Elephant Seal Cove Overlook

This overlook of Elephant Seal Cove is 2.5-miles, round trip from the visitor center. As its name implies, elephant seals can be seen along the rocky shoreline. Stop 7: Arch Point Tour-An Ocean Park and Sanctuary From this vantage point, one has the opportunity to gaze upon another part of the park: the marine environment. One nautical mile of water around each island is part of Channel Islands National Park, and the six nautical miles around each island form Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Within this ocean realm, one often sees or hears California sea lions, northern elephant seals, or harbor seals. The island's isolated shoreline offers these pinnipeds an ideal combination of safety from predators and freedom from human disturbance, making the island an ideal place to rest, breed, and pup. But even Santa Barbara Island's isolation could not always protect these and other sea mammals from human predation. As early as the late 1700's, fur hunters were exploiting sea otters, fur seals, elephant seals, and sea lions for their fur, hides and oil. Sea mammal hunting ended in the early 1900's and laws like the Marine Mammal Protection Act now protect these species. Today, elephant seals, sea lions, and harbor seals regularly breed along the island's shoreline. In this isolated environment, their protected populations are recovering from centuries of slaughter. Unfortunately, the sea otter has not yet returned. These pinnipeds, along with over 800 other marine species, also depend on the extensive kelp forests found in these waters for food, shelter, and protection- from foraging nudibranchs, to grazing snails, to fish seeking refuge, to whales feasting on plankton. Kelp is a type of algae that, under ideal conditions (cold, nutrient-rich water), is one of the fastest growing organisms on Earth-it can grow two feet per day. While urban and industrial development has altered much of the southern California coastal mainland, the isolated islands contain the most undisturbed stretches of coastline in this region, providing some of the best conditions for kelp forests and their inhabitants. Kelp forests don't just benefit marine species-they benefit us as well. Not only do we eat some of the animals that depend upon the kelp forest, but everyday products like ice cream, salad dressing, and even toothpaste also use a little bit of seaweed as well. Kelp is harvested for a natural ingredient called algin, which is used as a suspending, stabilizing, emulsifying, gel-producing, and film-forming additive in more than 70 commercial products. In addition, marine plants and algae such as kelp provide Earth with 80 percent of its oxygen. Despite these benefits, human activities have placed the kelp forest and its inhabitants in jeopardy. Pollution and over-harvesting of marine species have altered the kelp forest ecosystem, and kelp forests in southern California today cover less than half the area they covered at the turn of the 20th century. However, w