Solo Salty

Salty is a sea lion pup without a home.

He came ashore near the lifeguard tower at Beach Boulevard on Thursday morning. On any other day, he would have been scooped up and taken to a shelter that cares for orphaned pups.

But these are the days of El Nino, and shelters up and down the California coast are crammed to capacity with sea lions.

Salty, the name given to him by lifeguards, has been roaming the beach, as lifeguards wait for a spot to open at the only Orange County shelter that cares for sick sea mammals.

The Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach was so crammed with pups Friday that officials had to convert the building’s gift shop and administrative offices into makeshift quarters for the animals.

The center and its volunteers are now caring for 81 sea lions. At this time last year, only seven starving sea lions were rehabilitating there.

Ann Bull, the center’s director, said volunteers haven’t had to care for so many sea lions since the destructive 1983 El Nino storms.

The majority of sea lions at the Laguna Beach center are pups like Salty who have experienced a severe food shortage attributed to the ocean warming phenomenon called El Nino.

The warming trend is blamed for driving away the creatures’ favorite foods such as squid, anchovies, herring and sardines. As a result, the mother sea lions are forced to hunt longer and farther from their rookery, or breeding grounds, increasing the probability that they will not return to provide nutrient-rich milk for their pups.

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As emaciated pups, and some adults, are driven ashore, the center’s resources are stretched to the limit, Bull said.

The center’s bill for fish feed has increased from $700 to $2,200 a week.

“We’re hoping to have enough finances to get us through this El Nino,” Bull said.

Taking care of the sea mammals is expensive. For $175 a month, one animal can be treated with antibiotics and fed a diet of protein powder, Karo syrup to combat low blood-sugar levels, and high-grade herring. Many sea lions need to stay at the center for as long as three months, Bull said.

Bull said the center was unable to take Salty because it was so crowded.

“If we lose or release an animal, he’s the first one we’ll take,” Bull said. “The more animals I take, the more I compromise the health of other animals.”

Another shelter, the Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, is willing to care for Salty. But the center was told by federal wildlife officials that it couldn’t because it did not have required permits to capture and treat marine mammals.

Greg Hickman, a volunteer at the center, said deciding what to do with Salty presented a moral dilemma.

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“I believe this El Nino is a naturally occurring phenomenon, and it’s probably nature and natural selection at work,” Hickman said.

“But we still need to get the animals off the beach. If we don’t, people who see this cute furry animal are going to take him home to care for him. That’s not going to do the animal any good.”

Lt. Mike Beuerlein of the Huntington Beach Marine Safety Division said lifeguards were helping to keep onlookers away from Salty.

Friday afternoon, when the driving rain and cold wind pounded Salty, lifeguards placed him in a cage and took him inside the warmer lifeguard office near the Huntington Beach Pier.

They planned to release him before they left for the evening.