The otter chaser

While we were stopped at Lover's Point this morning, this blimp flew over.  I didn't even know Farmers Insurance had a blimp and have no idea why it's here now.

Several times in the last week or so, we have seen another unusual sight--people at the beach with cameras and something that looks like an old TV antenna.  We finally got our curiosity satisfied when this girl pulled up in front of us at a pull-off and set up her equipment.

She's a volunteer who works for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  They have put radio tags on about 50 sea otters, and her job is to go out each day and find them.  She uses the antenna to get a bearing on the signals.  Each animal transmits on a unique frequency so she knows which one she has found, but they also have florescent flipper tags.  The thing we assumed was a camera is actually a compact telescope and once she has a bearing, she uses it to try to visually confirm the sighting.  She was very nice, even let me look through her telescope, but the otters were hanging out in a kelp bed some distance offshore and were hard to see because of the swells.  To see them close up, she said Moss Landing was her favorite place to go.  A raft consisting of mostly older males regularly hangs out there.  I think I know where we'll be heading tomorrow.

Here's a sign we saw during our walk this afternoon in a shop window on Lighthouse Avenue.

Day 102
Monterey, CA

Daily Mileage:  0