A Monday afternoon meeting turned into a four-hour ordeal with my brain turning to mush at the end. Tuesday I worked for ten hours, from 6am to 4pm (although that was less than last week's 12+ hours!). Wednesday was a two-hour meeting in the morning (brain left somewhat intact at the end), then I spent the afternoon working on a fun project. Thursday I had planned to spend catching up on phone calls and paperwork for the assorted projects I am working on, but then got a call about an injured sea lion and headed to Pier 39 to check him out.
Pier 39, the touristy shopping area next to Fisherman's Wharf, has a large population of resident sea lions that hang out on the docks there. The marina staff keep an eye on them, and call the Marine Mammal Center if they see a problem. There is one sea lion in particular with something around his neck that they called us about. I went to look at him and he was an adult male, thin but not emaciated, with a ring of raw tissue around his neck from an entanglement. Most likely it is a packing strap or a piece of fishing net, but it needs to be removed before it either causes infection or strangles him; it is very likely the reason he is underweight.
I waited on the dock for the rest of the rescue team, accompanied by the NOVA film crew, to arrive. Once they did, a large crowd gathered around to watch the impending excitement. We snuck up next to the sea lion with our nets and herding boards, got to within 8 or 10 feet, and rushed him. But he was too quick and dove into the water before we could get him netted. He came up onto the dock a few minutes later but was very wary, and eventually went back into the water. When he again came back onto the docks, he strategically placed himself next to a bunch of even larger sea lions for protection, at which point we packed it up and went home. NOVA now has a very unexciting unsuccessful rescue on tape.
If only we could communicate to this guy that catching him would mean we could remove whatever is strangling him, and allow him to heal.
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
g_na- musings from g-na
- g-na (dot) org
Comments
We don't use tranquilizers when capturing wild animals because the drugs don't take effect instantaneously, and therefore the animal has time to either get in the water, where he could easily drown, or get himself trapped in a position where we could not extract him, and therefore the whole thing would be a waste of time.
In addition, we do try to minimize the use of drugs to lessen any adverse effects they may have. Marine mammals have an especially acute mammalian diving reflex (all mammals have it actually; when their face hits the water breathing and metabolism slows, and blood is shunted away from extremities), and this reflex can kick in when they are anesthetized. Marine mammal anesthesia is a very delicate science because you never know how much the metabolism will be suppressed, and dosage is difficult. Unfortunately, deaths due to anesthesia administration are more common in marine mammals than they are in other mammals.
Our new place on Telegraph hill overlooks the bay and we can hear the sea lions from our place. They were particularly noisy yesterday, I noticed.
I love hearing them though!