About TeamOCEAN (Ocean Conservation Education Action Network)
Monterey Bay is a nature lover’s paradise where wildlife is plentiful and easily seen. However, many visitors here are unaware that close encounters with sensitive wildlife, such as seals and sea otters cause big problems for the animals. Continual disturbance disrupts critical daily activities such as resting, eating, caring for young or grooming and can severely impact their overall health. That’s where our knowledgeable and passionate Team OCEAN and Bay Net shoreline volunteers play a key role -- in fostering understanding and appreciation of the marine sanctuary, promoting respectful wildlife viewing and protecting marine mammals from human disturbance.
The Sanctuary's TeamOCEAN Program puts trained, knowledgeable naturalists out on the water in sanctuary kayaks to greet and interact with fellow day kayakers. The naturalists serve as docents for the marine sanctuary, promote respectful wildlife viewing and protect marine mammals from disturbance. A large percentage of ocean kayakers are visitors to the area and unaware of or undereducated about the sanctuary's existence and sensitive wildlife. TeamOCEAN has proven to be a successful program with thousands of contacts per year. TeamOCEAN volunteers can be found in Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing and along the kelp beds off Cannery Row in Monterey.
Since the program’s inception in 2000, TeamOCEAN staff and volunteers have interacted with nearly 100,000 kayakers, all the while preventing thousands of potential disturbances to sanctuary wildlife.
Since 1995 Bay Net volunteers have provided year-round shoreline interpretation for visitors, introducing them to local wildlife that can be easily seen from shore. Bay Net volunteers also educate the public to keep their distance from harbor seal mothers and pups at local pupping beaches. In 2013 alone Bay Net volunteers spoke with more than 36,000 people in Pacific Grove, Monterey and Santa Cruz, with the majority of contacts at harbor seal pupping areas.
Help Give Sea Otters and Seals a Break! Support TeamOCEAN and Bay Net
About seaotters.com
Seaotters.com is dedicated to raising awareness about California's threatened sea otters. It's a collaboration of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and University of California Santa Cruz among others. Seaotters.com is also home of the world's first HD live stream of southern sea otters in the wild. Watch seaotters.com/live now!
Recognizing the need to better educate and inform the public about responsible wildlife viewing along the California coastline, seaotters.com and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary have teamed up to help protect marine life from disturbance. By taking simple actions, like keeping a safe and respectful distance away from wildlife, you can do your part to help protect sanctuary wildlife too! Join the #TeamOCEAN community by taking the pledge to view wildlife responsibly and help encourage others to do the same.