Tag Archives: marine mammal rescue

Sea Lion Disentanglement Story

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I said there would be more disentanglement photos and information to come, and today is that day.

The following post contains photos of a severely entangled and wounded sea lion so this is your warning to skip this post if you don’t want to see it…but I hope you stay because it has a happy ending.

On Sunday, Oct 20th I spotted a California sea lion with one of the worst entanglements I’ve ever seen. With tears running down my face as I photographed it, I immediately reported it to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society (VAMMR).

As I’ve mentioned before, sea lion disentanglements are tricky. You need the weather and tide to be calm, you need all teams to be available on the same day, and you need the entangled animal to stay put until that happens. Sometimes it takes weeks or even longer for this to happen.

This particular animal didn’t have weeks to wait. The monofilament gillnet was wound so tightly around his rostrum (muzzle) that he couldn’t eat. It was wrapped inside and around his mouth and embedded deeply in his neck. His poor body condition showed that he had been suffering from this entanglement for quite some time.

Within 48 hours of my initial sighting, a plan was in place. A team from VAMMR came out with two teams from DFO, as well as myself and Greg to help this sea lion. The weather was sunny and the ocean was glassy. Perfect conditions and in record timing. Best of all, our entangled lion was still on his rock.

Disentanglements can often be quick – a snip of a packing strap or fishing line, pull it off, tag it, and off they swim – but not this one. The rescue took 75 minutes from sedation to release. Once he was darted with a sedative he entered the water, requiring the teams to remove the entanglement from the boat – making it even harder. The netting was so tight that typical tools couldn’t be used and surgical scissors were required to cut it off.

I’ve worked in the marine mammal rescue field for over 6 years and this response truly left me at a loss for words. It was devastating, harrowing, and relieving all in one. Watching that sea lion swim off and haul out on a nearby rock was incredible and left everyone involved feeling like they were on cloud nine.

Since rescue, I’ve seen the sea lion almost every day on the south side of the main island and I’ve been able to watch him as he recovers. Each day he has been brighter and moved a little more, and yesterday was the first day in a week that I have not seen him. My hope is that he’s gone off to hunt now that he’s feeling better.

I only have a few days left out here so I am crossing my fingers I get to see him one more time.

I am overjoyed with how this response came together and played out. The collaboration between VAMMR, DFO, Pearson College, and BC parks was unmatched and it was such a massive undertaking for this rescue to happen so quickly and it was truly life saving.

As for today…lots of outside tasks done today (none of which beats a disentanglement so I won’t bore you).

Facility Work:

  • Fence repair
  • Propane transfer/change out
  • Algae removal on student house
  • Washed windows

Weather:

  • Sky: Blue sky and sunny
  • Wind: Low of 1 knot, high of 6 knots
  • Sea: Calm
  • Temperature: Low 7•C, High  11•C

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

A Busy Week: Entanglements, Fall Weather

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Weather:

  • Sky overcast
  • Visibility 1-10 NM – intermittent fog with a consistent layer of wildfire smoke
  • Wind 5-15 knots W
  • Calm water, rippled surface

Visitors/Traffic: 

  • One contractor visited the island yesterday, along with Greg and Lawrence the day previous.
  • Minimal tourism and pleasure craft activity (5-10 boats coming through daily)
  • Today Marine Mammal Rescue and DFO visited the reserve by water to look for entangled sea lions that had been reported to DFO. Unfortunately we were not able to spot the animals reported. Despite multiple vessels, the view from the lighthouse, and even a drone!

Ecological Observations: 

  • The increase in sea lions seems to be slowing and tapering off. Wherever there is available space, they haul out and fight for the best place to rest.
  • The elephant seal ‘Erica’ GE103 is still sticking around, and spends most of her time resting near the base of the jetty.
  • We noticed a robin hopping around on the grass yesterday but unfortunately didn’t get a picture.
  • We did see one sea lion with an entanglement injury on Sunday evening. It was the same one reported to DFO by a visitor in the reserve (boating past). We were not able to spot him again, and today we found the flasher which had been hanging from his mouth on the ground.

Successful Sea Lion Rescue!

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Weather:

  • Sky Clear and blue
  • Visibility 15+ NM
  • Wind 20-25 knots NE
  • Sea state: swells up to one meter
  • Temperature outside: 19.8 C
  • Pressure: 1021 hPa (decreasing)
  • We have been seeing consistent fog in the late evening, lasting for an average of 2 hrs. The fog banks seem to move over us from Port Angeles.

Visitors: 

  • Marine Mammal Rescue and DFO visited yesterday (more on this below).
  • Steady flow of pleasure crafts and whale watching vessels over the long weekend.

Sea Lion Disentanglement: 

  • Yesterday Marine Mammal Rescue along with the support of DFO vessels and staff came to help a sea lion with a plastic packing band stuck around his neck. They were able to successfully dart the sea lion with a tranquilizer injection, remove the band, give him tracking tags on his front flippers, and take a blood sample. When this was done they injected a reversal drug to wake him up and with a little scratch he was back on his way!

Ecological Notes:

  • The seagull chicks have officially flown the coop! Only a few remain and we are able to move around the island again without bothering the nesting birds.
  • This year we have noticed significantly less trash left behind by seagulls than last year. Our best guess is that they had more food available to them this summer, which would also align with observing them regurgitating much more fish that the previous season.
  • The sea lions have been increasing in numbers every day. The new fencing material that Nick and Greg used seems to be working much better than the wire that we tried last year, preventing them from damaging the island infrastructure. We have been letting them rest on the jetty this week but we will soon need to install more fencing in preparation for student visits.
  • Yesterday we found two turnstones which appeared to have been killed by the gulls while we were investigating the area near the codar antenna (SW Great Race Rock).

Neat Intertidal Finds

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Weather:

  • Visibility 6 NM
  • Sky overcast
  • Wind 5-10 knots W
  • Sea state: Calm

Marine Traffic/Island Visitors:

  • Greg visited with supplies on Friday
  • There have been a steady trickle of eco-tourism boats, 5-10 per day.
  • On Thursday DFO and Marine Mammal rescue visited the reserve (more on this below).

Ecological Observations: 

  • There has been a young sea lion in the reserve that appeared to be very underweight and weak. It was first spotted in the reserve on July 1st, and a few more times following. Marine mammal rescue notified us of the sightings earlier this week, and we were able to find the animal where it had originally been reported by a local eco-tourism company. With the assistance of DFO, they were able to make the journey from Vancouver to RR on Thursday July 9th, but unfortunately they weren’t able to spot the sea lion, and we have not seen it in the reserve since July 8th.
  • The seagull hatching is in full swing! There are now many chicks in various stages of development.
  • The goslings and their parents left for their first swim on the ocean yesterday at slack tide, but we haven’t seen them return. We wonder if they got caught in the stronger currents or perhaps made the journey to shore.
  • There are a few more sea lions in the reserve this week, roughly ten stellar sea lions on middle rocks.
  • We have had some low tides this week in the middle of the day, making for a great opportunity to explore the intertidal- photos below!

Annual Christmas Bird Count

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Wind: Yesterday 5-10 knots W; Today 5-20 knots NE
Sea State: up to 1 m chop
Visibility: 10 NM
Sky: overcast with rain this afternoon
Temperature: 7 C
Atmospheric CO2: 412.60 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

December 28 is the annual Christmas Bird Count, which happens in thousands of locations across North America. It has been happening for twenty-two years at Race Rocks. This morning with the northeast wind and dropping pressure, the planned visit by the local bird enthusiasts was called off. But fear not, citizen science provailed. For an hour and half this morning, I searched for birds of all feathers as I walked around the island and looked out from the top of the lighthouse. I used binoculars, a spotting scope and the zoom lens on the camera to check out the shoreline, water and the rocky islets of the ecological reserve. I was able to spot 12 species of birds, some of which were not present when I did the weekly census two days ago. Here are the results and photos of the bird count:

25 bald eagles (5 juvenile, 20 adults)
1 fox sparrow
4 canada geese
2 ravens
6 harlequin ducks
208 double-crested cormorants
59 pelagic cormorants
281 thayer’s gulls (on the rocks and in the water)
48 mew gulls (near Turbine Rock and North Rocks)
18 surfbirds
42 black turnstones
4 black oystercatchers

Photos of some of the birds seen today:

In the past two days, I have seen two entangled sea lions. Yesterday morning, I noticed a large steller sea lion with a small rope around its neck. The rope appeared to be cutting into the underside of the animal’s neck. A short while later, I noticed a california sea lion with a cut on its neck from what appears to be a plastic strap wrapped around it. The Marine Mammal Rescue Centre and Department of Fisheries and Oceans have been notified. If the sea lions remain at Race Rocks, it might be possible for a rescue to occur. Both animals were seen again today. See the entangled sea lion and marine mammal rescue tags for past occurrences that were written about in the Log. Two other california sea lions were seen that appear to have healing wounds from something that was previously wrapped around their necks. The animals don’t appear to have tags on their flippers to signify they have been rescued.

The Canadian flag was looking a bit tattered, so I replaced it today.

Just before sunset today, there were four eco tour boats in the reserve. The boats were all close to each other, which usually means something interesting is nearby. Sure enough, a pod of five or six orcas were passing westward. They travelled along the north side of the ecological reserve, just south of Bentinck Island and the Department of National Defence base.

Here are some photos from the past two days:

Marine Mammal Rescue

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On November 4th and 5th the Marine Mammal Rescue Team was here to help out a couple California sea lions that were entangled. They arrive on the 4th and after doing a thorough search around the island there were no tangled sea lions around so we were afraid they may have left the area but thankfully the team stayed the night and the next morning they were able to find two sea lions who needed some help getting the garbage off of their necks. The first animal was on the north east side of island up on the rocks and Marty was able to dart him without him fleeing into the water. His tangle was pretty bad but thankfully the team was able to help him out before it got any worse. I’ve seen him hanging around the same spot since he’s been untangled.

The second one was in a bit of a tougher spot he was already half in the water so he jumped right in as soon as the dart hit him and went for a swim. The dart was very helpful in making him easier to spot as he swam around until he was sedated and the team was able to get a hold of him to help him out.

Overall it was a very successful trip and I am so glad the Marine Mammal Rescue team was able to come out here and help these guys out. I have not seen any new tangles since and I’m keeping an eye out for the two that are on the mend.

 

Sea Lion Rescued from Plastic Entanglement

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A team comprised of the DFO and Vancouver Aquariums Marine Mammal Rescue (MMR) came out to Race Rocks on September 16th to help the entangled sea lions we’ve spotted over the last few weeks. Leaving from Pedder Bay at 0900, they arrived in two RHIBs at the reserve shortly after. After observing the struggling animals over the last while and communicating information with MMR, they were a welcomed sight.

Right away we spotted three possibly entangled sea lions from the lighthouse (unfortunately none of these three being the animals we photographed previously). We then landed the team of vet techs and veterinarian Marty at the jetty to assess the situation. It was decided that one of the sea lions resting by the water between the guest house and the helicopter pad was our best rescue candidate.

Marty and a videographer from Vancouver Aquarium approached over the helicopter pad from the direction of ‘Camera 5’. They got into position and a shot was taken, but the tranquilizer dart bounced and the sea lion fled into the water.

From the lighthouse we were able to follow its movements and keep the team apprised by radio. There was uncertainty about whether or not it received a partial dose of the tranquilizer as it floated in strange positions/patterns. Moving around Race Rocks to the water beside the solar panel/generator building, it hauled out again and another shot at it was lined up from one of the boats. The angle wasn’t quite right, and it again fled into the ocean and couldn’t be spotted. It was around 1400, and everyone took a break to have some food.

After this, everyone considered calling it off as it was getting late and we couldn’t locate the animal. At the last moment, with both boats ready to head back to Pedder Bay, it was spotted from the lighthouse (resting on the rock mound on the NW point of Great Race Rock)! Tranquilizing was attempted from water, but the dart bounced again and landed in the water and was recovered. Here’s a short video of that:


After that, it ended up too far from the water to try another shot by boat, so in a final effort the one boat landed Marty and the team again while the other stayed on the water to support. With no cover available between him and the animal, Marty had no choice but to crawl about one hundred feet in order to take the shot.

We were able to capture the following footage of the sea lion being darted, going into the water, and then after a tense 20 minutes during which a pod of transient orcas appeared in the reserve (who sometimes eat sea lions), it was found! The team proceeded to cradle the animal between their vessels and remove the plastic band. Then, they injected a reversal drug to reverse the tranquilizer before letting it go.

Everyone was relieved to have successfully helped an animal in need. We have suggested that future disentanglement efforts might have a better chance if extended to overnight stays in the guest house, and perhaps coordinated and executed in a more timely manner in relation to the animal sighting(s). This time we were unable to find the original animals that we had previously spotted, since it took quite a while to organize the rescue attempt. A big thank you to everyone who came to help this sea lion and teach us about their work!

Check out rescue.ocean.org to learn more about the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue program, and Ocean Wise.

Thanks to the rescue team, one more sea lion has a better chance of survival! (vet Marty holding the dart gun and dart used to tranquilize the sea lion)

 

See media coverage: https://www.bclocalnews.com/news/plastic-band-removed-from-neck-of-greater-victoria-sea-lion-2/