Two rehabilitated Guadalupe fur seals, a male found on a rock outcropping off Laguna Beach and a female found on a dock in San Pedro, have been released back into the ocean by an animal care team from SeaWorld San Diego.
The seals were quick to sniff their native environment and didn’t hesitate to leap from the boat into the water. They were plump – almost triple their weight when they were first found in April. The male was first taken to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach and the female to the Marine Mammal Center Los Angeles in San Pedro.
“The male took the plunge first; they swum around together, popped up once, and then went down for a deep dive,” said Jeni Smith, curator of SeaWorld’s marine mammal rescue program, who was part of the team to help send them off earlier this week. “The conditions were great and we angled them to the south. I’m sure they’ll figure out which way to go.”
Guadalupe fur seals – once endangered and are still considered threatened animals on the Endangered Species List – aren’t native to Southern California, but they seem to be popping up more in the past few years. A few have been seen on the Channel Islands by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during trips to those islands to count sea lions.
Smith estimates that in the past few years, SeaWorld has cared for at least five to 10 of the seals each year for the past several years. Saving each animal is critical because their population numbers are so low. Current counts put them at about 31,000 animals.
Born on the Guadalupe Island off Mexico, the dark-colored pinnipeds are probably best known for their luxurious fur, leading them to be hunted to near extinction in the early 1900s. In the 1950s, two researchers from the University of California discovered them breeding in a cave on Guadalupe Island.
Since that discovery, their population has started to rebound primarily because of protections by the Mexican government. Guadalupe fur seals are listed as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Seal pups typically leave their mothers at 6 and 9 months old and learn to feed and forage themselves. They are a pelagic species, meaning they hunt for prey in deep waters. Their food of choice is typically sardines and mackerels.
Unlike sea lions and other marine mammals, which are often found emaciated on Southern California beaches during late winter and spring, Guadalupe seals are typically in much worse shape if they’re found.
“They’re on death’s doorstep; they’re very critical patients,” Smith said, adding one of the reasons might be the long distance they travel from their native island, especially if they are doing that and haven’t figured out how to hunt.
Their survival depends on immediate help. That’s where the expertise at local marine mammal rescue centers comes in.
“They come in super skinny and with extremely low blood sugar,” said Dr. Alissa Deming at the Pacific Marine Mammal Care Center. “It makes them hard to triage because they’re having seizures.”
Getting their blood sugar stabilized is key, Deming said. “We’ll hold on to them until they can handle transport.”
“Working on the sea lions has made us well-prepared,” she added.
Within a few days of being found, both seals were taken to SeaWorld. There, they were fed a fishy formula and constantly monitored with SeaWorld staff working overnight shifts to feed them every few hours. They’re weighed every day and from that weight, the care team determines how many calories and how much fluid they need.
The two seals were housed together and got SeaWorld’s largest and deepest saltwater pool to practice deep diving for fish.
“We wait for them to begin grooming and competitively hunt for fish,” Smith said. “Once they’re eating fish and have healthy blood, we start putting weight on them.”
On Thursday, Deming was headed to an end-of-year party for the rescue center’s volunteers and staff. She said she couldn’t wait to share the good news that the seal the PMMC volunteers named “Rocky” had just been released.
She said two veterinarian students from Western University were on the beach near The Montage Resort. They saw the tiny pup struggling on Goff Island, a small rock outcropping in the water not far away.
“They alerted us,” she said, adding that rescue teams responded immediately and captured the animal. “I’m so glad little Rocky is doing well.”
