Fourteen miles west of Ventura Harbor, Anacapa Island rose from heaving waters like the peg end of a thole pin–straight up-and-down cliffs with no place to dock. Timing the ocean’s surge in the tiny landing cove, our captain placed the nose of his boat against the rock and rammed the engines forward full thrust.
Crew people shouted at us to hurry, one at a time, over the bow onto the flooding steps of a rusty ladder and up to safety, a platform constructed on a rocky ledge just above the tops of the breaking waves. Mrs. Davis thought this was quite thrilling.
After a moment to catch our breath, we climbed a combination of ladder rungs and concrete steps to the top, the grassy plain that makes up the surface of the island.
Our voyage from Ventura Harbor took just over an hour and we arrived at 10:30 a.m., escorted by a pod of dolphins surfing in the bow wake.
Atop the island, we walked past noisy throngs of nesting seagulls to the headquarters building and met Dave Begun, a volunteer naturalist, part of a group of about 30 who assist the park service. Dave briefed us on Anacapa’s natural history, beginning with the intriguing observation that the Channel islands are so important as nesting habitat that "There would be virtually no sea birds in Southern California if it were not for these islands."
Anacapa is three islands, East, Middle and West. Boats are allowed to land at two of them; West Anacapa is off limits to the public. It is home to the largest known breeding colony of California brown pelicans, about 8,000 couples, and they require solitude in order to nest.
East island, where we landed, consists of about 100 acres and is the breeding site for 10,000 Western gulls. They come in March and stay until September. The female lays 2-3 eggs and the chicks hatch in May. Within six weeks they're the same size as their parents but they are a different color–a dirty brown–until they reach full plumage in about four years.
Gulls mate for life and share duties raising their chicks. One sits on the nest while the other one hunts and brings food back to the nest. The red spot on the parents’ beak is called the pecking target. When chicks peck at it, the parents know they are hungry and regurgitate food for them.
Anacapa and Santa Barbara are the west coast’s primary bird breeding islands because neither has fresh water; hence, no predators. Gulls get most of their water from their food source. A secondary source is salt water because they can excrete salt through glands. In a pinch, they can also fly to the mainland for a drink.
Dave gave us a primer on island life as we walked west toward Inspiration Point.
Most of Channel Islands National Park is under water. Two major ocean streams meet here and generate more diversity of sea animals in Santa Barbara channel than anywhere else in the world. The confluence of cold and warm currents causes a churning and stirring up of nutrients that enriches the water with food for birds and sea animals. Blue and humpback whales feed in the channel all summer long. A total of 28 species of whales and dolphins inhabit the area and Dave told us that we were liable to see a whale at any time.
The north side of Anacapa is closed to fishing and the south side is open, under the theory that north side nurseries will replenish the south side fishing area, and that seems to work.
Mice, lizards and salamanders are the only animal species native to Anacapa but this was not always the case. Naturalists have found mammoth remains in sandy areas of the channel islands that are 4-5 feet high. Dave told us that the isolated breeding area of islands causes small species to grow larger and large species to grow smaller, so you eventually have pygmy mammoths and dwarf elephants. Taken to extremes, he said that at one time, on the Komodo islands, large lizards ate dwarf elephants.
Man’s intrusion has changed island ecology in extreme ways. Since 1600, the Age of Exploration, 60 to 70 per cent of the world’s species extinctions have occurred on islands and were caused by rats escaping from ships.
Anacapa has no trees and most of the island is covered by non-native plant species. In a mistake that compounded itself, the Coast Guard brought rabbits to the island in the 1930s. After the rabbits ate the vegetation, ice plant was brought in to control erosion. We have now discovered that ice plant poisons the soil by injecting salt from the air so it is being systematically eradicated.
Buena High School students from Ventura come to the island to pull out non-native plants as part of an ongoing science project. They dry the ice plant and spread it on trails for dust control.
Santa Cruz buckwheat is one of about 150 native plants found on the islands that occur nowhere else on earth.
Anacapa’s most famous plant, Coreopsis, normally blooms from mid-March to mid-April. We missed it this year, however. Early rain the previous October was followed by a spell of warm weather that fooled the six-foot plants. They bloomed and peaked in February and went dormant early. When they are in full bloom, the golden glow is visible from the mainland.
The oldest North American human remains discovered so far were found on the Channel Islands, a 13,000-year old female femur. Peak population on the islands was 2,000 spread among several dozen villages going back at least 9,000 years. The Chumash people left the islands in 1820 and joined the mission system where 90 per cent of them died of disease.
Anacapa lighthouse, completed in 1932 was the last lighthouse built on the west coast. Only two residences remain on the island now–housing a park ranger and a full time maintenance man. Rangers work a week on and a week off, changing out every Wednesday.
Since there is no natural fresh water on Anacapa; two 55,000 gallon redwood tanks store the island’s supply of water. They are refilled about every two years by a tanker ship. Solar panels charge batteries that are converted to AC power and the maintenance tractor runs on recycled vegetable oil.
The island has lots of solitude and sometimes people react in peculiar ways. Dave told us that the strangest incident occurred several years ago. A female ranger noticed that a camper was acting strangely and she was frightened enough that she locked herself into the visitors center overnight. The camper was gone in the morning. He had completely vanished and was never seen again.
Dave ended his tour at Inspiration Point, the west end of the island which has views of Middle and Western Anacapa. Gail and I walked around
the north perimeter and back to the campground in the middle of the island where we had a picnic on one of the tables, serenaded by several hundred hungry gulls.
After lunch, we walked to the lighthouse at the east end, then back to the small museum in the headquarters building and looked at the exhibits there. By the time we had traversed all the walking paths on the island, we logged just under four miles.
It was time to leave then, and we boarded the boat much as we had disembarked in the morning–closely following crew instructions and timing our scrambles over the bow to the flow of the waves crashing into the cliff.
A pair of humpback whales escorted us partway back to Ventura Harbor, breaching and blowing and sounding as the sun set behind them. We felt as if we received more than our money’s worth for the day’s trip.
INFORMATION BOX: The Channel Islands are a National Park (http://www.nps.gov/chis/homepage). Island Packers (http://www.blogger.com/(http://www.islandpackers.com/anacapa.html) operates the transportation concession to Anacapa. Cost is $38-42 per person for day trips that allow up to five hours on East Anacapa. Other trips, including whale watching and overnight camping support, are available–telephone 805-642-1393.
Crew people shouted at us to hurry, one at a time, over the bow onto the flooding steps of a rusty ladder and up to safety, a platform constructed on a rocky ledge just above the tops of the breaking waves. Mrs. Davis thought this was quite thrilling.
After a moment to catch our breath, we climbed a combination of ladder rungs and concrete steps to the top, the grassy plain that makes up the surface of the island.Our voyage from Ventura Harbor took just over an hour and we arrived at 10:30 a.m., escorted by a pod of dolphins surfing in the bow wake.
Atop the island, we walked past noisy throngs of nesting seagulls to the headquarters building and met Dave Begun, a volunteer naturalist, part of a group of about 30 who assist the park service. Dave briefed us on Anacapa’s natural history, beginning with the intriguing observation that the Channel islands are so important as nesting habitat that "There would be virtually no sea birds in Southern California if it were not for these islands."
Anacapa is three islands, East, Middle and West. Boats are allowed to land at two of them; West Anacapa is off limits to the public. It is home to the largest known breeding colony of California brown pelicans, about 8,000 couples, and they require solitude in order to nest.
East island, where we landed, consists of about 100 acres and is the breeding site for 10,000 Western gulls. They come in March and stay until September. The female lays 2-3 eggs and the chicks hatch in May. Within six weeks they're the same size as their parents but they are a different color–a dirty brown–until they reach full plumage in about four years.
Gulls mate for life and share duties raising their chicks. One sits on the nest while the other one hunts and brings food back to the nest. The red spot on the parents’ beak is called the pecking target. When chicks peck at it, the parents know they are hungry and regurgitate food for them.
Anacapa and Santa Barbara are the west coast’s primary bird breeding islands because neither has fresh water; hence, no predators. Gulls get most of their water from their food source. A secondary source is salt water because they can excrete salt through glands. In a pinch, they can also fly to the mainland for a drink.
Dave gave us a primer on island life as we walked west toward Inspiration Point.
Most of Channel Islands National Park is under water. Two major ocean streams meet here and generate more diversity of sea animals in Santa Barbara channel than anywhere else in the world. The confluence of cold and warm currents causes a churning and stirring up of nutrients that enriches the water with food for birds and sea animals. Blue and humpback whales feed in the channel all summer long. A total of 28 species of whales and dolphins inhabit the area and Dave told us that we were liable to see a whale at any time.
The north side of Anacapa is closed to fishing and the south side is open, under the theory that north side nurseries will replenish the south side fishing area, and that seems to work.
Mice, lizards and salamanders are the only animal species native to Anacapa but this was not always the case. Naturalists have found mammoth remains in sandy areas of the channel islands that are 4-5 feet high. Dave told us that the isolated breeding area of islands causes small species to grow larger and large species to grow smaller, so you eventually have pygmy mammoths and dwarf elephants. Taken to extremes, he said that at one time, on the Komodo islands, large lizards ate dwarf elephants.
Man’s intrusion has changed island ecology in extreme ways. Since 1600, the Age of Exploration, 60 to 70 per cent of the world’s species extinctions have occurred on islands and were caused by rats escaping from ships.
Anacapa has no trees and most of the island is covered by non-native plant species. In a mistake that compounded itself, the Coast Guard brought rabbits to the island in the 1930s. After the rabbits ate the vegetation, ice plant was brought in to control erosion. We have now discovered that ice plant poisons the soil by injecting salt from the air so it is being systematically eradicated.
Buena High School students from Ventura come to the island to pull out non-native plants as part of an ongoing science project. They dry the ice plant and spread it on trails for dust control.
Santa Cruz buckwheat is one of about 150 native plants found on the islands that occur nowhere else on earth.
Anacapa’s most famous plant, Coreopsis, normally blooms from mid-March to mid-April. We missed it this year, however. Early rain the previous October was followed by a spell of warm weather that fooled the six-foot plants. They bloomed and peaked in February and went dormant early. When they are in full bloom, the golden glow is visible from the mainland.
The oldest North American human remains discovered so far were found on the Channel Islands, a 13,000-year old female femur. Peak population on the islands was 2,000 spread among several dozen villages going back at least 9,000 years. The Chumash people left the islands in 1820 and joined the mission system where 90 per cent of them died of disease.Anacapa lighthouse, completed in 1932 was the last lighthouse built on the west coast. Only two residences remain on the island now–housing a park ranger and a full time maintenance man. Rangers work a week on and a week off, changing out every Wednesday.
Since there is no natural fresh water on Anacapa; two 55,000 gallon redwood tanks store the island’s supply of water. They are refilled about every two years by a tanker ship. Solar panels charge batteries that are converted to AC power and the maintenance tractor runs on recycled vegetable oil.
The island has lots of solitude and sometimes people react in peculiar ways. Dave told us that the strangest incident occurred several years ago. A female ranger noticed that a camper was acting strangely and she was frightened enough that she locked herself into the visitors center overnight. The camper was gone in the morning. He had completely vanished and was never seen again.
Dave ended his tour at Inspiration Point, the west end of the island which has views of Middle and Western Anacapa. Gail and I walked around
the north perimeter and back to the campground in the middle of the island where we had a picnic on one of the tables, serenaded by several hundred hungry gulls.After lunch, we walked to the lighthouse at the east end, then back to the small museum in the headquarters building and looked at the exhibits there. By the time we had traversed all the walking paths on the island, we logged just under four miles.
It was time to leave then, and we boarded the boat much as we had disembarked in the morning–closely following crew instructions and timing our scrambles over the bow to the flow of the waves crashing into the cliff.
A pair of humpback whales escorted us partway back to Ventura Harbor, breaching and blowing and sounding as the sun set behind them. We felt as if we received more than our money’s worth for the day’s trip.
INFORMATION BOX: The Channel Islands are a National Park (http://www.nps.gov/chis/homepage). Island Packers (http://www.blogger.com/(http://www.islandpackers.com/anacapa.html) operates the transportation concession to Anacapa. Cost is $38-42 per person for day trips that allow up to five hours on East Anacapa. Other trips, including whale watching and overnight camping support, are available–telephone 805-642-1393.
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