Big Creek

Jan 25 2012

Big Sur sea otters on public radio

I just ran across this article about the sea otter research that was stationed out of Big Creek Reserve. Tim Tinker from UCSC, along with scientists and biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and US Fish and Wildlife used Big Creek cove to study otters along the south coast of Big Sur.They tagged about 30 individual otters over four years and observed their lives in the ocean to study just about everything they could about this mammal with the highest metabolism.

Capital Public Radio article

The video shows how the otters were brought onto the beach to be inspected by the mobile veterinary team.

Read more about the sea otter research from our April 2009 blog post.

Oct 21 2011

Big Creek – Below the Surface

Here is a video I put together a while back showing what Big Creek looks like under the surface of its waters. It is in standard definition but until I get a high def version going, this will have to do. I snorkeled down the creek with a video camera and then added footage of a scuba dive I did out in the cove and kelp forest. I hope you enjoy it.

Big Creek-Beneath The Surface

Oct 15 2009

First storm of winter 2009. Mining Ridge gets 22 inches

I looked at the blog record for storms of 2009 and found the “first big storm of 2009” entry. During that storm in February, the creek went from 1.8′ to 2.8′ with just 2-3 inches of rain. We got 9 inches that month at the Highlands Peak weather station.

Well, on October 13 alone, we recieved 9.6 inches at Highlands Peak and 5.3 at Whale Point. The NOAA rain gauge on Mining Ridge reported 22 inches fell from 3am the 13th to 7pm the 14th. This seems outrageous but no word yet if that was inaccurate. The level of the gauge pool at Big Creek went from 1.4′ to 5.5′. Big Creek was dark chocolate color while Devil’s Creek was milky brown. All over the banks of the creek was foamy bubbles. Here is a profile of the creek level over four days spanning the storm.

This storm originated as a cyclone off the southern tip of Japan and made it’s way across the Pacific to hit the California coast. The temperature during the storm was about 58 degrees F and even went up to 62 just after the rain stopped. The maximum wind gust at Whale Point was 46 mph and at Highlands Peak was 62 mph. The top of one of the cypress trees at the Gatehouse broke off. It was impressive to see that any of the alders and willows even had leaves at all afterwards.

Here’s a picture of the beach at 7am on the morning of the 14th.

The weather on the 14-15th was sunny and humid. There was a swarm of termites hatching everywhere. The phoebes, bluebirds and bats had their fill.

Feb 18 2009

First big 2009 storm

Here’s what the creek looks like after a week of off and on rain plus three solid days of heavier rain in the Big Creek watershed. The creek height was 1.78′ at the guage pool on 2/14, 1.98′ 2/15 at noon then 2.2′ at 5pm on the 15th. After a whole night of wind and rain the gauge pool was at 2.9′ 8am the 16th. Here are some pictures of the muddy flood. Go to http://ucreserve.ucsc.edu/bigcreek/weather/ to see our weather data. The wind had been gusting around 50 mph for two days. By the middle of the 17th the creek as starting to clear a bit and by the end of the 18th I could at least see the bottom again and the gauge was reading 2.6 feet. We got a total of 4.2 inches between Feb. 12 and Feb. 18.

Big Creek at the confluence 2/16

Big Creek at the old gate on the interpretive trail 2/16

Devils Creek above the bridge to Redwood Camp 2/16