marla
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story about new expedition re Steinbeck's (long)
Copyright 2004 Monterey County Herald
All Rights Reserved
Monterey County Herald
March 25, 2004 Thursday
SECTION: Z_TOP_STORY
LENGTH: 948 words
HEADLINE: Science, letters to meet again in Sea of Cortez;
Adventurers set to start Friday
BYLINE: By JOE LIVERNOIS; jlivernois@montereyherald.com
BODY:
Ever since the epic research expedition to the Sea of Cortez was famously recorded by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, scientists and adventurers have
dreamed of replicating the journey.
A team of scientists will set out Friday on a weather-worn shrimper from Monterey Harbor to follow the path charted by the author and his marine
biologist pal 64 years and two weeks ago.
"This is not a re-creation," said William Gilly, a Hopkins Marine Lab professor who is taking a sabbatical to spend two months aboard the 73-foot Gus
D. "This is a retracing and an expanding of the journey Steinbeck and Ricketts took."
As storied as the Steinbeck-Ricketts expedition has become in the annals of science and literature, no one has tried to retrace the journey.
Steinbeck's account, "The Log from the Sea of Cortez," is considered the seminal fusion of animal science and human observation, not to mention a
rollicking sea adventure.
"When you read the book, you dream of doing something like this," said Jon Christensen, the obligatory writer on the modern journey. "We've had so
many people tell us they've always dreamed of doing it."
Even as the modern crew made its nearly last-minute preparations Wednesday in the Monterey Harbor, it still didn't seem real, Gilly said.
"It feels like getting married," he said. "You keep asking yourself if you're really going to be doing it."
If a storm doesn't blow in tonight or Friday, the crew of six will indeed embark on a two-month expedition that will take them to intertidal pools
along Baja California.
The trip has already been postponed twice. The group was initially set to leave two weeks ago, on the anniversary of the date Ricketts and Steinbeck
set sail in 1940, but bad weather intervened. The crew then scheduled the departure for today, but uncertain weather delayed the trip until Friday.
Once they do hit the seas, science and education will be at the heart of this journey, as they were for the Ricketts-Steinbeck trek. During their trip
aboard the Western Flyer, a Monterey-based fishing vessel, Ricketts and Steinbeck collected more than 540 species of marine life, including 50 no
scientist knew existed until Ricketts found them.
The two had known one another for 10 years before the trip. Steinbeck, the laconic Salinas native, had just released "Grapes of Wrath," which would
win the Pulitzer Prize. Ricketts, the scientist who operated Pacific Biological Laboratories on Cannery Row, had finished "Between Pacific Tides,"
which is still considered the bible for tidal research.
Ricketts was the not-so-loosely based model for the biologist character named "Doc" in Steinbeck's novel "Cannery Row."
Their journey to the Sea of Cortez may have been ground-breaking, but it turns out that Steinbeck and Ricketts were so busy gathering marine life and
enjoying life in Mexico that they didn't systematically record what they were collecting.
"We're going to be doing what we think Ricketts really wanted to do," Gilly said. "He wanted to record the structure of biological communities, where
the animals were living and the nature of their interdependence upon one another.
"We are going to be recording it, setting a benchmark for future studies. They were haphazardly collecting items and they recorded nothing
systematically."
The trip aboard the Gus D will include a heavy emphasis on education. Christensen will be logging updates daily on a Web site (www.seaofcortez.org
While in Mexico, the crew will invite school children to join them to collect specimens. Also along the way, the crew will be picking up Mexican
scientists, including the president of the Mexican National Institute of Ecology, to assist them in their research.
The base crew includes Christensen and Gilly, along with Chuck Baxter of Hopkins Marine Station and photographer Nancy Burnett. The skipper and owner
of the Gus D is Frank Donohue and the cook will be Sue Malinowski.
"For me, it's a chance to check out Mexico and run a boat without worrying about fishing," said Donohue, who is out of Morro Bay.
Donohue, a fisherman by trade, has been spending more of his time lately on scientific expeditions.
In fact, he met Gilly on a research trip a couple of years ago. Then Gilly met Christensen last year while Christensen was at Hopkins one day last
year on a journalism fellowship.
Christensen said he and Gilly got to talking about the Ricketts-Steinbeck trip and they shared their dreams of following the course.
Gilly said he knew a guy who had a boat, one thing led to another, and the dream is becoming a reality.
Donohue said he had never read Steinbeck's "Log from the Sea of Cortez," but read it recently. "It was my homework," he said.
The trip is underwritten with grants from various science foundations, including the Nature Conservancy and the Ocean Foundation.
Better yet, the journey has attracted private sponsors who have donated gear and beverages, including 72 cases of beer from North Coast Brewing in
Ukiah.
"I spent the morning loading the beer," Gilly boasted on Wednesday.
"What I'm looking forward to is seeing things I know are going to be fantastic, exciting and mysterious," Gilly said. "I want to see all I can and we
hope we can see it through more of a modern point of view."
Gilly insists that since the trip is not a re-creation, he is not going to tolerate a lot of deep discussions on board.
"I'm not going to give myself a lot of time to philosophize like they did," Gilly said.
Gilly said he loaded his own skiff on the Gus D so he can shove off with a fishing pole and some beer if the rest of the crew starts jabbering too
much.
Joe Livernois can be reached at 753-6753.
LOAD-DATE: March 25, 2004
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academicanarchist
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Great Story
I was born in Alameda, but raised in Ben Lomond in the Sta Cruz Mts. We have relatives in Watsonville area, and my mother taught public school in
Watsonville for many years. Salinas was like my backyard, and the gateway to the Sta Lucia Mts. Back in the late 1930s, my Dad was an English major at
UC Berkeley. They had a guest lecturerer in the class, a certain well known novelist from Salinas.
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wilderone
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I can't believe they're taking "72 cases of beer from North Coast Brewing in Ukiah." They'll never get the Baja feeling drinking that stuff.
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Mike Humfreville
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Marla
I've been waiting for this and checking in on their web page periodically. Now it sounds like they're really underway.
I just wanted to say thanks to you for frequently posting Baja information you see as a result of working with the news. I know many of us appreciate
your efforts.
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