by Ranger Jim Serpa

The phone rang. It was Ranger Bob Wohl from Torrey Pines State Reserve. The verdict was in: the diseased beached gray whale at Blacks Beach had its full complement of baleen. My heart raced. I had been looking for such a find for the last eight years! I had spoken to Ranger Wohl only the day before at a training seminar in which he had told me about the whale. Even better was the fact the Marine Fisheries scientists had already taken whatever they had wanted.

I jumped in the truck with Ranger Lynn Holland and we made our way to Torrey Pines State Reserve. Just last month Ranger Holland and I had been on another gray whale run at San Onofre.

We arrived at Torrey Pines and were met by Ranger Bob Wohl and Ranger Allyn Kaye. Ranger Kaye climbed into our truck and we headed to the site. When we arrived we saw not one but two deceased whales. One, in ane extreme state of decay, and the other fully intact.

I approached the intact whale and was pleasantly surprised to find it didn't smell as bad as I thought it might. What a sad sight I thought as I strolled over to the whale. At least I could console myself knowing that the California Gray Whale's population was at an all-time high of 25,000.

I reached inside the whale's partially agape mouth and yanked on a piece of baleen. It was at that moment an extremely foul stench permeated the air. Ranger Holland and Ranger Kaye turned around and let out a loud cry of peee-yeww. Let me tell you, it really smelled, but I had my rack of baleen and that was all that mattered. I was persuaded by Ranger Kaye to reach in and get the other piece for Torrey Pines. I bent over, reached in and gave a second tug as Lynn and Allyn fled. Gee thanks, ladies.

On the ride back to Doheny I thought about the last encounter I had with a deceased whale. What I seemed to remember was the whale's skull crashing into my leg with a resounding thud that sent me flying into the sand. It was at this point that Ranger Lynn Holland stopped the truck and leaped out to see if I was OK. Besides a nasty strawberry and my wounded pride, I was no worse for wear.

The more important consideration was that we had finally pulled the last bit of flesh and blubber of the gray whale skull we had been working on for the last four hours. We have been trying to improve our collection of gray whale artifacts for many years, with some modest success. This was a chance we had been waiting for and I wasn't leaving until we had at least one new potential exhibit. Turns out we got two: a skull and a flipper.

Which gets me to the crux of this article: my unbridled excitement over what can best be described as "potential exhibits."

In the last 8 years I've been privy to some of the most disgusting sights and smells in my never-ending pursuit of interpretive tools and displays for Doheny. I've dived into dumpsters, written letter after letter asking for loans, carried "ripe" things in my backpack or trunk of my car far longer than you would every want to, striving for that one cool "piece." Whether it was the jaw of a huge bat ray that washed ashore in front of the campground, a sea lion skull that Ranger Jody Kummer gave me to clean, the deer skull my dog found or the pelican beach that Ranger Brad Keitzman and I stumbled across one night while chasing some potential poachers. Brad constantly remarks about the tales he'll tell at my retirement party.

Let's not forget about the white shark that washed ashore at San Onofre back in 1996. It was my day off. Ranger Lynn Holland knew I would be interested in at least looking at the shark and gave me a call at home. We had been informed it was a Mako, then a blue shark. As Supervising Ranger Doug Harding drove my wife Debbie and me to the spot, I let out a small shriek of delight when I noticed the mistake the others had made. In fact, Harding would later tell me that he'd figured something was up when I started to break into a sprint realizing it was the ultimate predator, a white shark.

Of course, I could take the whole animal. After all, it was a shade over eight feet and weighed so much that we could barely roll it over. I remember Harding and Debbie cringing when I told them I was going to see what the shark had been feeding on. I then proceeded to slice open its stomach. Both of them couldn't hide their curiosity and peeked around the animal after I had done the dirty work. Ah ha! I'm not so weird, I thought. The animal was in very bad shape and all we could salvage was its jaws. But what a tool it is for grabbing the attention of visitors at my campfire shows. A jaw from jaws!

Then there was the time former aquarium Park Aide Elaine Murray and I were going to pick up some dead animals she had stored in a local veterinary hospital's freezer for transport to our taxidermist. She walked in to get the freezer key as I waited outside by the vehicle. As she left the vet's building she motioned for my help. I was shocked; right next to our prize coyote and assorted foul in the deep freeze were several unknown pets that had died and were being kept temporarily.

Even after everything I have seen since taking this job (including a 40-hour homicide investigation class), I couldn't bear to see Fido and Rover in their frozen state. I helped with the coyote and let Elaine get the birds. Wimp, I told myself.

My wife knew she was dealing with a somewhat different personality when one day, while driving around Dana Point, we witnessed a "squirrel" get run over in front of us. As I drove past the limp animal, I thought the squirrel was slightly strange looking. I told her I wanted to swing back and take a closer look. Yuck! A strange voice kept telling me that something was amiss with that "squirrel." I instantly saw what was wrong...it wasn't a squirrel at all but, in fact, a long-tailed weasel! The poor thing had been quickly killed by the Jeep in front of us.

The animal was still warm as I picked it up. I had to fast talk Debbie into letting me wrap it up and place it in her car for an unscheduled trip to Doheny and the deep freeze. Being the understanding individual she is, she gave in.

Just last summer, a beachfront camper asked me if we had weasels in the park. He said he was sure he saw one attack a ground squirrel on the beach in front of his site. He described an animal that sounded like a weasel to me. I told him to check out the one in the Visitor Center. The next day he flagged me down and said "Your stuffed weasel looked exactly like the animal that attacked the squirrel." Yahoo! An exhibit that paid off.

We salvaged the sharks above the tide pool in much the same way. The turtle above the same exhibit had washed ashore at Huntington many years previous and had been relegated to dust collector in a back room at headquarters. It had broken two flippers as well as its tail. We salvaged it and took it to Living Designs Taxidermy to have it refurbished.

You might ask when did I become this body-snatching fiend. I guess I've always been fascinated by animals; that's why I minored in zoology in college. And my wife can tell you about my penchant for collecting things. Why, my garage has more than some natural history museums. But, it really manifested itself when I took over the reins as head of the aquariums. I had come from a wonderful Visitor Center at Torrey Pines State Reserve. When I saw just what I didn't have at Doheny, I set my mind on acquiring all I could to make our Center more complete. I tried my best, and I really enjoy hearing people commenting on what wonderful interpretive displays we have.

In case you think I only care about animals, I will look for shells, feathers, plants, and even rocks. In January, Ranger Brad Barker and I were at Crystal cove on a very low tide. As I poked around the pools, I came across a piece of rock about 4 feet by two foot wide and a couple of inches thick. No big deal, you say. Eau, Contrare. This rock was covered in a luxurious growth of sea grass. The problem was not picking it up; it probably weighed only 75 pounds or so. The problem was going to be carrying it back to the vehicle 300 yards away over slippery, slime-covered rocks. It was slow going, but we made it and it looked great in the exhibit, not to mention the animals in our tide pool loved it.

And do you know what I think? This collecting is somewhat contagious. I noticed that Vicki Walker was starting to come down with it while she was here and really caught the bug now that she is down at San Clemente. Sorry Vicki! Also afflicted are Edie Carhart, Lynn Holland, Jody Kummer and her husband Brian.