FogHorn - April 23, 2015 (May 02, 2015)

Stories

FogHorn April 23 Meeting

Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay

FOGHORN

April 23 Program

Article by Bill Johnston

Ralph Ely introduced Gerry Mc Chesney who is the manager of the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge. The Farallon NWR is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. His jurisdiction covers the Farallon Islands; the surrounding water is administered by NOA. The islands are located about 30 miles west of San Francisco and they consist of the South Islands, middle island, north islands and noonday rock.

Sir Francis Drake landed on the islands to collect provisions on August 3 1579 following his repair stop in Drakes Bay. In the early 19th century Marine mammal hunters would leave crews on the island to harvest seals. Ultimately, this resulted in the decimation of the northern fur seal population which was prized for its fine pelt. In the late 19th century, in connection with the gold rush, the islands became a primary source for eggs. Common Murres would lay their eggs on the rocky shelves and those eggs were easy picking. It is estimated that there were 1 million murres on the island. The commercial egg harvesting operation resulted in that population dropping to approximately 6000. A lighthouse was established on the island in 1855 and in the early 20th century lighthouse keepers as well as the United States Navy radio station resided on the island. In 1969 the lighthouse was automated and the islands were taken over by the Fish and Wildlife Service which is part of the Department of Interior.

The mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service is to provide habitat conservation for wildlife. There are National Wildlife Refuges in every state of the union. In the San Francisco Bay area there are seven refuges totaling 50,000 acres. The Farallon NWR was created in 1909 by Teddy Roosevelt as a preserve for the breeding birds. Originally it only included the north islands, the middle islands and Noonday Rock. In 1969 the South Island was added. Farallon NWR consists today of 211 acres. Of which 141 acres is designated as wilderness. The exception to the wilderness designation is the largest island, South East Farallon. Gerry Mc Chesney is assigned as the halftime manager and he has a full-time assistant. The Farallon NWR partners with Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) to provide protection, monitoring, research and management of the refuge. PRBO maintains a full-time presence on the southeast island utilizing two old lighthouse houses that are more than 100 years old. The primary programs are seabird and mammal monitoring, white shark monitoring, invasive plant control and seabird habitat research. Access is primarily by boat. PBO uses volunteer boat operators. There is no dock. They use a small boat which comes out from the island to ferry passengers and supplies to the island. A crane actually lifts the little boat onto the island.

Some of the species of bird life on the Farallon Islands include cormorant, murre, puffins, gulls and auklets. There are approximately 350,000 birds that nest on the island. It is the largest seabird nesting area in the lower 48 states. Today the common murre has recovered from a low of 6000 birds to 250,000 birds. There are five species of seals. The first northern fur seal pup in 150 years was born in 1996. Since then the northern fur seal population has been increasing at an exponential rate. There are two species which are endemic to the Farallons. They are a camel cricket and a salamander. White sharks congregate around the island in the fall months to feed on young elephant seals that are on the islands to molt.

The data collected on the island is correlated with other data to provide predictive information. There appeared to be a relationship between common murre nesting and the gillnet fishery which led to changes in the regulation of that industry. Similarly, cassin's auklet nesting patterns proved to be a predictor for the salmon stocks the following year. This is because both the birds and fish are krill feeders.

This presentation was very well received and very informative.

April 23^rd - Meeting Notes

Article by Ginger Minoletti

•Call to Order - Dianne

•Flag Salute – “This Land is Your land” – in honor of Earth week led by Dianne

•Greeters and Inspirational Moment: PP Mitone Griffiths and

Tony Roehrick quoting Mother Teresa – "People are often unreasonable and self-centered, forgive them anyway…."

• Polio Jar for "I Want to End Polio" – We collected $117.23 from last week’s joint meeting.

• Guests –Sonia Temple (John Evans) Fulbright Scholar to Harvard looking for a Rotary Scholarship.

Linda Croce-Andersen should be her last time as a guest since she has submitted her application for - membership.

Happy/Crappy News –Robin – he and Freda celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary,

and he gave to the HMB Foundation.

Liz – thanks to Bo for speaking at the joint meeting.

When her dad was courting her mom – he predicted that someday we would land on the moon.

Her grandfather thought he was a little touched. Landed on the moon on her father’s birthday.

Ej and Rose just celebrated their 26^th anniversary

Mitone bragging about Mia and her swimming the 500 freestyle in a great time.

Dan Miller YMCA cleanup at Jones Gulch was a pleasure.

"It is ALL about What We Do" Star of the Week to Stacy for all she does with wonderful articles on Rotary in the Half Moon Bay Review. Joe got his star to add to his Pasta Award for the Polio Spaghetti Dinner earlier in the year.

Announcements:

Andrew – May 5^th is non-profit giving day. YMCA & others will be looking for funds.

Dan Miller – Carter Park cleanup April 25th UPDATE: Dan said it was a beautiful morning. He and Paul are happy campers trimming and raking away.

• District Conference: (May 1-3 Disneyland)

- Rotary & Chamber at the High School May 18^th – 22^nd. Charise is looking for volunteers to help with the interviews the 22^nd 8:40 am to 1:50 pm .

- Andrew – we are not doing Dream Machines – but look for us next year.

- Debunking will be Thursday evening, June 25^th.

- Shana – Relay for Life – team is up and running with $850 raised to date.

- Dianne showed the YouTube video "The Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan that Bo was going to end with at our Joint meeting, but the electrical outage prevented that. Irwin had recommended it to him. It was especially fitting today since

it was the day after "Earth Day".

Meeting Recap April 16 Joint Club Dinner Meeting

Views from Space - Joint Meeting Dinner

Article by Joe Brennan

Astronaut Karol “Bo” Bobko delivered an enthralling visual and aural presentation to the assembled members of the

Pacifica, Millbrae and Half Moon Bay Rotary Clubs at their annual joint dinner meeting.

As the evening began, we all joined in singing the

"Star Spangled Banner" and John Evans inspired

us with comments about the gift of living on this

remarkably beautiful coastside.

President Dianne Bobko then introduced DG Chris Gallagher and Assistant DG Glen Rojas and DG Elect 2016-17, Jeri Fugimoto. Next was the introduction of the Presidents of the Rotary Cubs of Pacifica and Millbrae, Linda Jonas and Carrie Chinn. They, in turn, introduced their members and guests. Dianne had all of the Rotarians and guests from Half Moon Bay stand. Linda Jonas announced that, at the suggestion of her Club Board and members, the three clubs had joined together to purchase a Shelter Box. Carrie Chinn mentioned that her Club is hoping this will become an annual joint project. Dianne explained that this Shelter Box will be deployed to a future disaster area and the Clubs will be notified when and where it is deployed and will be able to follow it to the destination.

After everyone enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Catherine and David Yaque and crew from Seville Tapas of Princeton, President Dianne introduced the program and our speaker…without notes! Bo and Dianne met in Colorado when he was in the Air Force Academy. After becoming a test pilot, he was accepted as an astronaut into our space program where he serves to this day albeit part time now. Bo was the pilot of the first Challenger mission and commander of two additional Space Shuttle missions and is the only Astronaut to have flown on the initial flights of two different Shuttles, Challenger and Atlantis.

Bo opened with a delightful video of a band (Bare Naked Ladies) playing on stage with

another musician on a video screen in the background - Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield playing

aboard the International Space Shuttle (ISS). Then Bo very effectively presented still images paired

with notable quotes from a host of international astronauts to treat us for a few minutes to the view

he enjoyed from space and a sampling of the thoughts evoked by such beauty and wonder. Bo has

served as president of the American Astronaut Group of the Association of Space Explorers

(the professional association of Astronauts, Cosmonauts, and Taikonauts from around the world),

and has been involved in international space activities and interaction most of his career, so many

of the quotes were from personal friends of his.

We were treated to views of river systems, weather systems, islands, glaciers, mountain ranges,

cities at night etc. from the unique perspective of orbit. I nearly wrote that they were "other worldly"

but caught myself because they are in fact “our worldly”. Bo spoke to the understanding that

perspective generates - one’s appreciation, gratefulness and reverence for the planet we live upon.

After the video and slide show the lights came up for questions. He was asked to talk us through the launch process to

which he quipped "have you got five or ten minutes?” The audience of course did and hung on his every word as he launched into the events following breakfast on launch day. After getting suited up they are driven to the launch pad where it was immediately obvious that it was not just another day. Normally there are a hundred technicians, inspectors, etc. swarming

over everything to make it ready…on launch day there are only the two attendants driving them out, assisting them aboard

and buckling them in. He proceed with the riveting sequence of events preceding launch. As he got down to launch minus

10 seconds the lights of the Senior Center went out and the feeble emergency egress lights blinked on - a very dramatic

moment, like it had been planned to endorse and emphasize the gravity of the moment in his narration. Emergency

responders were soon driving by with lights and sirens blazing, Bo soldiered right on with the story despite the power failure

and it being half dark outside - taking us moment by moment right up into orbit with him. He noted in sequence the noise

and vibration levels, the g-forces they were experiencing, the duties they had to attend to and communicate to mission

control etc. It was Grand!

Bo answered a number of other questions from the audience; explaining the reentry flight strategy, what geo synchs orbits are, why they go into space (to put satellites in orbit and facilitate a hundred(s) science experiments on board etc.

The audience was most appreciative of Bo’s prepared presentation plus his gracious and generous handling of the questions of which there was no end in sight.

Word came from Cara Schmaljon, Director of the Coastal Senior Center, suggesting due to the power outage that we bring things to a close before it got too dark outside. We turned to clearing the tables and by the time that was done the power was restored. We later learned that a vehicle had knocked down a utility pole within a block of our meeting.