New Bodega Bay Sign

We have a newly refurbished sign at the south entrance to Bodega Bay!

Many thanks to Shona Weir, of Business Services Unlimited for sending me this information and photos. She said local artist Jody Shipp, Local Color Gallery co-owner, cleaned and repainted it. It took her more than eight hours to complete the job, plus she paid for the paint and new bolts to rehang it. Jody made the signs at the north and south entrances to town many years ago, and plans to refurbish the north sign soon, as well. It's a little more damaged. The poles holding the sign up need to be straightened and more securely put in the ground, but Jody is willing to repair it and repaint it too.

Eric Crumley, of Pipecleaners Chimney and Fireplace, volunteered to take care of the removal, transportation and replacement of the sign for Jody. A local surfer friend named John Lowry helped Eric put the sign up.

Bodega Marine Lab

The UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab offers free docent-led tours for the public on Fridays 2:00-4:00 p.m. so I went over to check it out.

I remember visiting the lab with my Drake High School marine biology class in the 1970's but it has expanded considerably since then.

Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML), perched above Horseshoe Cove on Bodega Head, is one of the oldest academic marine laboratories in the U.S. Bodega Head has been a field site for researchers and students since the 1920s. The Laboratory was founded in 1960 by UC Berkeley and the first building was completed in 1966. The second building was completed in 1977. BML was transferred to UC Davis in 1983.


Rather than re-word their story myself, I've pasted some copy from their website.

A rare combination of natural and academic assets makes BML a unique marine laboratory. The facility sits on wind-swept headlands in Sonoma County on California's north coast, where a 362-acre coastal reserve meets a state-protected marine reserve. This stretch of ocean is also one of a handful of places in the world where "upwelling," caused by a combination of geography and physics, brings nutrient-rich deep waters to the surface and nurtures a vast array of sea life. This phenomenon makes this coastline among the most biologically productive in North America.

In addition to these remarkable "living laboratories" the Bodega Marine Laboratory is equipped with sophisticated technology, an instrument and sensor network and long term data set, the Cadet Hand Library, teaching classrooms and lecture hall, wetlabs, greenhouses, Dive Training facility, seawater system and vessel fleet. BML is administered by UC Davis, one of the nation's top public universities and a leader in both the marine and life sciences.

I was fascinated to learn that their location on Bodega Head is unique because it includes a rich mix of eight protected coastal habitats to study: rocky intertidal areas, protected and exposed sandy beaches, extensive lagoon mudflats and sandflats, and tidal saltmarsh, sand dunes, coastal bluffs, coastal prairie/coastal scrub and freshwater wetlands. Plus, plant communities, soils and microclimates vary sharply over relatively small distances due to geological factors associated with the Pacific Ocean and the San Andreas Fault Zone.

The Marine Lab is located in the Bodega State Marine Reserve, a fully protected no-take reserve extending 1000 feet offshore, managed by the California Department of Fish and Game and BML. The Bodega State Marine Reserve is contiguous with NOAA's Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, providing additional research sites and opportunities.

But back to the tours, if you go over expecting something like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, you'll be disappointed. The Bodega Marine Lab is primarily an education and research facility with a few displays for the public.


They had a nice "tidal mesocosm" out front with various marine life including sea stars, bat stars, anemones, and my favorites, purple sea urchins. I asked our docent why I haven't been able to find any sea urchins in the tidepools along the Bodega Bay coast for several years, I used to see them all the time. He said he had no idea and in fact, had never visited a tidepool in the Bodega Bay area. Oh well...



I enjoyed the beautiful displays in their expansive lobby and actually learned more there than on the tour itself.








They also had two large tanks displaying local fish.




I would have liked to hear more about some of their current local studies. We were shown a lobster study in progress, although there aren't any lobsters in the Bodega Bay area at all.


We were also shown these tanks, where they're conducting an algae study.


You can read more about the Bodega Marine Lab tours here. For a more complete Bodega Bay marine life experience, I'd suggest visiting some real tidepools during low tide before or after your tour. You can see some of our tidepool photos here. Also, during the months of January-May, you can go whale watching up on Bodega Head, with knowledgeable volunteer docents answering questions and providing a wealth of educational materials. You can read more about whale watching here. Although as a side note, some people spotted whales offshore just this past week!

Have fun!

Bodega Marine Laboratory
2099 Westside Rd.
Bodega Bay, CA 94923-0247
(707) 875-2211

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Gorgeous Day at Bodega Head!

It was absolutely gorgeous in Bodega Bay yesterday! After endless days of summer fog, the sun finally broke through in the afternoon and we enjoyed some t-shirt weather.

My husband and I drove over to Bodega Head and hiked up the north trail to the Horseshoe Cove Overlook. I've never seen the trail so overgrown, maybe due to State Parks budget cuts. But it didn't matter, we just made our way gently through the tall blooming vegetation and marched up the hill. The hillsides were filled with a variety of wildflowers, there was hardly any wind, and the visibility was excellent. Here are some photos from the trail, click to enlarge.











View toward Doran Beach, U.S. Coast Guard and Bodega Harbour.

View toward downtown Bodega Bay.

From the top of the trail, you look down on Horseshoe Cove and the UC Davis Bodega Bay Marine Lab. I took their tour recently and will be writing about it soon.



Here are a couple of videos we shot up on the Head. Not very exciting, but you can kick back and get a feel for what it's like up there.