Seals, Sea Lions and Elephant Seals - Pinniped and Otariidae

"Even if a Norse hunter did befriend an Inuit hunter, the Norseman couldn't just borrow his friends kayak and learn how to use it, because the kayak was in effect a very complicated and individually tailored piece of clothing connected to a boat, made to fit that particular Inuit hunter, and fabricated by the Inuit's wife who (unlike the Norse girls) had learned from childhood to sew skins." (Jared Diamond, Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed, 2005, Penguin Books Ltd., pgs. 264, 265)

"Each winter and spring from December to May the stretch of beach between the Bluffs and Veneco's pier hosts almost 300 seals giving birth to and raising this year's batch of pups." Carpinteria.com - Seal Watch

"This colony has existed for over a century. Moreover, it has thrived next to the bustling Casitas Pier, which for decades has served the oil industry. It is also near the onshore processing facility which has existed for years." http://www.venocoinc.com/seals-master.html

Update for Spring 2007- "March 9, 2007 - 2007 Pup Count: Brian Hatfield has just reported the count of pups born at the Piedras Blancas rookery during the 2006-07 birthing season as 4100, up from 3800 in 2005-06. That implies a total rookery population of over 16,000, continuing a steady increase in the rookery population since it began in 1990." http://www.elephantseal.org