Big Sur Marine Life
Big Sur Recreation & Parks
A video about the underwater life off the coast of Big Sur, California
Big Sur Recreation & Parks
Big Sur is definately spectacular from the ground, but from inside the sea Big Sr is simply amazing.
The scenery below the waves is breathtaking and as you enter the water you never know what you might see on your dive. "You have migrating gray whales, you have California sea lions, you have harbor seals,” says Big Sur dive
enthusiast, Alan Studley.
Gorgeous wildlife is one of the many reasons why Big Sur is a popular dive destination. "Many hundreds of dives later I still see something new every time I go into the ocean," says diver Clinton Bauder.
The water is crystal clear so you can't miss seeing the colorful migrating fish, the gorgeous, undisturbed underwaterlandscapes and the amazing sea creatures of all sizes and shapes in vivid color.
"This area is as dramatic as Yosemite or the Grand Canyon,” says Big Sur native Pat Lovejo
The Big Sur Wilderness Experience
The Big Sur Coastline Video
Big Sur Recreation & Parks
Whale Watching off the coast of Big Sur
The blue whale is the largest mammal on the planet with the largest reaching over 100 feet. The avarage adult blue whale is 70 to 90 feet and weighs between 100 to 150 tons. During the whales feeding seasons, the whales consume one to two tons of krill daily.
At the turn of the 1900's, blue whales were abundant and found in most of the worlds oceans. The whaling industry of the early and mid part of that century almost annihilated the species. Today, there are fewer than 10,00 blue whales in existence. Records from the 1930's show almost 30,000 whales killed in one year alone, that's 3 times today's population. One also wonders what the actual "unrecorded" numbers may have been. By 1966, Blue whales were so scarce that they put them on the endangered species list, where they remain today.
Blue whales have a long gestational cycle and a calf has to survive 10 years to even reach sexual maturity. Their long growth period from calf to adult coupled with environmental and whaling issues has kept their numbers very slim and fighting for their species survival.