The crab net came up a large decorator crab (they're covered in a Velcro-like substance that they stick rocks, shells, kelp, etc. too) as well as a nice collection of bat stars. We saw a raft of otters as well as sea lions and harbor seals.

We also talked about the Great Pacific Garbage patch (comprised of the Eastern and Western Pacific Garbage patches in the pacific gyre) which is small pieces of plastic strewn across an area twice the size of Texas ( http://science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm ). The real beast is that the plastic becomes even smaller as it photo degrades and sea animals consume the plastic. I can see why the UN Environment minister is seeking to ban plastic bags worldwide as a starting point to addressing this. Interestingly, there's a group that's just started a research expedition to test the feasibility of treating the plastic and converting it into diesel (www.projectkaisei.org). Lots of food for thought.

We caught a $40 15-minute taxi ride back to Moss Landing (we preferred to think of it as an incremental $17 taxi ride- it would have cost us $23 and about 2 hrs to take a bus from Monterey to Moss Landing via Salinas-it sure is hard to provide mass transit in rural areas). Of course, there happened to be ANOTHER party at the Elkhorn Yacht Club that we "commuted" to by dinghy- Stef was celebrating is 60th birthday. We were, of course, made to feel welcome to that event too!