CAVORTING AT BAKER BEACH (WE'RE TALKIN' 'BOUT... DOLPHINS*)

Did you know there's a regular pod of dolphins hanging out at Baker Beach?  Pretty damn amazing.  I saw these three in November when I was doing site visits as a committeemember advising the Presidio Trust about changes to the Coastal Trail.  

(My main recommendation was to start with a matrix of users and place typologies because, like so many other natural and coastal areas in San Francisco, there's such a broad range of visitors, i.e. tourists, birders, seniors, hikers, nudists.  And then the best re-design would address which places are best for what mix of users, rather than broadly making this narrow, steep ribbon of coast just a little better for everyone.)  

I'd read about the dolphins, and arrived early before the trail got busy and was just scanning the water while I waited.  And then they were there: jumping and moving about 150 feet offshore.  It was pretty amazing and really makes me appreciate how close nature is here in our city.

What reminded me about the Baker Beach dolphins were two separate radio interviews on KALW today; the local "Your Call" and "Earthbeat," a great Dutch environmental program, both featured the makers of "The Cove," the Academy Award-winning documentary about dolphin hunting in Japan, that we haven't seen yet, but want to very much (and are simultaneously a little afraid of--can anyone vouch for it???).  

What they described about the hunt was pretty frightening, and what they described about dolphins was pretty amazing.  Which reminded me of a great David Attenborough documentary on dolphins (with clips here in three different parts).  And an on-line conversation I'd had with my dear friend Dena about a scientist who considers dolphins "non-human persons" because of their intelligence. What do you think, or have you seen them?

*I'll do a post soon about a great hike we enjoy on a recently-reconstructed trail leading down to a small, beautiful, clothes-optional beach in the Presidio.