Marine Mammal Roundup

This summer marked my third year of volunteering with Marine Mammal Rescue.  The season is going super long with 157 seals coming in over the summer.  It's incredibly rewarding especially seeing small newborn pups grow up to me big huge fat seals.  I was lucky too as I got to go on 2 releases, one with the marine police!  I'll do a release post later.  The success rate this year was around 80% which is excellent. There are still 40-something animals on site.  One of the highlights this year was Flash Gorden: a California Sea Lion who had swallowed some salmon tackle and it was embedded in his esophagus.  Fortunately this stately fellow survived his 50% chance and was released on the island several weeks back.

Another interesting story is that of Jack. Jack is a male harbour porpoise who was beaching himself (basically trying to die).  He was only 6 weeks old when he was brought in.  He had somehow lost his mom and pod.  He had lost muscle tone and had to be in a sling as he could not support himself.  He is 12 weeks old now and doing really well.  Here he is with me at 10 weeks old.  We play with him to exercise his muscles.  I am in a dry suit and really bouyant.  He pushed me over then swam over top of me and pushed me around a bit by my arm. 

And below is a Yarrow who is known for supervising the whole site.  He is big enough now to peek over his tub and takes an active interest in watching all the stuff going on.  He will be going into the pre-release pool soon and then home!