Full-Care Hospital to Replace ‘MASH Unit’ for Stranded Sea Mammals

Every year they wash up on Los Angeles-area beaches--by the hundreds in a stormy year, by the scores in a mild one.

Some are orphans, seal or sea lion pups separated from their mothers by storms or accidents or maternal neglect. Others are juvenile or adult seals or sea lions that have been injured in fights or in run-ins with humans.

They all need help.

Currently there is no long-term help available for these animals in the Los Angeles area. The ones that are found in time to be saved must be taken to a temporary short-term care facility at the old Marineland park, where they are stabilized and then trucked to Sea World in San Diego for long-term care until they can be returned to the sea.

But that is about to change. Sometime this summer or early in the fall, Los Angeles will once again have a long-term care facility for orphaned pups and injured adult marine mammals that are found between Ventura and the Orange County line. The new care center will fill the gap in long-term marine mammal care facilities created in 1987 when Marineland closed.

The $1.5-million facility, a joint project of the Los Angeles Unified School District and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., former owners of Marineland, is under construction on school district property near Angels Gate Park in San Pedro. The care unit, which is being built in conjunction with some classrooms, is the first phase of a proposed Center For Marine Studies, a state-of-the-art oceanic research center combined with an instructional complex for LAUSD students and teachers.

But it’s the marine mammal care facility that will be of most interest to sea denizens that are hurt or scared and need treatment.

Connie Lufkin-Barr, director of ORCAS (Organization for the Respect and Care of Animals of the Sea), which operates the temporary treatment facility at the old Marineland park, says the new care center could mean the difference between life and death for many injured animals.

“The time between a traumatic incident and surgical repair is critical,” Lufkin-Barr said. “Right now we’re operating as a MASH unit. But when the new facility opens, we’ll be a full-fledged marine mammal hospital.”

In addition to surgical and rehabilitation facilities and staff, the new care unit will feature five swimming pools for its patients, ranging in size from 650 to 2,800 gallons. The water used will be tap water that is specially treated to approximate seawater. Plans call for the addition of a 15,000-gallon pool that will make it possible to treat dolphins as well as seals and sea lions. Until then, dolphins will continue to be treated at Sea World.

Lufkin-Barr and Pat Ryan, who works at the Marineland temporary care facility, say the sooner the new facility goes into operation, the better, because this is shaping up to be a very bad year for many marine mammals.

“When we have a rough winter we have a high number of animals” that are stranded on Los Angeles beaches, Ryan said. He pointed out that in 1983, a year when Los Angeles was racked by storms, about 800 animals were brought to the long-term marine mammal care facility then in operation at Marineland. About 70% of them were storm-tossed pups that had been separated from their mothers and were unable to survive on their own, Ryan said.

Ryan said this year’s storms, coupled with an increasing marine mammal population in the Los Angeles coastal areas, could mean a big increase in the number of lost pups that arrive at the temporary care facility. Because it takes as long as three months or more to get a pup fattened up and prepared for life in the ocean, this could put a strain on long-term care facilities at Sea World and elsewhere.

So far this year, Lufkin-Barr said, the temporary facility at Marineland has treated more than 40 seals and sea lions found on Los Angeles-area beaches. Almost inevitably, more storms will result in more orphaned pups.

In most cases, Lufkin-Barr said, orphaned pups are spotted by citizens who notify animal-control authorities. The pup usually will be observed for 24 hours to make sure its mother isn’t coming back before it is picked up and taken to the temporary care facility to be prepared for the trip to San Diego. Injured animals, however, are sometimes picked up immediately.

Lufkin-Barr cautions people who see an apparently stranded marine mammal not to approach too closely. For one thing, the animal may simply be resting and not need any help. For another, sea lions and other marine mammals are wild animals and they can and will bite. Instead, Lufkin-Barr suggested, notify animal-control authorities or call ORCAS at (310) 544-9886.