Sick Baby Seals Swamp Rescue Center

For reasons that the operators of Laguna Beach’s sea mammal rescue center say they do not fully understand, their facility in Laguna Canyon has been swamped during the last few days with ailing baby elephant seals, a species whose nearest breeding grounds are on the Channel Islands many miles offshore.

“We can only speculate that recent storms carried them across from such places as Santa Barbara Island or Santa Catalina Island,” said John Cunningham, director of the nonprofit Friends of the Sea Lion.

Catalina is 28 miles west of Laguna Beach, and Santa Barbara is another 15 miles beyond that.

“Elephant seals, especially young ones, don’t normally swim very much, but all of a sudden they’ve been appearing on Orange County beaches, all of them suffering from malnutrition and stomach worms. We have nine of them now, all about 2 months old, when ordinarily at this time of year we might have only one or two, and even those would be adults,” he said.

At the same time, the center, which treats the sea creatures and returns them to the ocean, has taken in eight ailing sea lions and two baby harbor seals, also an unusually high number for the season.

“I’ll tell you, feeding this bunch is putting a strain on our limited nonprofit budget,” Cunningham added.

He said one of the problems faced by his group is the mishandling of sick or injured animals by people who find them on the beaches.

“A sad example is this 2-week-old harbor seal,” and he pointed to a small form on a table. “The people who found it took it home and put it in a hot Jacuzzi tub over night. It died just after we got it,” he said.