She's Otter Here

Search for Cindy 841 attracts kayakers into kelp beds with official search boat in background. PHOTO:KCS

Surf is where you find it, according to legendary wave master Gerry Lopez. And there have been no waves breaking higher than an ankle snapper in Santa Cruz for more than a week, which has resulted in no sea otter seen riding waves.

It has been as flat as a linoleum floor, according to a local human surfer.

Does this mean Cindy 841, my name for the famous sea otter, has gone searching for better surf breaks?

Hardly. In fact, not only has the 5-year-old sea otter been openly recognized in local waters, but a new line up of sea otters has appeared to join her. 

"I've never seen this many sea otters together," said Mark Woodward, local photographer and a primary source of news and photos for media from around world. Woodward has been in close contact with scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA), where Cindy was born. Her oddly aggressive behavior of jumping on surfboards, and nibbling on them, has made her a world-wide sensation, including a deep trove of merchandise being sold on social media haling her as a water-borne heroine.

"Otter my way, Dude!" says one.

Yesterday a group of marine biology students from UC Santa Barbara arrived to observe the surfing otter. "They're making a documentary film about sea otters," said Woodward. "I've never seen so much equipment." But alas, no waves. 

Lack of surf seems to keep Cindy 841 at bay and away from humans. And there have been an inordinate number of lookie-loo kayakers paddling through the kelp beds to get an up close look at the furry surfer with flippers.

The authorities call it harassment of wild life, yet many of Cindy 841's fans believe they (the scientists with nets and cages) are the harassers.

An attempt this week by divers from U.S. Fish and Wildlife to catch her with a cage was near a joke, according to Woodward. 

Fascinating information about sea otters has emerged from the experts, such as a sea otter's bite is as strong as a 600-lb bear. And those otter choppers are nothing to scoff at.

In the meantime, as we wait and pray for surf -- although summer is not the surfing season in Santa Cruz -- attempts at catching Cindy will continue, as no doubt will the cries of "let her swim free." 

The good news, according to Woodward who gets his info from the MBA, once she is caught and tested she will be released into untamed waters, not kept in an aquarium. They'll just need to find a location with plenty of kelp, where she'll find food, but no surf.

Try telling that to a sea otter who has experienced the thrill of riding a surfboard. If you can catch her.

 

 

Sea Hunt for Cindy Continues

Cindy 841 bites into a crab leg. PHOTO: NATIVE SANTA CRUZ, MARK WOODWARD

Cindy the surfing sea otter is still at large, evading capture and enjoying the bounty of Monterey Bay. She has not been seen on a surfboard since Saturday.

The female sea otter was born five years ago in captivity at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

Marine scientists report distressed sea life, including sea lions and dolphins, seen in the Santa Barbara region may be related to Cindy's odd behavior of approaching humans, climbing onto and chewing surfboards. I have named her Cindy but authorities refer to her as 841.

The hunt for her continued today in the kelp beds off of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. Local photographer Mark Woodward has kept in contact with scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and relayed the disturbing report that scientists fear she may be infected, possibly from recent red tides.

An Associated Press cameraman was on the scene today. "We have interest from as far away as Japan," he said, shaking his head with a big grin.

Although most people side with Cindy as far as not being captured, if infected she could transmit her disease to other sea life. The problem is, how do you catch a clever girl like Cindy without hurting her, or worse.

"That would be a huge problem of negative publicity for the aquarium," said Woodward.

In the meantime, where is Cindy? Although authorities can track her because she's been micro-chipped, her whiskery face has not been seen today.

Cindy the Surfing Sea Otter

PHOTO: KSBW NEWS

Santa Cruz made the national... er' international, news recently with the story about its longboard riding sea otter. This is not a gimmick, a magic trick or a conspiracy theory about the takeover of our planet by furry sea otters with big teeth.

The little, now-fast growing town on Monterey Bay has been known for many things over the years and the surfing sea otter fits right into the story line.

Saturday I watched as Fish and Wildlife, Monterey Bay Aquarium and Seymour Marine Lab authorities attempted to lasso the playful otter in an effort to "rehome" the little beast. In the parlance of science, the experts have named the female otter the undistinguished appellation, 841.

Come on! 841 is an area code not a cuddly creature. Let's step away from bureaucracy and give the girl a name, like Cindy, Hildy or Ama. This would help humanize the otter, who appears to be a bit trickier than humans. This is a human interest story.

They were trying to catch the otter with a hand-held fishing net. Cindy the Sea Otter (I've taken the liberty to name her for this tale) saw this as a game, wriggling out of the net whenever it closed in, which was not often. She insisted on playing hide and seek, making the ocean experts look like kooks.

This game drew cheers, claps and laughs from the gathering audience on the cliffs above. 

The odds heavily favored the authorities, who came prepared with one person on a paddle board, another leashed to a surfboard, one small motor boat well-equipped with poles, lines and GPS, and a huge underwater net strung out to a flotation device.

Cindy's head popped out of the water as she grabbed -- otters have very dexterous arms and claws -- and appeared to nibble on the nose of the board. When the net came down, she was gone in a splash of sea water, only to pop up 20 yards away, seemingly with a big smile.

At times she climbed onto the surfboard, lying on her belly, just long enough to disappear into the deep when the net came near.

"They can't shoot her with a sedative because they're afraid she might drown," said one person who carried a camera with a telephoto lens and seemed to know what was going on. Presumably, he had spent the past few days on the cliffs, snapping photos and filling onlookers with information, including a photo that went viral and appeared in the New York Times, among other media, possibly Le Monde in Paris and the Albanian Daily News.

As the story goes, Cindy's mother gave birth to Cindy in the confines of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She was raised in captivity, but kept blindfolded when humans were around, so she wouldn't get too chummy with people. Apparently that didn't work. She obviously has other senses -- like smell, hearing, radar?

To date, Cindy the Sea Otter has not bit a person, although I had a nip of a scare this morning.

While paddling in on my surfboard I spied a head with long whiskers and pointed snout pop out of the water about 10 yards to my left. It was probably a sea lion but I did not want to take any chances, having visions of  Cindy appearing on the nose of my surfboard three-feet from my nose with her big teeth and sharp claws.

From what I've seen, she seems playful with a strong connection to us human beings. But I didn't want to be the first person to feel her bite. On the other hand, I could have tried talking to her in a soothing voice.

What did I do? I paddled like hell.

Cultural Appropriation and the News

PHOTO:BS

We all have our little nicks. By that I mean words or phrases that are supposed to insult, perhaps demean, most definitely dig into those who might not agree with us. Cultural appropriation is one such cliche started by the political right to dig into bleeding heart liberals. If it has any validity, then all those surfers you see out there are guilty of appropriating the ancient Hawaiian sport of kings. They're not Hawaiians.

Of course we all think we know everything, because we read it somewhere on social media or someone we agree with told us so, or maybe we read it in the all-powerful mainstream media (MSM for most critics). In that case we know it's not true, can't be trusted. Or perhaps you trust MSM. I do for the most part, but not completely.

I like the mainstream media, with all its faults and problems, which begin with the fact that it is supported by advertising, not the government. I studied mass media in school. Advertising is supposed to allow a free press. The mainstream media is our Fourth Estate -- beyond Executive, Legislative and Judicial -- that keeps check on those other guys.

This is a unique system in our world where government propaganda is the coin of the realm, so to speak. We see this in other super powers like Russia and China where criticism of the government will get you a free ticket to the gulag, or worse. Try it in Saudia Arabia and you may end up in pieces in a bag.

So let's give ourselves some credit, in the wake of our nearly 250th anniversary of independence from the British Monarchy, where -- "by the way," a famous phrase of our former President who casually knew everything -- the mainstream media primarily consists of the government sponsored BBC and the flamboyant tabloids, where one can be slashed and hashed, verbally, on the front page. If I were a Brit, I would trust the BBC first.

But here in the young and frolicky USA, we don't have to trust the government because we have a free press, expressed in many forms beyond MSM, starting with Cable News, a moderate spinoff that is still linked to MSM. Example: the same guy -- yes, basically one guy, Rupert Murdoch -- owns and runs both the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. The WSJ is at its outer core a business and financial publication. Fox News, at its outer core, is a news channel. RM, at his inner core is a business man with an unwavering hard-right political perspective, where anyone and everyone is expendable.

If you watched the award-winning  HBO series Succession, you got an artistic glimpse into the world and ways of the RM family empire. Yes, it's ruthless and privileged and very interesting. This is our upper class in action. Maybe not as polished and refined as the British Monarchy, but every bit as powerful. It is one aspect of our Free Press.

We recently had a President who comes from this same privileged class, with the same posse of lawyers, investments and family. He has a name that has become a brand, which earns his fortune.

Incidentally, the two power brokers are currently having a spat. RM called the Former Guy a three-time loser after the results of the 2020 Midterm Elections in which the the endorsements of the FG went down in flames. This, two years after he lost the Election, which he, "by the way," claims he won. When you get to this level of influence, you can say whatever you want. And people believe it! It's a phenomena.

Who and what do these characters really care about? Their fortunes, of course. To believe anything else is foolhardy. If one can't leverage the other, insult him. Kick him into the dump heap. You're fired!

Enter the online world and social media, captained by the titans of tech, the revenge of the nerds, the would-be world dominators. It's a whole new ball game. It's as though the pitcher moved to right field and the right fielder moved to short stop. Every position changed, whether they knew how to pitch, catch or who to throw the ball to. They've thrown everything off.

The money comes easy for these guys, mainly through, you guessed it, advertising. We love products and these geniuses are placing those things we covet on the screen right in front of our eyes, behind which our desires fume.

You want to know the truth, what really happened? Google it. Although I've been told by one source that "Google is not a neutral actor." Here enter emoji face with eyebrows lifted and mouth like a black hole.

Everybody and anybody can basically say whatever they want. You like conspiracies? They're like candy to a baby. You want to find out what causes autism?  Have at it. It's your oyster, now baby. Short of shutting down the internet, governments of the world don't know what to do. Is George Soros behind this? That's one truth. There are now many truths. It could be an alien, your next door neighbor or Dr. Fauci. Everything and everybody is suspect. The famed Kennedy family has a wild card in their deck who wants to be President.

I have no idea what's going to happen. I do know that the guy who owns Meta, which includes FB, Instagram and now Threads (competitor to Twitter and the Joker of Tesla), looks like an alien, is buying up property on the island of Kauai and may soon own the island, and possibly rename it Zuck Island (my guess). He recently donated $75 million to the city of San Francisco's only public hospital, now named Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, where, according to the hospital's Website, "Everyone is welcome, no matter your ability to pay, your insurance or immigration status."

It beats Trump Tower. Did Murdoch miss the boat? Does this mean that advertising wins? Is it true? 

Believe what you want. I'm heading to the surf for a little cultural appropriation. Maybe strum my ukulele afterwards. The ukulele came from Portugal, you know, the Hawaiians appropriated it. And made it their own.