Oceanography Spring 99																								notes

from Nat Hist of Mont Bay - cultural history

Monterey Bay area is uncommonly rich in endemic plant species and is also known for large # of species that find either their Northern or Southern limits there.

Costanoan Indians - 1st peoples >10,000 years ago (Close of Pleistocene) hunters - no agriculture or domesticated animals except dogs.

	~7,500 years ago can be shown to be exploiting shore resources,      and gathering seeds 
	
	gathering from littoral zone - mollusks: mostly mussels, but also
		red and black abalone.
		From rocky shoreline - exploiting tidepools
		Elkhorn slough - bivalves (clams)
		They gathered w/o regard to size.
		Several kitchen-midden sites are on dunes.  
		Since 6 months no rain, seldom lived far from streams or springs.
		No pottery - used baskets, stone boiling.
		Reed rafts
	Ano Nueva Point - chief costanoan quarry and stone-working center.  Outcrop of banded gray, white and brown chert.
Probably one of the largest Stone Age quarries known.
	Hunted - deer, elk & antelope
		fish
		birds
		sea mammals were another major source of food.
			seals, sea lion, sea otter (French exporer La Perouse observed 						hunting methods) including on shore.  Now otter rarely comes ashore.
			Around Ano - abalone not present in middens, but good there today - perhaps changes as beaches eroded to rock.
			Costanoans traded shells & meat inland - there is evidence that
			caves in S.C. used to dry meat (burnt shells, discolored walls)
			Acorns were eaten and supplied carbohydrates and fat
				(especially tanbark oak).  Scarce in Monterey/Carmel (coast live oak).
				Lots of blackberries, strawberries, and mushrooms.

1542 November, Cabrillo is 1st European to see bay.  Unable to land because of high seas.  Named it Bahia de las Pinos (bay of pines).

1603 Jan 3, Sebastian Vizcaino named La Punta de Ano Nuevo
exploratory trip out of Mexico, searching for suitable harbors for Spanish ships plying the trade routes to the Philippines.  Saw grizzlies feeding on whale carcass (last record of grizzly killed 1885) - gone by turn of century.
Saw Ohlone (or Costanoan - probably corrupted Spanish for coastal person)
				
For 166 years, the coast was left to the Ohlone's.

1769 - first overland expedition of "civilized" men came marching through along the coast.
	Don Gaspar de Portola - Spanish soldiers, Christian Indians from Mexico and Baja California, looking for Monterey Bay.  Walked right past and up coast to discover S.F. bay.
They got scurvy, and stopped to get better at  Waddell Creek 
  called it Canada de la Salud (of health)

30 more years with no visits.

1792 - naturalist Menzie visiting Mission Carmel- 700 christian indians living nearby in large village
1792 - Captain George Vancouver cruises by.

1794 - Santa Cruz mission built by Franciscan fathers, 
('til 1833 when secularized)
1833 - San Juan Bautista ~600 indians
1836 - after secularization, several hundred indians in monterey.

Costanoan way of life altered during Spanish-Mexican period by introduction of agriculture, but until American settlements, they  occupied a considerable part of Monterey Bay area.
With the Europeans came European diseases - small pox, measles, whooping cough.
A population of 11,000 Costanoans when the 1st europeans arrives was reduced to 56 survivors by 1920.
A lot of the archeological evidence has been destroyed.  Shell middens were used as source of lime, and also as chicken food.

The Costanoans had not left the land "natural".  They had used
fire as a tool for land management (grasses, grass seed) and had certainly changed the balance in the littoral zone.

European Settlement 

During the first 50 years of european settlement, only commerce was trade in marine mammals.  Sea otter, fur seal, sea lion, whale,
otter were major economic factor in the exploration and settlement of California.  Russians, Spanish, Americans.
1804 - Russians brought ~100 Aleutian Indians to hunt otter
(southern otter here, northern otter in Aleutians).  By 1850 the otter was wiped out.
At the same time, American commerce in abalone began - not to eat,
but to trade shells with Northern Indians for skins.

Lots of whales - oceanic explorers were surprised by numbers in the bay.  Late 18th, early 19th century - New England whalers hunted off Calif.

petitions for land grants:
	3 great Ranchos from Santa Cruz to Ano Nuevo
		Rancho Refugio, 1841 to Candida Castro & Jose Bolcoff (Russian)
		Rancho Agua Puerca, 1843 (Davenport Landing)
		Rancho Punta de Ano Nuevo, 1842
		
1850 - Captain John Davenport - Davenport Landing - a whaling station.

1854 - European style shore-whaling began in Monterey, with the arrival of Portugese whalers from the Azores.  Hunted mainly gray whales and humpbacks.  Estimated that 30,000 whales passed each season.
Stations at: Pigeon Pt., Davenport, Santa Cruz, Moss Landing,
Monterey (3 different stations), Carmel Bay (at Point Lobos) and Big Sur.

At same time, American whaling ships began hunting females in Baja lagoons.

1870 - US gov bought Pigeon Pt and Ano Nuevo island for $10k
put in fog horns & lighthouse 1872-1948
1871 - Rancho Refugio -> bought by Deloss Wilder, used for 
	dairy, cattle and vegetable farming
	in 1968, because of taxes, sold to developers for 4.5million.
	in 1972, just about to develop.

In ~20 years, whale population was exhausted.  Even in 1875, it was apparent to some people that the population was threatened.
Seasonal whale estimate down to 8000-10000.
(Sperm and Right whales had earlier been wiped out).
By 1888, the industry near shore was mostly finished.
In 1900's whales were still harvested further out at sea, inflated with air, and towed to land.  Estimated <2000 grays total. One of three factories in California was at Moss Landing from 1919-1926. In 1938, the gray whales were protected. By 1961, population had climbed back to ~6000. By 1976,>11,000.

Sea otter - northerns 120-130,000
	southern - thought to be extinct in the early 1900's
	In 1938, discovered herd of ~100 south of Carmel (probably discovered while building coast road).
	In 1969 - counted 1014
	1976 - 1561
	1977 - declared threatened species.

Elephant seal - almost exterminated in 1869 for oil.
Range was Baja to Pt. Reys.
At end of 19th century, there were <100 at Guadalupe Island, off Baja. 1911 Mexican govt. made illegal to kill on Guadalupe Island. by 1930, ~500 there, 1500 total 1955 several at Ano. (Probably not historically at Ano, because it was probably point not island until relatively recently). 1963 483 at Ano. 1974 total of ~30,000 In early 90's (93?, 94?) started appearing near Hearst castle (just north of San Simeon), on moderately protected beach (no parking nearby) and have spread to adjacent beaches. Mountain lion, wolves, grizzly bears, condors. Peninsula 1853 Chinese settled at present Hopkins site. Harvested Abalone, Squid; dried and exported to China. Summer climate conducive to drying. 1868 large Chinese camp for drying abalone at Pebble Beach (now called Stillwater cove, del monte lodge, beach club, golf course) Another at Capitola, drying fish. Also collected algae on Monterey Peninsula. 1900 made illegal the commercial harvest of abalone from shallow water. 1915 made illegal the drying of abalone meat. 1927 State Dept of Parks and Beaches established. Soon more than a dozen beaches. 1955 Ano Nuevo purchased, made into scientific preserve. Farming impacts Herbicides, pesticides (especially chlorinated hydrocarbons after WWII), mostly used to eradicate alien plants and animals introduced along w/ agriculture. Industrial impacts 1942 Kaiser built refractory at Moss Landing, hauling dolomite from Gabilan mountains, extracting magnesium from seawater and dumping tailing into bay. 1952 PGE builds power plant affects: thermal pollution, air pollution (later improved), threat of oil pollution from oil ships. Mid 60's (67?) Humble Oil Co proposes building oil refinery at Moss Landing.