Harbor Seal Survey at Fort Ross

Assist us with our citizen scientist effort monitoring the Harbor Seal population that haul out in Fort Ross State Historic Park.

What the surveys look like..

The survey involves walking along ~ 2 miles of the coast and takes about two hours’ time. 

Did you see all six seals in the video? There are two in the lower middle of the rocks and three adults and one pup on the lower right. For Seal Surveys, we only count the seals on land to avoid counting the same individual multiple times by accident. 

Surveys During Pupping Season

Harbor seal moms start to give birth all along the coast in April. Every Year, our team of volunteers count the harbor seal adults and pups fortnightly in Fort Ross State Historic Park for Point Reyes National Seashore Monitoring and Inventory from March to July. 

This is a great excuse to walk along the FRSHP coast with a pair of binoculars. The spotted seals are surprisingly good at camouflaging against the rocks! We recommend signing up with a friend to walk along the edge of the bluffs to count the seals together. This is both for safety and survey purposes - two pairs of eyes are better than one!

Join Us! Email mep@fortross.org to sign up for surveys! There is a 1 hour training session + a practice survey that will be held in February.