Nicole Teutschel at Piedras Blancas, CA -- Today we ventured down the California Coast, from Santa Cruz to Piedras Blancas searching for Myoceen, a northern elephant seal tagged by TOPP. Myoceen is an adult female northern elephant seal featured on TOPP’s Elephant Seal Homecoming Days page. Typically, northern elephant seals return to the same colony year after year to breed and molt. This year however, Myoceen didn’t return to Año Nuevo where she was born and later tagged by TOPP.

According to her satellite tracks, Myoceen hit the beach at Piedras Blancas on January 6^th. Piedras Blancas is another colony for northern elephant seals south of Año Nuevo State Reserve. Despite best efforts by Friends of the Elephant Seal docents at the colony, we couldn’t get a visual confirmation that Myoceen was there. This morning, we headed down the coast to look for our missing seal.

In addition to a satellite tag, TOPP seals have a radio tag attached to their backs. To locate a seal on a beach, where she may be hidden among hundreds of other seals, we use a scanner with a large antenna that picks up a signal from the radio tag, as long as the seal is out of the water.

Today we scanned up and down the coast at Piedras Blancas to search for Myoceen, and had no luck. Because the hits from the satellite tag told us that she was on the south side of the colony, we decided to hike the beaches to get a good look. Sure enough, we found her! She was at the farthest point from where humans are permitted at the colony. No wonder no one could find her! We’re not sure if her radio tag has stopped working, but she is a BIG seal -- at least 1,200 pounds! She looks very pregnant, and ready to have her pup any day. Maybe we couldn’t pick up the signal because she was lying on her back, on top of the radio tag!

We’re happy that Myoceen looks healthy, active and up on the beach at Piedras Blancas. We will be in touch with docents and other researchers to keep track of Myoceen, and most importantly find out when she has her pup. When her pup is five days old, we will drive back down to Piedras Blancas with the E-eal Team to recover her tag.