California has many spectacular natural resources. One that is on display right now is the Monterey Bay gathering of whales, sea lions, dolphins, orcas and other marine animals that has been occurring in abundance for the past couple of years. I hope I can get up to Monterey in the next weeks to see this in person. A BBC/PBS production Big Blue Live will give you an idea of what is going on up the beautiful coast of California.

There is abundance of food for the marine life. One of these is the Pacific Sardine. If you go to Monterey you will see a tourist area called Cannery Row. This is same area written about by John Steinbeck. The area used to be a real thriving cannery for sardines. They were overfished, impacted by ocean temperature changes, and just about wiped out. Now due to conservation measures the sardines are back. Whales and the California Sea Otter were also almost hunted to extinction and since being protected are now thriving. It is amazing to see this bounty of nature alive in Monterey.