[Paddlewise] orphaned baby seals and sea lions

Hello all,

Another PaddleWise member just suggested that I should add to the 
proposed clickable eco map that paddlers should not pick up baby
seals they find on the beach.  

This past weekend, I visited the Laguna Beach seal and sea lion rescue
facility in Laguna beach.  According to personnel at the facility, we
are almost at the tail-end of seal and sea lion pupping season and now
entering the pupping season for elephant seals.  One of the biggest 
complaints from the personnel at the facility comes from people picking 
up baby seals found on the beach thinking they are orphans.  When people 
do this, they have just guaranteed the pup is an orphan.  More than likely, 
the mother is off in the water searching for food.  Now, the rescue 
operation is left with a baby that will have to be nurtured until it is 
ready to be returned to the ocean.  The babies are grouped by size.  A 
common ailment is seal pocks (like small pocks) because of stress.  

The rescue personnel we talked to told us about a story where a local
woman found a baby seal and took it home and put it in her bathtub.
The rescue person informed us that baby seals like community and get very 
lonely when not with other seals (which can mean a lot of barking as 
they cry for their mothers or other seals).  So the woman decided to 
provide this baby seal with companionship by letting her dog into the
bathtub with the seal.  Fortunately, she called animal rescue and they 
were able to save the baby seal from this woman's misguided "good
intentions."

There is a big fine for interfering with marine animal life.  Don't 
pick up baby seals you find even if you are convinced it has been
abandoned.  Call an animal rescue operation or the police (who have
such numbers available to them).  I have several numbers on the GASP 
website for stranded marine animals in the US.  For those numbers, see:
http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/stranded.html.

Cheers,

Jackie

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