Our boat carried half a dozen people and three sea lions. SeaWorld Rescue skippered the vessel that left Mission Bay and entered the open ocean.
They said the three creatures had been found near death, then examined, fed and nursed back to health.
“So today was an exciting day. We returned two Guadalupe Fur Seals and one adult California Sea lion,” said Jeni Smith, Curator of the SeaWorld San Diego Rescue Project.
Though actually sea lions, the two small juveniles go by their common name fur seals. Conservationists thought their species was lost to the world but two were found in the 1950s.
“They have a great comeback story. They were almost hunted to extinction for their fur and they had very luxurious fur,” Smith said. “We thought they were extinct. Scientists found a breeding pair off the Guadalupe Islands. And now there are about 31,000 of them.”
Marine mammals treated at SeaWorld are evaluated for their ability to swim and hunt before they’re released. Caretakers are nervous and excited at the time of their release.
The third creature SeaWorld carried was a California Sea Lion, a female. She leapt into the ocean but then circled the boat, as if the idea of returning to the wild was scary.
She jumped at the boat in what looked like an effort to get back in. The skipper pulled away to complete the sea lion’s reintroduction to the habitat.
The fur seals, one male and one female, feed in deeper waters so their release point was further out to sea. When their cage was opened, they hesitated and shuffled on their fins for several seconds before diving in and swimming away near the surface of the sea.
They’re youngsters now, only about 40 pounds each. But when fur seals are full grown the males get to be close to 400 pounds. SeaWorld tags the animals before they’re returned to the wild.
“So if a scientist or someone sees them, they can take a photo of that orange tag and then it goes into a national database,” Smith said. “Their tag number. Their rehabilitation process. Their measurements. All the information about the animals goes into a database so that if they’re sited again we can look up that information. ”
SeaWorld’s rehabilitation of wild marine mammals and birds is ongoing. Soon they will be releasing an elephant seal and some sea turtles.
