The Wild Edge 2 Thefreedom Towild Roam the Paciedgefic Coast a Photographic Journey by Florian Schulz
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THE WILD EDGE 2 THEFREEDOM TOWILD ROAM THE PACIEDGEFIC COAST A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY BY FLORIAN SCHULZ INTRODUCTION BY BRUCE BARCOTT EPILOGUE BY PHILIPPE COUSTEAU 3 For Margot MacDougall— in loving memory of our friendship — F.S. C ONTENTS 9 11 14 PUBLISHER'S NoTE FoREWORD I NTRODUCTION A WILD IDEA CURRENTS OF LIFE T HE WILD PACIFIC EDGE H ELEN CHERULLO E XEQUIEL EZCURRA BRUCE BARCOTT 35 BAJA TO BEAUFORT A COASTAL JOURNEY ERIC SCIGLIANO P A R T O N E P A R T T W O P A R T T H R E E SOUTH CENTRAL NORTH 39 BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO, 91 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TO PRINCE 157 PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA, TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA TO THE ARCTIC'S BEAUFORT SEA 223 225 EpL I OGUE C ITIZEN ScIENTIST CAUSE FOR HOPE CITIZEN SCIENCE TAKES OFF PHILIPPE COUSTEAU J ON HOEKSTRA MAPS 16 THE CORRIDOR FROM BAJA CALIFORNIA TO THE BEAUFORT SEA / 22 MARINE ECOREGIONS AND PRIORITY CONSERVATION AREAS / 40 SOUTH: BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO, TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA / 92 CENTRAL: NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TO PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA / 158 NORTH: PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA, TO THE ARCTIC’s BEAUFORT SEA 226 WHERE TO SEE B2B WILDLIFE / 228 MIGRATION ROUTES OF GRAY WHALES AND SANDPIPERS 230 THE RooTS OF FREEDOM TO RoAM / 232 NoTES FROM THE FIELD / 234 ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS / 235 ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER / 236 AcKNOWLEDGMENTS / 238 INDEX Gray whale in the calving lagoons, where human access is strictly regulated by the Mexican government, Baja California Sur, Mexico PUBLISHER'S NoTE A WILD IDEA A Protected Wildlife Corridor from Mexico's Baja Peninsula to Alaska’s Beaufort Sea H ELEN CHERULLO ne of the stories from The Wild Edge that humans—thrive in place along abundant, healthy coastlines. resonates most strongly with me is from Baja As encroachments continue on lands and waters California, of gray whales approaching boats that have historically linked and provided a buffer for parks, Oand trusting people to touch their bodies and stroke preserves, and sanctuaries, establishing protected wildlife their newborn calves. These intimate encounters have a corridors could be the salvation for all life—including profound effect on the people who experience them— human communities. To do otherwise is unimaginable: a connection of heart and spirit that some describe rising levels of oceans destroying coastal communities, as among the most stirring moments of their lives. seems inconceivable that a mammal so large depends on annihilation of wild fish for food, ocean acidification killing Perhaps this connection also leads to a sense of shared tiny krill for food. This is what is so fascinating and critical shellfish and destroying economies while throwing the vulnerability, as people recognize the unnatural threats to understand about the B2B: interconnectivity happens entire food chain off balance. and tolls that human development have taken not only on on scales both large and small. We are at a time and in a position when it is possible the whales but on our own lives and our shared planet. Drilling for oil and dealing with the aftermath of a to make a seismic difference in what kind of life we live Personal encounters such as these are a powerful catastrophic spill along a seemingly remote Alaska coast now and what we will leave to future generations. We initiation to life along the vast and complex Pacific take on new meaning to California whale watchers when can evolve by choice or by chance. By weaving what we Coast. Of equal importance is the macro view of life they learn the Beaufort Sea is a “biological hot spot” know about the gray whale into a bigger story of profound orchestrated by changes across millennia of time, where the whales migrate. It is this view of key habitat interdependence, we can find reasons to behave differently weather, and a vast array of sea, land, and sky. The preservation, in addition to a more audacious vision, for mutual benefit. We have the imagination to explore gray whales that you spot off the coast depend on a that we hope to convey in The Wild Edge. Together options, the heart to see beyond our own needs, and the healthy environment, not only as far as your eye can see, with Florian Schulz and grassroots groups, our goal is technology and resources to change business as usual. but along the entire coastline, from the southern Baja to further preserve vast natural and healthy corridors Our hope with this latest Braided River book and Peninsula to the northern Beaufort Sea of Alaska—from that connect these biological hot spots. Through these outreach campaign is that the artistry of Florian Schulz’s Baja to Beaufort, in shorthand the “B2B.” unimpeded linkages, life as we know it—life we depend images and the collective voices and stories of this book I think many people who visit “their whales” at on—will then have the freedom to roam and the greatest will set fire to your passion and resolve. We hope you urban beaches along the Pacific Coast would admit they chance to adapt and thrive. will become another active supporter of protecting the don’t often think about the epic migration: from remote The gray whale is just one of many creatures to last precious remaining natural wild places of beauty and lagoons in the southern Baja Peninsula of Mexico, where benefit from more thoughtful consideration and treatment. diversity, helping to provide all life the freedom to roam— they give birth, to Arctic waters thousands of miles north, Among species that migrate along the Pacific Coast are not only in your own backyard, but along the entire wild abundant with life upon which the whales rely. Further, it caribou, birds, salmon, and butterflies. Others—including edge of the B2B, and beyond. 9 Big Sur, California FoREWORD CURRENTS OF LIFE E XEQUIEL EZCURRA nt rre Cu a tk a t h n c re ome natural phenomena are so entrenched in ur to high sierras, this region harbors a mosaic of unique m a C a Alask Oyashio K our everyday experiences that we forget how Current habitats, a magnificent diversity of landscapes driven by NORTH California Current fascinating they truly are. When Jean-Bernard- acific Current the interaction between the land and the sea, the living North P SLéon Foucault hung a pendulum at the Panthéon in Paris PACIFIC OCEAN result of a vibrant dialogue between two realms. rial Current Kuroshio h Equato and showed that the plane of oscillation shifted with the Current Nort In this long coastal corridor, the circulation of winds rotation of the earth, European high society went crazy and currents is the underlying mechanism that drove the with excitement. And yet the same forces that tugged evolution of the region’s incredible environments, and it Foucault’s legendary pendulum affect ocean currents is the motor that still maintains their unique existence. and wind directions every moment, and most of us do In the Northern Hemisphere, the Pacific Ocean has a not think twice about it. But without these currents and system of currents that circulate clockwise: Tropical these winds, life would not be what it is along the Pacific waters move from east to west, from Central America to coast of North America, from Baja California to the Asia, and when the northern equatorial current reaches Arctic’s Beaufort Sea. the Asian continent and its islands, it is deflected The Wild Edge is about this extraordinary corridor of northeastward, past the Japanese island of Hokkaido, natural environments that links the Beaufort Sea, in the returning toward the western coast of North America. Arctic Ocean, with the Sea of Cortés in Baja California— At the coast of British Columbia, a large part of the flow a succession of marine and terrestrial ecosystems is deflected southward as the California Current, which that support one another, a corridor for some of the runs from north to south along the coast, and the rest most extraordinary migrations on the planet. Led by is deflected northward as the Alaska Current, which the breathtaking photographs of Florian Schulz and sweeps the coasts of the Aleutians and the Bering Sea accompanied by masterful text by Bruce Barcott, Eric with its temperate waters. Its large counterclockwise gyre Scigliano, and Jon Hoekstra, this book is a celebration of produces the upwelling of fertile deep waters that feed one of the most heterogeneous arrays of environments the productivity of the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. on Earth that, paradoxically, function as one single life- As it moves south, approaching the tropics, the giving region. From Arctic ecosystems to a cold, wet California Current is deflected westward by the rotational north and an arid south, from western wet slopes to A gray whale dives in the shallow Laguna Ojo de Liebre, movement of the earth to form again the equatorial eastern rain-shadow deserts, from deep ocean trenches Baja California Sur, Mexico. current and close the giant gyre of the Pacific, an oceanic 11 the coast and mountains of California, the fog and moisture of the coastal currents support the largest living This region harbors a mosaic of unique organisms on Earth: the coastal redwoods and the giant habitats, . the living result of a vibrant sequoias. In the southern latitudes, as the sea grows colder it contributes to the aridity of the land because dialogue between two realms. the moisture-laden oceanic winds heat up and dry as they run into the hot desert coasts. Here, the coastal rain forests are replaced by chaparral, a unique evergreen population, which relies on colder water, collapses.