Mike Long’s photo “Riding Towards Sunset” was an Honorable Mention in the 2025 contest. Photo submitted
By Christine Heinrichs
It’s Shark Week on tv, possibly sending fans to local beaches hoping for a sighting of sharks that live along the Central Coast all year. The advent of drones recording video over the ocean revealed that sharks are often closer to surfers and swimmers than was previously known, but sharks rarely attack humans.
Many California sharks are born in warm Southern California waters and migrate gradually north as they mature. They start out eating fish, and transition to eating marine mammals, sea lions and elephant seals. Great White sharks may spend the winter at the Shark Café in the mid-Pacific, between California and Hawaii, returning to the California coast in the summer and fall.
Ocean and Land Photo Contests
While you’re at the beach, take pictures! Enter them in the Coastal Commission’s 27th Annual California Ocean and Coastal Amateur Photography Contest. Prizes include gift cards to Mike’s Camera, Klean Kanteen water bottles, prints of their photos, and Coastal Commission goodies.
Photographic subjects should include: The scenic coast and Pacific Ocean off California; People of the California coast; or California ocean and native species of coastal wildlife. See galleries of past winners at coastal.ca.gov/photo/.
This contest is free and open to all amateur photographers. Entries close on September 30. Find the entry form at coastal.ca.gov/photo/#submityourphotos.
Take photos of the Central Coast’s lighthouses, Piedras Blancas Light Station and Port San Luis Lighthouse, for the 2nd Annual National Lighthouse Museum Photo 2027 Calendar Contest. There’s a small entry fee, $10, three submissions for $25. Seasonal photos are especially desirable – the photos will be used to illustrate a calendar.
All lighthouses are eligible, if you’re traveling. Deadline for submissions is September 30.
Winning photos will have featured placement in the National Lighthouse Museum and special recognition on the museum’s social media, be credited on the calendar and get free calendars. More information here lighthousemuseum.org/photocontest/.
Turning your camera to the land, California’s Invasive Plant Council’s 2026 Cal-IPC Photo Contest is looking for photos that “tell the story of weed work in California, both the weeds and the people who do the work.”
The types of photos Cal-IPC wants include:
• Weed workers in action
• Proper use of tools
• Invaded/impacted landscapes
• Before & after restoration photos
• Specimen shots of individual weeds
• Fun and humor in the field
Top three winners receive Cal-IPC swag!
Deadline for photos is September 15. Submit photos online cal-ipc.org/resources/symposium/photocontest/.
Public voting for favorites September 16 – October 20.
Winners will be announced at the Cal-IPC Symposium October 22.
Cal-IPC will also use the photos in their informative materials in the coming year. Look for contest photos in the newsletter, on the website, in brochures and reports.
Summer at the beach
Get out to the beach for water sports and coastal activities. While you’re there, pick up some trash and take pictures.
Marine debris is everywhere in the ocean. Do what you can to leave the beach cleaner than you found it. Trash is hazardous to coastal and marine wildlife. Entanglement in plastic trash can be a death sentence for a bird or seal. Local Marine Mammal Center volunteers periodically must rescue an entangled elephant seal, such as Necklace last year, who was being strangled by a packing strap around her neck.
Marine mammals navigate around their ocean home using various biological qualities, such as sonar among dolphins and whales. People use nautical charts. They’re like maps, but in addition to locations they include depth of the water, a third-dimension land maps don’t need to include.
Nautical charts are road maps of the ocean. The open ocean doesn’t have the landmarks that guide travelers on land.
They also indicate shipwrecks – there are at least 463 in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary – and designate protected habitat areas, such as Morro Bay State Marine Reserve/State Marine Recreational Management Area. MBSRA is nearly four square miles of shallow estuary that provides critical bird habitat. It’s also designated as a National Estuary.
NOAA operates four large ships dedicated to hydrographic surveying: Fairweather, Ferdinand R. Hassler, Rainier, and Thomas Jefferson. Each ship is equipped with the latest echo sounding technology to measure water depth and identify submerged hazards to navigation.
Enhance your summer beach experience with more information at these websites https://bit.ly/44JpYyL, https://bit.ly/4yGf6iJ, https://bit.ly/4wktQlD.
Monterey Bay NMS Advisory Council meeting
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council’s September 18 meeting, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., will be a hybrid meeting, virtual and in-person, in Salinas. This date marks MBNMS’s 34th Birthday. Participate from home via your computer. The agenda will include reports from the MBNMS and other sanctuaries, such as Chumash Heritage, Cordell Bank and Great Farallones Sanctuaries. Learn about current issues facing these precious marine sanctuaries along the Central Coast. (https://bit.ly/4fDsXh9)
The Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint, which is within the MBNMS, is busy during the summer months, with American and international visitors. This year’s World Cup brought many visitors to the United States, and some found their way to the elephant seal viewpoint. This reporter welcomed a family from Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, recently. They had no experience with the ocean and were amazed to see the coast and the seals.
While the Kyrgyzstan soccer (football) team did not qualify for the World Cup, this family had a memorable visit to the California Coast. I promised I would learn to be a better soccer fan!
Christine Heinrichs is the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council SLO At-Large member. Follow her on Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn and Substack.
