Elephant Seals at Point Reyes, Winter 2022–2023: Storms, Pups and a Beach Takeover

Every winter, northern elephant seals crowd the beaches of Point Reyes National Seashore to give birth and mate, and park biologists count and tag them. The 2022–2023 season was shaped by intense storms in early January, right as pupping began.

Gus' Cove two weeks before the peak of pupping. NPS / Sarah Allen, NMFS Permit No. 21425.

Season highlights

• A beach takeover. Seals again hauled out on the beach in front of the Ken Patrick Visitor Center at Drakes Beach, probably in response to the storms, as they had in 2019 and 2021.
• A late peak. The storms pushed the peak of pupping about a week later than the year before. The first pup was born at Chimney Rock Cove West on December 20.
• Record crowd. In the week of January 20, more than 250 cows were counted at Gus' Cove, which sheltered newborns from the storms and tides — the most ever recorded on that small beach.
• Old-timers. Tag resights included a 17-year-old female (pink tag K847), 14-year-old females with pink tag M432 and green tag 4118, and an 11-year-old male (pink tag N665).
• Tags. By March 17, NPS researchers had tagged more than 420 weaned pups, and they also supported projects from UC Santa Cruz, Sonoma State University and The Marine Mammal Center.
• Lower counts. Peak counts of seals, cows and pups were all lower than the year before, and weaned-pup counts were below average at every site — likely effects of the early storms. Drakes Beach had more seals than average and the Point Reyes Headlands fewer.

The visitors' view

Staff usually discourage females from pupping on the beach in front of the visitor center. This year, given the storms, they let the harems shelter in place and concentrated on keeping the parking lot as free of seals as possible. Drakes Beach was closed for the season, but visitors had close views of newborn pups, nursing cows and males of every age — many of them on invasive ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), which turned out to make a fine nursery. Near the peak, 77 females and 62 nursing pups were there.

Panoramic view from the elephant seal viewing area, featuring NPS Marine Ecologist Sarah Codde on the far right. NPS / Matt Lau, NMFS Permit No. 21425.

Females with their newborn pups on the ice plant. NPS / Matt Lau, NMFS Permit No. 21425.

The yearly cycle

When elephant seals of different ages and sexes come ashore at Point Reyes. NPS.

Elephant seals spend most of their lives at sea and can be seen at Point Reyes all year. They come ashore twice a year: adults to breed and then to molt, juveniles for the "juvenile haul out" and to molt. Molting seals can look ragged for a few weeks until their new coats grow in.

Seal biology from the weekly updates

Birth and nursing. After about seven months foraging in the open ocean, females return to give birth, often to the very colony and even the beach where they were born. Pups weigh 60–75 lb and measure 3.2–4 ft at birth, nurse for about 28 days, and reach about 300 lb by weaning. A female gives birth to one pup a season, but may nurse others that are separated from their mothers in crowded harems — and weaned pups sometimes sneak a meal too.

Rich milk. Over about a month a female produces some 138 kg of milk. Its protein holds steady at 10%, while its fat climbs from 15% to a peak of 55%. Mothers fast the whole time and can lose about 40% of their body weight.

Delayed pregnancy. Females mate as they wean their pups, when they are far too thin to support a pregnancy. Implantation of the egg is delayed for two and a half months while they forage and molt in April and May; the pregnancy then continues for seven to eight months at sea.

Why fast? Adults fast through both breeding and molting. It keeps those seasons short, leaving more time in their favored deep-water feeding grounds; it keeps males from losing harems and mothers from losing pups; the beach has no natural predators; and the right amount of blubber keeps them warm without making it hard to rise from deep dives. Males fast longest — about three months — and rest to save energy except when fighting.

Battles. As females wean their pups, alpha bulls guard their harems against rivals. Fights can turn bloody, but older males grow a chest shield of thick, cornified skin.

Deep divers. Seals typically dive to 300–800 meters without getting the bends. They don't breathe compressed air as a scuba diver does, they exhale before descending, and a slower heart rate, abundant hemoglobin and red blood cells, and reduced blood flow to the extremities slow nitrogen uptake and oxygen use.

Tags. Researchers fix coded tags in the webbing of the rear flippers — like an ear piercing. Tag colors show where a seal was tagged: pink for Point Reyes and the Farallon Islands, green for Año Nuevo, white for San Simeon/Piedras Blancas and blue for the King Range on the Lost Coast. Resights reveal pup survival, life span, site fidelity and breeding success. Females tend to outlive males by about 9 years.

Surprises. A female that UC Santa Cruz researchers had satellite-tagged after she gave birth at Año Nuevo the year before turned up at Drakes Beach to pup — unusual for a species that tends to return to the same site.

Injuries. Seals survive wounds from sharks, boats and fishing gear or debris. If you see a marine mammal tangled in line or debris, tell park staff or The Marine Mammal Center, and keep your distance from any seal that wanders somewhere unexpected.

Sources

• National Park Service, San Francisco Bay Area Network: "Elephant Seal Monitoring Season Summary: Winter 2022–2023," with the season's weekly updates. The park's survey charts are not reproduced, at the Park Service's request that its monitoring data and graphics wait for official published reports. Pictures an earlier version of this page left out were restored on 2026-09-26.