Interview With Jeremiah O’Brien, Member Of The Board Of Directories Of The Morro Bay Maritime Museum
Todays Article Will Include An Interview With Jeremiah O’Brien, A Review Of Coleman Beach As Well As Morro Rock Beach, & A Segment On the Economy Of Morro Bay.
One of our field agents interviewed Jeremiah O’Brien, a member of the Board of Directors of the Morro Bay Maritime Museum. Mr. O’Brien is also on Morro Bay’s Harbor Advisory Board, Vice President of a Morro Bay sport fishermen’s group, and has been an avid sport fisherman for decades. He is highly involved in other community activities in the town of Morro Bay, and has lived in the area for more than 40 years.
Mr. O’Brien talked about some of Morro Bay’s unique characteristics, such as the bay’s unique currents. He said that a common saying in Morro Bay is “If you learn to run a boat in Morro Bay, you can run one anywhere in the world.” He noted that Morro Bay boaters experience lots of collisions. Mr. O’Brien also mentioned that the temperature variation in Morro Bay is less than that experienced in other nearby communities, such as Athascadero, where it often gets much hotter than Morro Bay in the summer.
We speculate that the fog our field agents have observed in Morro Bay contributes to the bay and town being relatively cool on many days when nearby parts of California experience temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. We also speculate that the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant also helps in this regard by providing power without generating air pollution. The Diablo Canyon plant does cause other problems, though, some of which are further explained below.
Morro Bay’s museums also help to showcase the area’s unique characteristics, and Mr. O’Brien also mentioned a “hierarchy” of museums in the Morro Bay area that works together, and with the area’s historic Native American tribes. The “hierarchy” cooperates to improve the area’s museums. We believe that this “hierarchy” creates more opportunities to identify problems to research, and then research them. We also believe that museums in a geographic area should form cooperative groups, which can help the museums to lobby together, share information, and improve and learn from each others’ exhibits and resources. This is especially important if the individual museums in the group have limited resources, which might be the case in a relatively small community like Morro Bay.
A museum can also learn about one field from information that another museum displays about a different field. For example, the other museums in the Morro Bay area can learn from the Morro Bay Maritime Museum’s Oral History project, because the oral history archives might include useful information about the way that marine life and its behavior in the Morro Bay area, and has changed in the last 150 years.
Here is a hypothetical illustration of how oral history and individuals’ personal records that were not part of “official” histories or scientific journals can tell us more about marine life: Mr. O’Brien stated that he has seen whales in Morro Bay only 3 times in his 42 years there. Our field agent thinks this makes sense because Morro Bay’s maximum depth is less than 30 feet deep, and the bay has a narrow entrance. However, if, oral histories from a long-ago period show that whales in that time came into Morro Bay much more or much less often, than they do today, this may indicate a (perhaps previously unknown) change in the area’s marine life.
The Morro Bay Maritime Museum has also helped its research capabilities by developed many good relationships with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the closest of the California State University (CSU) universities to Morro Bay, which allow students and professors at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to collaborate with the Morro Bay Maritime Museum (and possibly other museums) on research.
Mr. O’Brien also discussed conservation measures’ impact on Morro Bay. He said that stocks of brownfish and groundfish have recovered dramatically since commercial fishing on brownfish and groundfish from 30 to 100 fathoms deep (180 to 600 feet deep) was banned. Fishing of brownfish and groundfish has been limited within a conservation zone that extends from Canada to Mexico. Mr. O’Brien cannot think of any changes to the marine animals in and around Morro Bay since 2010 that were not natural cycles. Our field agent did not ask him what he meant by “natural cycles”.
Mr. O’Brien’s experience suggests that conservation efforts targeted at specific species have gotten good results, and that the environmental regulations targeting Morro Bay are helping the environment and reducing human impacts on Morro Bay. However, we suggest that “natural cycles” may affect some species negatively, such as predators relying on a food supply that a natural cycle has disrupted. We also suggest that the Morro Bay Maritime Museum collection of videos, photographs, and oral history archives might give researchers more long-term information about natural cycles that affected Morro Bay in the past, and that might return in the future.
The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant has provided both benefits (Such as power and reduced air pollution observed by our field agents) and problems (Heat pollution of the nearby ocean, which Mr. O’Brien discussed) to the Morro Bay area. Mr. O’Brien explained that the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant draws water from the ocean for cooling. It returns the cooling water to the ocean, but the returned cooling water is much warmer, because the plant used it to absorb heat. Mr. O’Brien stated that this heated returned water “cooks” the larvae of many marine species. It also leads to decreased oxygen solubility in the water, which affects other species. Mr. O’Brien noted that the warmed water mixes with cooler water from the ocean, but also guesstimated that the warmer water may affect a zone up to about half a mile from the place where it is returned to the ocean. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the owner of the Diablo Canyon plant, settled a lawsuit over the environmental damage caused by the heated water for $8 million, and this money was paid to a group called Legacy Foundation, which used the money to build marine conservation areas.
Mr. O’Brien also talked about some of Morro Bay’s new improvements, which will hopefully help the people and economy there while limiting damage to the natural environment. The City of Morro Bay started getting an allocation of additional fresh water from the State of California. Fresh water will also be force-pumped into Morro Bay’s aquifers, and Mr. O’Brien believes that this will be good for the city in times of drought.
A new water reclamation plant is also being built in Morro Bay to capture impurities in the water that travels into Morro Bay from human activities like irrigation and urban water use.
Mr. O’Brien believes that any water that the reclamation plant sends back into the ocean will be “very clean”, which means that impurities are less likely to hurt the marine life there.
Mr. O’Brien said that the water in Morro Bay, and the surrounding ocean, is checked “all the time”, partly because there are two aquaculture facilities, oyster farms, in Morro Bay. These two facilities, at least twice a week, produce publicly available reports on the water that they use.
There are also plans to build the largest lithium battery storage facility in the world, underground, in the Morro Bay area.
Discussions are taking place regarding building an offshore wind-power farm in Morro Bay, the first in California. The sport-fishing industry has legitimate concerns that they will be hurt by the offshore wind farm, and that the farm will drive marine life away and make navigation more difficult. Mr. O’Brien, and others, are therefore trying to arrange some form of “mitigation” to make sure that the sport-fishing industry in the area continues to exist. This shows that even if something is designed to help the environment overall, it still may have bad effects for some groups, so those groups need to be represented in the planning process. Damage to those groups should also be mitigated, if possible.
Coleman Beach & Morro Rock Beach Review.
We Decided To Review A Few Of The Beaches In The Small Beachfront Town Known As “Morro Bay”. Here Are The Reviews Of The 2 Beaches We Went To, Aswell As Some Of The Sea Life You Can Find Along The Beaches.
Coleman Beach Review:
Beautiful Beach. The Water Was A Bit Murky & Was Much To Cold To Swim In But It Was Beautiful. They Have Many Kayaking Programs In Morro Bay & This Is A Popular Spot To Go Off Of In The Bay.
It Has Many Rocks Along The Beach & The Sand Is Very Fine. Some Of The Sea Life That Frequents Coleman Beach & The Bay Are But Not Limited To: Seals, Sea Lions, Otters, Cloudy Bubble Snail, Sea Stars, Geese, & The Chipmunks That Live In The Rocks. When You Go To Coleman Beach You Will Notice Many Fat Chipmunks Along The Rocks, There Are Plentiful & They Live In Little Burrows & Caves Beneath The Rocks. There Are Also Many Otters That Are Grouped Together, The Otters Typically Sleep There For A While Then Go Up To The Harbor Across The Bay. You May Also Find Geese Occasionally. If You Walk Along The Harbor Or Visit The Maritime Museum, You May Hear Sea Lions Bellowing At Each-other. They Make Almost Barking Sounds & We Have Yet To Determine The Meaning Of Them. So If You Walk Along The Habor Be Prepared To Hear Sea Lion Noises Disrupting Your Brunch.
Morro Rock Beach Review:
Very Strong Current But An Overall Surreal Experience. Not Crowded At All, But There Was A Jelly Fish Washed A Shore. It Is A Beautiful Beach With An Astounding View Of Morro Rock. With Blue Waters & Temperatures In The Low 60s You Can’t Beat This Wonderful Location.
The Fishing Industry Of Morro Bay & The Economy Of The Bay
Morro Bay Has A Vast Fishing Industry As It Is Waterfront & Has A Bustling Harbour. However The Oceans Around Morro Bay Are Unpredictable & Rocky. The Current Has An Odd Pattern Which Causes Many Accidents In The Harbour Which They Have A Saying For; If You Can Run A Boat In Morro Bay You Can Run A Boat Anywhere In The World. The Oceans Are Vastly Unpredictable Causing Many Issues For The Fisherman Of The Bay. As Our Interview With Jeremiah O’Brien States, “We Are Hoping To Come Up With A Solution So That The Fishing Industry Isn’t Completely Wiped Out.”. Because The Fishing Industry Is Such A Vast Source Of Cash For Most In The Bay This Could Cause Catastrophic Issues. Fishing Is One Of The Main Sources Of Money For The Economy. The Economy Of Morro Bay Has Always Been Extremely Stable & Secure.
The Economy Of Morro Bay Has Always Been Well Due To The High Tourism Industry. The Average Median Household Income Of 2019 Is 68,262 Dollars , The 2020 Median Household Income Is 73,864 Dollars. Making The 2019 23,994 Dollars More Then The 2019 Median Household Income Of Miami Which Is 44,268 Dollars. As Well As Making Morro Bays 2020 Median Household Income 29,596 Dollars More Than Miami’s Median Household Income. The Property In Morro Bay Are Much Cheaper Then You Would Expect With The Average Of 2019 For Them Coming In At 607,300 Dollars. Morro Bay Has A Low Crime Rate, Nice Weather, & Stunning Beaches With Majestic Views.
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