About this special issue ...
With a newsletter that's been around for twenty years, a special issue needs to have a real mission. In June this year, we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of ACS Monterey Bay as a chapter. The mission of this issue is to honor the woman we called our "founding mother," Mary Rodriguez, who passed away last August. Mary had represented the Hawaii chapter of ACS at national board meetings and had the idea for a Monterey chapter. She suggested its formation to a group of local folks in 1980: Alan and Sheila Baldridge, Randy and Gail Puckett, Alison Tomlin, Jud Vandevere, Tom Williams, and Steve Webster. Randy was the first chapter president and Tom was vice-president. Alison was treasurer and various people served as secretary. Mary wrote the first newsletter issues, served as the first program chairman and was a devoted board member until cancer weakened her. Mary's friend Hazel Sayers, from ACS National Headquarters, was speaker at the first meeting. Mary worked on most committees, folded newsletters, overcame people's objections about running for chapter offices, wore her yellow Beachwatch jacket with pride, and asked the most pointed questions at all the right times. A writer with great facility for words and wit, both in written and spoken language, she influenced all facets of the organization; she had a knack for expressing her reflections and persuasions in a pertinent, amusing manner.The method, then, to achieve the issue's mission is to elaborate on activities of the chapter that Mary especially enjoyed. These, of course, form a wide-angle lens on the wealth of marine diversity in the Monterey region. Because of the resourceful people who have shaped the chapter all these years, we have been able to look through that lens with clarity and understanding. Species of cetaceans seen locally present a source of amazement and inspiration to anyone with an interest in marine mammals. The monthly meetings draw on an impressive body of local work concerning these animals and their world. The cash awards (grants) to students for their degree projects are one entre into the area's research (see "The ACSMB Grants and Common Dolphin"). The children's whale watch experience was the essence of an interest in creating a way for cetaceans to touch peoples' lives (see "The Whales for Kids Program"). The bi-annual whale watches continue that opportunity in another way - and support the chapter's finances. Mary herself was an avid watcher of whales, and of other people watching whales (see "Blue Whales for the First Time"). Volunteers with beached marine mammals had another unique experience through Beachwatch, Seal Watch, and now Bay Net (see "Volunteers Don't Work for Nothing,"). Setting the stage is a continual alertness to events and studies that revise known facts about marine mammals (see "The Whale Year", "Blue Whales in Central California", and "Gray Whales and Humpbacks").
The special issue has had enthusiastic support from the ACS Monterey Bay board and busy people gladly wrote the articles. Alan and Sheila Baldridge have given the necessary depth to both the plans and the information. Evelyn Starr, our web master, gave her skills to the layout. She also has made sure all the articles and information from this special issue appear, sometimes at greater length, on the chapter's web site at: http://www.starrsites.com/acsmb/.
| Illustrations were chosen from the archive of Soundings, joyfully exhibiting again the work of Robert Western, Milos Radakovich and Robin Lee Makowski. If the issue successfully represents some of the marine wonders of Monterey, and the work of our founder and members, it must also be a prediction of another twenty years of meaningful work and high enjoyment. Happy Birthday, ACS Monterey Bay! |  |
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| - Esta Lee Albright, issue editor | ||
Illustration by Milos Radakovich