Lauren Randall at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA--The TOPP E Seal Team’s work is never done! Especially during this busy time of year: the elephant seal breeding season. We’re hard at work every day, rain or shine! We researchers frequently have to face the elements heat, wind, cold, and yes even rain! Today, we got pretty soggy: we were out in a downpour to recover Poppy’s tags.

Jason Hassrick working on recovering Poppy's tags. Photo: Nicole Teutschel

The day was just like any other day: prepping gear, downing espresso, and suiting up for dirty smelly seal work except today, it was raining, and it was raining hard. We layered up our clothes, and suited up in head to toe rain gear. However, that gear only lasts so long! I think I was soaked before I hit the beach! Not only were our clothes soaked, our gear was pretty wet and sandy as well. As if that gear wasn’t heavy enough to carry around without the extra weight from water and sand! I think we all got a pretty good workout walking around with all of our wet and sandy clothes and gear.

Nicole Teutschel, Cory Champagne, Brigitte McDonald, and Jason Hassrick all working hard in the rain. Photo: Katy Lyons

 Let me tell ya, by the smell of the beach we wish the weaners wore rain gear! Imagine what your dog smells like after playing in the rain, and then intensify that by 20! Pheeww, you get the jest. No worries though, Poppy’s tags were recovered just fine!

Brigitte Walking around the harem in the rain. Photo: Nicole Teutschel

She is one of the seals that are part of a glycine study which we will blog more about later. Poppy was named after the state flower, the California Poppy, by the kids at Valencia Elementary School in Aptos and she is one of our featured seals for elephant seal homecoming days who has their own facebook page.

Poppy enjoying a warm, sunny day. Photo: Nicole Teutschel

Regardless of the gloomy day we were able to boost moral on the team by making the day more enjoyable and exciting by splashing in puddles, betting on who would be the dirtiest by the end of the day (Nikky won that one…the puddles helped), and attempting to find shelter from the rain from a very skinny tree (which as you can imagine did not turn out very well). All in all, it was a very successful day indeed!

 Segal, Nicky, and Jason working quickly to get out of the rain!. Photo: Katy Lyons

What Poppy's harem looks like when it is NOT raining. Photo: Nicole Teutschel