocean in Google Earth.

Google has spent limitless hours working with oceanographers, biologists, engineers, industry professionals and nonprofit organizations to build Ocean. TOPP contributed data, stories, video and still images to Ocean. Penelope has a string of stories with in Ocean, showcasing her satellite tag journey: from deployment, traveling the North Pacific, giving birth to her son, recovering her tags and the data her tags collected during her incredible 8 month journey at sea. Check out Ocean in Google Earth, find Año Nuevo State Reserve, and click on the “pearls” to learn more about Penelope with Google.

 Año Nuevo in Ocean in Google Earth. Once you're in Ocean, you can click on the blue "pearls" to learn more about that area. Many of the pearls above feature Penelope and other TOPP.org E Seals. 

Penelope is the first seal featured in Elephant Seal Homecoming Days last year. Meet Penelope at TOPP.org and on Facebook.