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February 3, 2006

Strandings & Distressed Marine Mammals in Santa Cruz County

One of the best things about living on the Monterey Bay is that the beach is never very far away. And unlike the East Coast, we seem to have a lot of large marine mammals here - seals, sea lions, whales, otters, dolphins. You name it, we've got em.

I've been working on a project on Northern Elephant Seals at Año Nuevo State Reserve, but sometimes on my way home, I like to stop on the Santa Cruz Wharf and shoot a couple pictures of the sea lions there. Today, a beautiful day in February, the sea lions were out en masse - barking and bellowing, snorting and sleeping, nipping and splashing.

The more wildlife photography I do, the more I start to notice man's influence on nature. And sadly, it's not usually a positive influence. So as I was taking some shots of these amusing sea lion activities, I noticed that one of the sleeping ones had been injured. It appeared to have a band caught around it's neck. As the sea lion had grown, the band began to cut into its neck.

This reminded me of a story of the elephant seal at Año Nuevo that hauled out several years ago with a toilet seat stuck around its neck in a similar fashion. The rangers had to anesthetize the animal and saw the seat off and treat the animal's wounds.

So, I was standing there on the wharf thinking this was the exact same kind of thing, again. People laughed when the ranger told them about the toilet seat, but this sort of thing happens more than anyone would like to admit. But here I was, in a public place, seeing a wild animal being negatively impacted by my world. But what could I do about it, really?

Taking Action
It's so easy to think that someone else will report this. This poor sea lion has probably been reported by a billion tourists. This is the Santa Cruz Wharf. In the 20 minutes I spend watching the sea lions, I probably see 100 people doing the same. Surely, this animal has been reported. Right?

In this particular case, I couldn't see some sirened vehicle barreling down the wharf, screeching to a stop, and tranking the animal to get the band off. Part of me was also worried that if I called, and they did make a big deal, I would be terribly embarrassed if they got out to the site and then realized that the animal was fine - just healing from a previous encounter. What if it's already had the garbage cut from its neck, and I'm just looking at a survivor?

Now maybe this hesitancy has something to do with the fact that one time last year we were driving late at night in the Bay Area and as we drove down the highway, we passed someone who had seconds before driven their car off the road and into a quite considerable ditch. You could barely see the car taillights from the road, and not until you were right on top of it. It was an accident that had just happened, but there was nowhere safe to stop. So for the first time in my life, I took out my cell phone and just called 911. Of course it was busy, but by the time they answered, they already knew about the accident and could tell from my cell phone location. Then they hung up on me. So perhaps I was a little weirded out - calling 911 was a big deal to me. It's not something I'd do lightly. I didn't mind being hung up on, I was just disconcerted. Had I wasted their time or done the right thing?

So I didn't want to be wasting the time of these animal rescue people either... But then I said to myself: What if no one had called? What if everyone assumes, as you do, that it's already been done? And what if, because no one calls, the situation worsens? And as for this sea lion, what would you do if this was a person in distress? Can't someone just call and tell them what they know, and let the experts judge for themselves whether this is a credible reason for a rescue?

My answer? Yes, absolutely. So that's what I decided to do.

Of course, now, I had a new problem. I had no idea who to call.

Animals In Distress: Who You Gonna Call?
First, I called Animal Services for Santa Cruz County [(831) 454-7303] - Generally you call them to report lost/found cats and dogs, being bitten by an animal, or a sick or distressed animal like a rabid raccoon or a deer that's been hit by a car. They were able to give me several local numbers for marine animal emergencies.

They suggested that I call Long Marine Lab [(831) 459-2883], which studies and sometimes rehabilitates marine mammals. They have a special coordinator for strandings and distressed and dead marine mammals and I was given a special cell phone number to call. They also partner with the Marine Mammal Center, so instead of leaving a message, I took their advice for Santa Cruz county and called them next.

I filed a report with a very friendly rescue operator at the Marine Mammal Center [(831) 633-6298] and she was even willing to keep me informed about any headway they make on case. I was able to describe the animal in distress, a sub-adult sea lion. Some of the information I was asked to provide included:

• My name and phone number in case they need more info
  
• The location of the animal, as best as possible
  
• What kind of animal it is: In this case, a sea lion. If you don't know, note its fur color, does it have ears, etc.
  
• What was wrong with the animal (I was also about to email them a picture)
  
• The severity of the distress (this sea lion appears well fed but if left as is, could develop more problems)
  
• How big I thought the animal was, and whether it was alone or in a group
  
• Whether or not it was a tagged animal
  

Taking a photograph of the distressed animal is a great way to help the rescuers. You could even take a picture from your cell phone and send it to their email address. If you spend a lot of time at the beach, surfing or what have you, it wouldn't be a bad idea to put one of their email addresses in your cell contacts.

You can find out more about Marine Mammal Strandings and Rescues at the Marine Mammal Center website.

Posted by sorsha at February 3, 2006 4:22 PM