This Week on the Central Coast…
A new species of sponge, Bach festival, a pesky sea otter, and plenty of adoptable animals.
Monterey
86th Annual Carmel Bach Festival
Carmel’s Bach Festival started in 1935 inspired by the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. When it was first celebrated, the festival was a four-day concert event. Now, it has grown into a two-week celebration which includes master classes and lectures in addition to the many concerts.
This year’s festival includes many free events happening throughout the week until the final day on Friday, July 28. A complete list of the free events can be found in the article. If you want to see a list of all events, paid and free included, You can find it at the official Bach Festival website.
Pacific Grove hopes to honor a historic group of soldiers
The 54th coastal artillery regiment was the only all-black unit during World War II. They were highly undervalued. They wore hand-me-down uniform and had to sleep on the ground despite there being a barracks nearby. After the events of Pearl Harbor, the US was worried about the coastline. Even with the setbacks, the unit bravely defended the coast from potential attacks The 54th “also defended the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Harbor and millions of tons of cargo.”
Many of the soldiers returned to the area after the war. One soldier, Russel R. Dawson, settled in Santa Cruz and became the first African American mail carrier in the city.
Santa Cruz placed a memorial dedicated to the 54th in 2009. “Dirrick Williams with Black Leaders and Allies Collaborative grew up in Pacific Grove but never knew about the 54th until recently.” He would like to see a similar Memorial created in Monterey.
New species of sponge named after Monterey sanctuary
A newly published scientific report described a previously undiscovered species of sponge in the Monterey Bay. Megaciella sanctuarium is named after the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. An additional 11 species of sponge were also reported, each named by the researchers themselves. The researcher, Tom Turner, “named one sponge species after the indigenous Rumsen people of Monterey, one after the town of Carmel, and one after nearby Point Lobos.”
Turner and an ecologist from the Marine Sanctuary co-authored the paper, remarking about how much more there is to explore in the depths of the ocean. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is one of the largest marine sanctuaries in the country.
Santa Cruz
The infamous otter is still evading capture
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife partnered with the Monterey bay Aquarium to try to capture an otter that has been causing a stir in the area. The otter, named Otter 841 (missed opportunity for 831, in my opinion…), gained notoriety for hijacking surfboards. “She now has a growing fan club, with people showing up every day to get a glimpse of her spending time sunbathing on the rocky shore, diving in the water and chomping down on crabs.”
The otter program manager at the aquarium explained that Otter 841 has become more wary of the nets as the efforts to catch her have gone on. She’s become more and more difficult to catch as she’s wisened up to their tricks.
The otter was raised in captivity and released in 2020. The otter’s aggressive behavior could be due to hormonal changes or because of being fed by humans. Southern sea otters are endangered and play a key role in the local ecosystems, maintaining sea urchin populations, which devour the kelp forests.
A Santa Cruz fourth grader won a National invention competition
Aarov Patel created a backpack that alerts him when one or more items are missing. The CheckPak is a digitized backpack, complete with remote control and simple circuitry. An LED light in the backpack glows green when all the items are gathered inside and red when at least one is missing. The CheckPak uses “a wireless communications system that uses electromagnetics and radio frequency to find an object within a certain distance.” If he can’t find the items, he can press a button on the remote to make the missing item beep.
Patel won first place at the National Invention Competition in Michigan and qualified to compete in the Americas Invention Competition, which includes the US and Mexico.
“I want to be an engineer when I grow up. So for me, this was an amazing experience,” he said. “I was very excited because I wanted to go through the invention process. I wanted to, I guess, like, change the world.”
Salinas
Sweet Rebas announced plans for a second location.
Reba Wilson and her husband have begun building a second location in Oldtown Salinas. The new shop will be triple the size of their current location in Carmel and is across from Alvarado Street Brewery.
Wilson is excited to have more space and says it will allow them to expand the menu into savory items, which they had intended to do all along.
As always, she says the focus is on locals first. “So many businesses go after the almighty tourist dollar,” she says. “It was really important to Mike (her husband) and I to do stuff for the people who live here all year.
Once again, Hitchcock Road Animal Services is at over-capacity
After the COVID lockdowns ended, Hitchcock Road Animal Services experienced an influx of stray pets. Now, after the Fourth of July, they’re completely full again. “We have dogs that are currently being housed inside our receiving room, which is not what that room is intended for. We have some litters of dogs that are being housed together in kennels,” said the supervisor for the shelter.
The shelter is waiving a majority of their fees in order to let people come pick up their missing pets. As is the case across the state, a majority of the dogs are larger breeds.
The shelter also suggested that people can become foster parents to the animals and they have a “pay it forward” program, which allows you to pre-pay the adoption fees for a pet. Information about the shelter and images of adoptable pets can be found on the county’s site.