He resisted and escaped from those who would free him
In October, Friends of the Elephant Seal docents saw a
seal with an entanglement around his neck on the beach at Piedras Blancas. He
was at the far south end, difficult to observe. But that plastic was cutting
into his neck.
“It’s always really tough to see these cases come up in
the rookery,” said Aliah Meza, operations manager for San Luis Obispo
Operations in Morro Bay.
Response begins
The Marine Mammal Center responded by sending
observers, to determine how to help this deal in distress. When he moved to the
north beach in the first week of November, observers got a better look. It was
a plastic packing strap.
On Monday, November 4, the seal was easily visible on
the north beach. I got some good photos, and encouraged a visitor with a long-lens
camera to take some photos and submit them to TMMC.
A young family visiting, with two young daughters,
were concerned abut the entanglement. The father offered to scale the fence and
go down and cut it off.
I cautioned that it’s more difficult than it looks. He’s
a pretty big seal. TMMC estimated he weighs around 260-330 pounds. It’s also
illegal. Better to wait for the trained rescuers.
But I assured them that everyone at the bluff is
concerned, and will take action to help that seal.
Better information makes better plans
Clearer photos of the entanglement help TMMC staff to
make a plan that stands the best chance of success. The TMMC team went out with
their own camera, to assess the beach surroundings.
“Once we got those details, we wrote up our plan,”
Meza said. The plan was approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, giving them permission to go onto the beach and attempt the
rescue from this human-caused threat.
Approaching a seal to remove an entanglement is
tricky. First, it must be safe for the team members to make an approach. It has
to consider the animal’s safety as well as the people’s safety.
“You never know what a wild animal is going to do,”
she said.
Fall juvenile haul-out is a good time of year for a
rescue. Fewer animals are on the beach, and those that are there are smaller,
younger seals. No aggressive bulls.
“That minimizes the potential risk to other animals,”
she said. “We have to consider all the contingencies that can happen.
The plan takes shape
The team was ready to go on Wednesday, November 6. By
then, the seal had moved back to the south beach.
“Circumstances change daily, hour to hour,” she said.
“We had a detailed plan for a different location. We had to think on our feet.
Our field response team is very well trained.”
The team included three rescuers on the beach and
others on the bluff, to monitor safety and take notes and photos.
They planned to confine the seal behind herding
boards, then use a hook knife attached to a pole to cut the strap. They wouldn’t
have to sedate the seal to immobilize him. That gets more complicated,
requiring a veterinarian to oversee the process, and monitoring until the seal
is fully awake.
“The animal is so large, we can’t put it in a carrier
and remove it to our hospital,” she said.
It only takes one cut. But plastic is tough, and this
seal was having none of it.
“He was pretty alert,” she said. “He was too active,
and returned to the ocean.”
They’ll try again
Rescue attempts often don’t succeed on the first try.
The plan for this seal is in place with NOAA approval, so the TMMC team is
ready to go if anyone reports him on the beach.
Entangled seals can be fdifficult to identify from the bluff. Check the photo to see where he is.
If you see him, call 415-289-7325
and give the reference number 3348 to identify this seal.
As soon as the seal comes back to the beach, they’ll
try again to remove the strap, before it causes permanent damage to organs. As
it is, this seal will have a scar from it forever.
“These entanglements show the interconnectedness of
humans and oceans,” Meza said. “It’s important for us to prevent single use
plastics from entering the ocean.”
TMMC has more information about ocean trash on its
website, https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/science-conservation/conservation/ocean-trash
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