The Akumalian

The Akumalian

Akumal's Newsletter for its Extended Global Community
Quintana Roo, Mexico

Charles Shaw & Kate Robinhawk Say "Goodbye"

On Wednesday, April 25, a small contingent of friends and well wishers gathered at the Lol Ha Beach Bar to bid farewell to Charles Shaw and Kate Robinhawk, who are leaving Akumal for the sunny shores of Monterey, California.

Charles reports, "Yes, it is true, we are leaving Mexico and returning to the States after nineteen years here. I have accepted a summer contract with the BLM in Monterey, California, through the Geocorp program of the Geological Society of America. Geocorp is a program to place experienced geologists in National Parks and other federal land programs with the purpose of broadening public awareness of the role geology in our national life. The program that I will carry out is mandated by the charter of the California Coastal National Monument, created by executive order by President Bill Clinton. The Coastal National Monument includes thousands of islands off the California coast, the famous kelp beds and birthing places of seals and sea otters, as well as such well known sites as Big Sur, Cape Mendicino and the beaches at Monterey and other places. I will develop a text for the entire coast that will be published on the CCNM web site and help visitors to the Monument understand the unique California geology, including the San Andreas Fault, the Coast Ranges, plate subduction and the unique low temperature-high pressure metamorphism that happens there and around the Pacific Rim.

Kate has volunteered to be a Seal Mommie, other things too, but this is very different. Seal Mommies hold abandoned baby seals in the water in tanks in the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, also part of the BLM. The babies need to be cuddled after they are born, and if their birth mom is irresponsible, the Sanctuary uses human substitutes. Is that not cool?"

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