ENVIRONMENT: Manhattan Beach joins county, other cities to support the Marine Mammal Care Center
by Mark McDermott The Manhattan Beach City Council on Tuesday night unanimously agreed to help fund the Marine Mammal Care Center, the nonprofit organization based in San Pedro that rescues and rehabilitates sea lions and other wildlife, a mission that has become especially vital as toxic algal blooms have become more frequent. A number of factors led the MMCC to seek partnerships with cities and Los Angeles County. Dave Bader, the organization’s chief operations and education officer, told the council that historically about 85 percent of its funding came from individual donors, foundations, and corporate sponsors. “We’re looking to change that, mostly because of the additional funds needed to respond to an ever increasing number of strandings year after year,” Bader said. “Not just in emergency years, but in regular years, whatever that is now. We’re seeing more strandings from everything — from the toxic algae bloom that we’re seeing right now to animals that are entangled, malnourished pups, infectious diseases, shark bites, all of those things will come to us, and those are increasing year after year.” For thirty years, another nonprofit, Marine Animal Rescue, patrolled the…
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