Rachel Kippen, Our Ocean Backyard | Meet Elkhorn Slough’s ‘Sea Slug Queen’ - Santa Cruz Sentinel

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Lauren Kitayama is an avid ocean conservationist, outdoorswoman, artist and the Manager of Kayak Connection in Moss Landing. Throughout the ebb and flow of this past year, while downtown commerce areas felt like ghost towns, traffic slowed and beach concerts took a hiatus, our local parks, coasts, and trails filled with people. Elkhorn Slough was no different, and anyone who has driven down Highway One towards Monterey is likely familiar with the bright yellow kayaks sprinkled throughout the estuary.

Kayaking provided a safe and relaxing pastime, and Kayak Connection weathered multiple storms to keep their services going. “We closed for 70 days last year due to the pandemic and poor air quality from fires,” Kitayama tells me. “But we were very lucky. My staff is amazing. We worked hard and we were able to move our business outside, and reopen in May of 2020. And then we were busy. Like really freaking busy. We did almost 10% more rentals than in 2019. We were consistently booked out on the weekends.”

Kitayama, who is from Watsonville and whose family owns the cut flower nursery Kitayama Brothers, has spent her life immersed in nature. Growing up on her family’s coastal farm, which is a long-term partner and supporter of the state parks system and situated near Sunset State Beach, she has an intimate familiarity with the coastline and its connected wetland ecosystems, and has developed a deep sense of responsibility in caring for Nature; “Nature with a capital N”, she lovingly tells me. “I learned how to kayak on the slough when I was about 5 years old, and it is such an amazing ecological area that it never ever gets boring. If you get on the water in the early morning, or in the winter when no one else is willing to brave the rain, it’s one of the most amazing experiences.”

Kitayama says that having access to the slough was the reason she “didn’t go completely insane during the pandemic, and why staff was willing to work so hard day after day.” She says, “What we offered our customers was not just a chance to go kayaking, but a couple of hours to forget that the world was a mess.

Masks were not allowed on the water due to the risk of drowning, so for that short amount of time, families got to hang out in sunlight, fresh air, have fun, see wildlife and get away from it all. We have a handful of guides that regularly integrate mindfulness and meditation into their tours, and these were exceptionally popular this last year.” She continues, “The very cool thing was that we got more locals than normal, like people who lived nearby or had driven over the highway bridge for years but never stopped. They were always amazed by how much wildlife there is.”

Kitayama’s knowledge of Elkhorn Slough’s diverse organisms has given her quite the reputation along with some great nicknames, including “The Sea Slug Queen” due to her knack at finding and identifying sea slugs. “My favorite experience always revolves around people’s reaction to sea hares, the largest slug on the face of the planet. They can be 15 pounds and the size of a basketball. Most people have absolutely no idea that an animal like that exists, so they freak out when you let them hold it. Plus they are slimy – really, really slimy,” she says.

While Kitayama loves introducing all people to the slough, her favorite aspect of the job is bringing young children on the water to help them foster an appreciation for the environment, providing formative experiences outdoors similar to her childhood. “There’s amazing wildlife right here. Nature is often perceived as this far away thing that is unreachable, and that makes it hard for people to understand how their actions impact it.”

Kitayama has been passionate about marine debris since she was a high schooler at Aptos High. She obtained her undergraduate degree from UC San Diego in ecology and went on to receive a graduate degree in marine conservation with an emphasis on Marine Debris from the University of Miami.

While in Miami, she worked with Debris Free Oceans “tracking and mapping marine debris, taking an approach that looks beyond just the “oh no, there’s trash in the ocean!” to the “what trash is on this beach, whose trash is it, and how do we get those people to take responsibility.” She has brought her learning full circle, and incorporates debris tracking and corporate responsibility into her daily life.

“Like most environmental issues, there’s a lot of talk, and not a lot of meaningful action, and plastic pollution is complicated; a lot more complicated than most people think. We have to rebuild the entire recycling infrastructure and actually make it work, and recycling is not the solution. Single-use product consumption has skyrocketed during COVID because of fear over contamination,” says Kitayama.

She’s noticed trash entering the slough along its flooded banks at high tide, including items like plastic bottles, food wrappers, and plastic beach pails. “What I would like is for people to go to their workplaces and ask themselves how they can use less plastic at their business, including putting pressure on their suppliers to ship and package without it. For example, at Kayak Connection we’ve stopped selling any drinks in plastic bottles, and we’re working to find suppliers that will ship drinks without plastic. Thanks to Tim Ward, all of our stickers are shipped in paper envelopes, and I’m in the process of reaching out to our other various suppliers to pursue sustainable options.”

If that weren’t enough, Kitayama creates nature-inspired art depicting the wildlife found here in Monterey Bay and beyond, highlighting endangered species and drawing awareness to their beauty and fragility. For those interested in purchasing Kitayama’s designs, visit Redbubble.com. Kitayama invites the public to the annual Gerbera Festival at Kitayama Brothers Farms on June 19, benefiting Friends of State Parks and the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau Agricultural Worker Vaccine Program. This year the festival returns as “Gerbera-N-Go,” with pre-ordering online at thatsmypark.org.

Next time you drive down Highway 1, pull off before the bridge, pop in to say hello to the Sea Slug Queen, and consider exploring this dynamic marine protected area right in our own backyard.

Rachel Kippen is an ocean educator and sustainability advocate in Santa Cruz County and can be reached at singleuseplanet@gmail.com.

The Link Lonk


May 30, 2021 at 04:46AM
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Rachel Kippen, Our Ocean Backyard | Meet Elkhorn Slough’s ‘Sea Slug Queen’ - Santa Cruz Sentinel

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