by Garth Meyer
They returned three to the ocean, and picked up two more March 20, as part of a “patient release event” of rehabilitated sea lion pups in Redondo Beach by the Marine Mammal Care Center.
The malnourished animals spent six weeks to two months under care in San Pedro, after being found in the South Bay on the sand or rocks, “exhausted with no strength left,” said MMCM chief executive John Warner.
The young sea lions got that way because their mothers went out to the open ocean to hunt, and for one reason or another, never came back. The pups, too young to know how to hunt on their own, became weak and underfed.
Pushed onto shore by waves, they were unable to get back into the water.
“We never know what causes the maternal separation,” Warner said.
The three sea lions released last week in front of a crowd by the Redondo Beach Pier were about six months old when found. Young sea lions normally spend their first nine to 12 months accompanied by their mothers, who gives birth to only one at a time.
“You can see the ribs,” Warner said of the state the pups often when they are found.
Once taken to Marine Mammal Care Center (MMCC), the staff feeds them “fish smoothies” first, then small pieces of fish, then whole fish.
The San Pedro operation does six to eight publicized releases per year, with others ongoing.
“The big events we invite people because we live in a world where good news is not as voluminous as the bad,” Warner said. “We want people to experience the joy of these animals returning home.”
State Senator Laura Richardson (D-District 35) was also on hand last Friday, announcing a bill to designate the sea lion California’s official state pinniped (seal-class animal).
“It’s no added protection, but additional conservation P.R.,” Warner said.
The MMCC was formed in 1992, originally funded by the sale of the former Marineland amusement park in Palos Verdes.
Sea lion mothers who do not return to their young from a 2-3-4-day hunt may have been killed by a shark or orca, “or a first-time mother might just not come back; that happens,” Warner said.
Once a rehabilitated young sea lion returns to the ocean, neither the mother nor the pup will seek each other out, Warner explained, since the pup, which has tripled or quadrupled its body weight in San Pedro, is able to now find food itself, and the species’ mothers do not keep a long-term bond with their young.
To confirm first that the rehabilitated animals can hunt on their own, MMCC does fish tests in a pool to observe the sea lions chasing live prey (herring for its fat content), amongst other competing predators.
“Fishing is not an innate skill,” Warner said.
Once a rescued animal is cleared to return to the ocean, MMCC puts flipper tags on them.
“We do not see very many re-strands,” said Warner.
Most of the sea lions are likely born in the Channel Islands, which includes Catalina, where 85 percent of California sea lions originate.
The MMCC has 28 animals being rehabilitated now, including the two elephant seal pups picked up last Friday – one north of the Redondo Beach Pier and one at Torrance’s RAT beach.
The Center will hold its next release event in Venice in May, followed by another in Mid-May or June in Manhattan Beach.
The MMCC asks that anyone who sees an animal in distress call 1-800-39-WHALE.
“This time of year, we get calls every day,” Warner said. ER
