Category Archives: Marine Mammals

Serving fish milkshakes to elephant seals at The Marine Mammal Center

23 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Animals, Marine Mammals, Nonfiction

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elephant seal headshotLike many, I’ve paid my dues as a waitress. I have to say that of all my customers, the ones I loved serving were the elephant seal pups at The Marine Mammal Center.

In the early 1990’s, I spent a year volunteering at The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) in Sausalito, California. Being a part of an organization that rescues and rehabilitates marine mammals (of all kinds), then releases them back into the wild, was nothing short of life changing.

I was a member of the Sunday night crew responsible for animal care. Each Sunday night we fed and treated a wide range of marine mammals. My favorite were the doe-eyed elephant seal pups. (Yes, I still have our squad sweatshirt!)

Marine Mammal Center Sunday Crew sweatshirt logo

The elephant seal pups in our care had been separated from their mothers, and as a result were undernourished. Our job was to get them healthy enough to release back into the ocean. That meant they had to gain weight. A lot of it.

What do you feed an elephant seal so it packs on the pounds…but is also nutritious and tasty? You might be sorry you asked. I can’t reveal the “secret-recipe“, but it involves whipping together (literally) frozen fish, heavy cream, and a mix of nutritional supplements. A delectable milkshake! Kind of (?) gross, but it works!

The Marine Mammal Center elephant seal

The pups needed to be fed every 3 or 4 hours, and some nights during the El Nino year we had 200 elephant seal pups to feed. This required multi-gallon batches of fish-mash (secret fish milkshake), and three people to tube-feed a single elephant seal pup. One to straddle and restrain the 100+ pound pup, another to guide the tube down its throat and into the abdomen (not the lungs!), and a third to pour the fish mash into a funnel and work it down the tube. *Current pictures and videos show they’ve streamlined the tube feeding procedure so it only requires two people.*

There were some long nights, but it didn’t faze us. I loved the direct Tube feeding an elephant seal pupcontact that came with restraining the elephant seal pups for tube feeding. When I was in a place of calm, the pup responded with trust. Experiencing that type of connection with a wild animal is everything.

You can visit The Marine Mammal Center and see the amazing work they do up close. The center is just North of San Francisco in the Marin Headlands. Check the web site for visiting hours. (PC: The Marine Mammal Center, except the photo of the sweatshirt which I took myself)

The Marine Mammal Center
2000 Bunker Road | Fort Cronkhite | Sausalito, CA 94965-2619

What’s on the menu at The Marine Mammal Center?

 

Sea Lion Pup Crisis ~ Twitter Challenge

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Animals, Giving Back, Marine Mammals

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I was going to kick off summer with a light-hearted Sun, Surf, and Seals post that included a mention about the Leave Seals Be rescue campaign — sponsored by the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California.

That is, until I heard about the crisis facing sea lion pups in California.

Hundreds of Starving Sea Lion Pups

More than a 1,000 stranded sea lion pups have washed ashore on California beaches since January, under nourished and basically starving to death. And the number keeps rising. This is more than six times the usual number of stranded pups. So far the cause appears to be a complete lack of their natural food source: bait fish, such as anchovies and herring. [Image from the Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito]

MMC_sea_lion_pups

Southern California beaches have received the majority of the stranded pups. The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito stepped up, and is taking care of a good number of the starving pups to alleviate overcrowding in the Southern California rescue facilities.

While the cause of the problem is thought to be lack of the natural food source for these marine mammals, The Marine Mammal Center is looking into other possible causes. Their research includes screening for toxins and other elements.

Why all the fuss over a bunch malnourished baby sea lions? This degree of crisis could be a warning sign for a much bigger problem that would impact the human population. Determining the cause, is the first step in finding a preventative solution.

In the following news clip, Dr. Shawn Johnson, Director of Veterinary Science at the Marine Mammal Center, explains this distressing phenomena and his approach to solving it.

Discovery Channel: Rescuing Baby Sea Lions

Dollar-a-Pound

It’s been a few years since I volunteered at the Marine Mammal Center (in animal care), but I’m still a strong supporter. I know first-hand how dedicated these people are, and all the good they accomplish.

For these undernourished sea lion pups to have a chance at surviving in the wild, they need to eat a lot of fish, starting with the essential Fish Smoothie and working up to buckets of whole fish. The hungry patients are going through approximately 4,000 lbs of fish per week (at $1.00 per pound) – double the usual amount due to double the number of residents in their care.

To help the Marine Mammal Center continue their research and care for the stranded sea lion pups, you can go here to donate.

Twitter Challenge: #fish4pups

You can also help the sea lion pups by participating in my #fish4pups Twitter Challenge:

  1. Tweet the link to this blog post and include the hashtag: #fish4pups
  2. Tweet as often as you like between now and midnight on the 4th of July.
  3. For every #fish4pups blog-link tweet, I will donate $1.00 to the Marine Mammal Center food drive.

$1.00 = 1 pound of fish for starving sea lion pups!

Tweet it up!

The sea lion pups thank you!