This morning we broke into teams of 2 so we could monitor the otter raft and focus on individual otters at the same time. Mayuko and Andrew held down the fort at the otter raft, counting the otters every fifteen minutes and monitoring the boat traffic. Meanwhile Daniela, Cyndi, Mark and Andrew ventured into the slough to scout out new places to observe foraging otters. Cyndi and Andrew picked a spot and quickly lost their otter. After an hour without finding any other foraging otters, they returned to the harbor. At the harbor there were several foraging otters, as well as an amazing amount of kyakers. Labor Day weekend has brought people from far and near seeking the refuge of Elkhorn slough. Mark and Daniela had much better luck. They found a great spot at the end of a boardwalk where they could observe several otters while they foraged. We plan to use this location for our focal follows over the next month. Later this afternoon we switched gears and walked from Sea Cliff beach to our housing complex at Pajaro Dunes, taking GPS points along the way. We'll use this data to set marks along the coast in our GPS on the boat. This will help us navigate in the fog. The entire walk was about 15 miles and took us 4 hours to complete. We all will sleep well tonight!!