Some of the potential impacts that we would see, for example from sea level rise, directs right at our marine mammal population. We have about 35 to 40 species of marine mammals—now most of those, of course, in the form of whales and dolphins are out at sea, maybe not as impacted directly. Although with temperature change in the ocean, we are seeing changes in not only the fish that are consumed by some of the higher predators, but the change in predators. That's one smaller issue.
But species such as the northern elephant seal or the harbor seal, which utilize Point Reyes for pupping and reproduction. It can be a very direct impact. Now the elephant seals are typically on the outer coastline, so they prefer the sandy beach areas. Well, if we can imagine even a slight increase in sea level rise, you can almost imagine direct impacts. As an example, when we have an El Nino event in the winter time and we get these pounding storms that hit our beaches, they unfortunately seem to be timed in January or February which is the peak of the elephant seal pupping season. So we have had years past where 300 or 400 elephant seal pups are on the beach,—they are pretty defenseless, they can't really swim yet, and very dependent upon their mothers—well as these storms come in, they can unfortunately sweep a number of those pups away. And we have indeed lost almost 90% of productivity for a given year when we have these storms, if they are timed right. So, so that's a big issue.
And then the harbor seals, which actually prefer the bays as far as their pupping season which is more June-July. They too can be impacted—should the sea level be rising.
And I mentioned briefly about human recreation and activity. Again, when you have a seashore within the National Park System, like we are here, and many people come to recreate on the beaches—that's maybe not as important an impact that we might think of, you know, animals, are they continually able to breed and move on—well, here is another different type of impact and that's to human activity and one of the reasons that they come to a place like Point Reyes National Seashore.