Sample of Section 1: The Island

Wildlife

On these remote bits of earth, nature has excelled in the creation of strange and wonderful forms. As though to prove her incredible versatility, almost every island has developed species that are endemic-that is, they are peculiar to it alone and are duplicated nowhere else on earth." -Rachel Carson


The northwest wind that dominates San Miguel Island weather today has been blowing down the coast of California in all seasons for millions of years. It has helped create the unusual combination of climate and nutrients that makes San Miguel Island special-a workplace where nature continuously produces a profusion of life that has attracted the earliest people on the continent, the hunters and sealers of the nineteenth century, and today’s adventurous mariners and fishermen.

The northwest wind creates the California Current, a movement of surface water just off the West Coast bowing at roughly half a knot. Instead of going southeast parallel to the wind and to the coast as we might expect, it turns and bows more nearly south. The earth’s rotation causes this turning. It is a phenomenon affecting all motion on our spinning globe, including all ocean currents, with significant consequences when the current flows away from a coast.

Because the sun-warmed surface water flowing away from shore cannot be replaced by adjacent surface water, an upwelling of deep ocean water must take its place. This water is cold and laden with nutrients. San Miguel Island sits in this rich, cold broth, and all that we see here either depends on it or is affected by it.

Not only does this current bring nourishment, it also brings the dense fogs that create an environment especially suitable for certain unusual forms of life. Elephant seals, giant coreopsis, and summer flowers are examples. While this rich current alone would ensure an abundance of life, it is not alone. This current propels a huge eddy in the Santa Barbara Channel, a gyre that brings warmer water to the island, as do other southern warm-water currents in the California Bight. Thus, San Miguel Island lies in a transition zone between north and south, and you will find many species here that are at either the southern or the northern extreme of their range.

©1998 by Channel Crossings Press. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Channel Crossings Press.