Sea lion pup on the mend after Shamel Park save

This Bruce didn’t look much like the Boss when volunteers with The Marine Mammal Center found her wandering around at Shamel Park last week.

She (yes, it’s a she, despite her name) was lost and emaciated, and a long way from home — wherever “home” was.

The sea lion pup had been born in the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara County, but she won’t be going back there. Instead, she’ll be taken to Point Reyes, north of San Francisco, where she’ll be released into waters that the center hopes will be better stocked with food.

That’s still two or three months down the road, though, center veterinarian Cara Field said last week after examining Bruce.

“We gave Bruce a little exam today,” Field said Thursday, March 10. “She’s very malnourished, but her lungs are clear and otherwise, she seems to be OK.”

How malnourished?

Field said Bruce weighed in at 24 or 25 pounds, compared to the 45 or 50 pounds she should weigh at her age. (A typical adult female weighs 220 pounds and measures 6 feet in length, according to the center’s website.)

She’s not alone.

Field said one or two young sea lions are taken in off the San Luis Obispo County coastline each day. Even more, she said, are coming from Monterey Bay. Overall, they’ve seen 70 to 80 so far this year, which is fewer than last year at this time, but they’re on an “increasing trajectory every single day.”

So what’s causing young sea lions to wander away and wind up in unfamiliar surroundings like Shamel Park?

“They seem to be being weaned early, and we think it’s because their moms aren’t able to have enough resources,” Field said.

She explained that warmer water around the sea lion birthing area in the Channel Islands is driving their traditional food sources, such as sardines and anchovies, farther from shore. Mothers have to venture deeper into the ocean to hunt and wind up away from their young longer than normal. If they can’t find enough food, not only do they become hungry themselves, but they lack sufficient nutritious milk for their young, Field said.

The pups, normally weaned at 9 or 10 months of age, are leaving their mothers when they’re as young as 5 months because their mothers are either too long away on the hunt or they’re not providing enough milk.

The problem is, they’re too young to hunt or fend for themselves. By the time they wander up on shore at places like Shamel Park, they’re very much in need of rescuing.

“If they spend any energy hunting” at that point, Field said, “that’s the last drop of energy they have.”

There isn’t anything the volunteers can do to change what’s affecting the pups in the Channel Islands. The best they can do is rescue them, bulk them up and then release them farther north — where they hope more abundant food supplies can sustain them.

Although the majority of animals are found stranded on beaches, some of them wind up in stranger places, such as Shamel Park.

An 8-month-old female sea lion pup, roughly the same age as Bruce, was found last month in a booth at a ritzy oceanfront restaurant in La Jolla. The pup, which was taken to Sea World’s Animal Rescue Center, was described in a news report as “severely underweight and dehydrated.”

“We’re getting calls about animals that are in odd places such as freeways or far from the ocean, Marine Mammal Center spokeswoman Laura Sherr said.

Bruce was taken to the center’s veterinary facility in Sausalito.

Why the masculine name for a female sea lion?

“When we get the names, we get them ahead of time,” explained The Marine Mammal Center’s Giancarlo Rulli, “before they get the full exam.”

Rulli said no other sea lion pups were rescued in the area that day, but an elephant seal pup named Lucky Moonstone was picked up at Moonstone Beach on Wednesday, March 9. Rulli described the elephant seal as emaciated but active, weighing in at 77 pounds — about half the weight that might be expected. He said about 10 elephant seal pups have been rescued this year.

Anyone who sees one of the mammals is asked to call TMMC at 771-8300. The hotline is available 24 hours.

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 9:04 AM with the headline "Sea lion pup on the mend after Shamel Park save."