Friday was a momentous morning for Angela. After recovering from terrifying seizures, extreme dehydration and deadly toxins at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, the young sea lion was finally heading back home.
It was also an exciting day for the students at San Pedro High School’s Marine Science Magnet program who flocked to the center to watch rehabilitated sea lions return to the ocean.
The sea lions released on Friday, Sept. 8, were among 120 that the center took in this June following a toxic algae bloom that sickened sea lions and dolphins up and down the coastline. Although algae blooms are a natural phenomenon, warm waters exacerbated by climate change contributed to this year’s exceptionally large bloom.
Marine Mammal Care Center CEO John Warner said it’s essential for students to see these marine mammal success stories and know that even though climate change is scary and causes environmental damage, there are ways to turn crises into positive outcomes.
“I think these doses of joy, of positivity and good news are more essential today than they ever have been, because it’s easy to start feeling like everything is falling apart and can’t be turned around,” he said. “I personally want these kids to know that’s not the case.”
The center has three decades of experience nursing marine mammals back to health, but the onslaught of sea lions during this year’s historic bloom exceeded their available space for the first time.
Fortunately, the Los Angeles Unified School District, which leases the land the center operates on, stepped in and provided a temporary outdoor “triage” center in an adjacent parking lot.
“Having that triage space available allowed us to take 20 animals that would have not been able to be brought in and would have probably had a delay of a week to two weeks before being treated, which makes all the difference in terms of survivability,” said Warner.
The sick sea lions had been ingesting…
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