Rescue Workers Free 350-Pound Sea Lion Trapped in Storm Drain

Five hours after two young boys heard a strange barking noise coming from the street and called police, a team of two dozen rescue workers freed a 350-pound California sea lion trapped in a dry storm drain.

About 9:15 p.m., the 6-foot black sea mammal was pulled through a 2-foot-wide manhole from inside a narrow cement tunnel in Marina Village, an apartment complex near Channel Islands Harbor.

A large crowd from an apartment complex surrounding the site cheered when the male sea lion was successfully pulled free and loaded onto a flatbed truck to be returned to the Pacific Ocean about six blocks away.

“I’ve had other things in a storm drain, but never a sea lion,” said a Mike Stewart, an officer with Ventura County Animal Regulation Department, one of half a dozen city, county and state agencies that responded.

Crews from Los Angeles television stations flocked to the scene in vans and helicopters.

“People like animals and want these things to come out OK,” said Port Hueneme City Councilman Jonathan Sharkey, who was on the scene with his wife to watch the drama unfold.

Sharkey said the sea lion had entered a storm drain tunnel from Channel Islands Harbor and had waddled through a maze of turns for about three blocks before stopping at the storm drain in the Marina Village apartments.

There was no official cause for the incident, but Sharkey said it was the city of Oxnard’s responsibility to keep “catch screens” on storm drain tunnels that run into the harbor. Such screens prevent debris from reaching the harbor during a storm and also stop fish and other marine life from entering the tunnels.

The incident started shortly after 4 p.m. when Raymond Coruju, 9, and his pal, Humberto Quezada, 8, called authorities after hearing the barking and then spotting the sea lion’s snout poking through the storm drain at the end of their block.

“I heard a noise and looked in the drain and saw a seal, his nose and then his eye,” Raymond said. “A neighbor gave us a can of tuna and we scraped it into the drain and he was eating it and some of it was falling on his head.”

The call to authorities brought responses from the county’s fire and animal regulation departments, state Fish & Game, Port Hueneme police, county fire’s urban search-and-rescue team and public works employees. The Fire Department sent out two spokesmen and engines equipped with floodlights to illuminate the scene.

Rescue workers sedated the sea lion about 8:45 p.m. at the start of the most delicate part of the operation.

“The trick now is to keep the animal safe while trying to free it,” said Sandi Wells, chief information officer for the county Fire Department.

As dozens of residents looked on from nearby apartment balconies and groups of young children ran around looking for the best vantage point, rescue crews crouched around a manhole leading to the storm drain.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” said Sam Dover, a veterinarian who responded from the Santa Barbara Zoo. “This is a tricky operation.”

To make the removal easier, rescue workers slid the creature onto a large squid fishing net that would be used to hoist it out and wrapped it in orange plastic.

The net was the idea of Susan Kirsch, a local animal activist who called a friend, squid fisherman Matt Nugent, and asked for help.

Nugent said he had to borrow several large swatches of netting because his nets and those of other local fisherman were being used at sea. Instead, Nugent stood next to the manhole and spent an hour sewing together the pieces to form a large cradle.

“[Susan Kirsch] called me on my boat at the harbor and said, ‘Get nets,’ ” Nugent said. “It seemed like the obvious thing to do.”

Several rescue workers pushed the sea lion toward the small manhole and then a large crane was driven over and hooked onto the bright orange package, which was then pulled through the hole. The sea lion was then loaded onto the truck for return to the ocean.

A jackhammer and other tools were brought to the site early when rescue workers thought they might have to break up the concrete walkway over the manhole to reach the sea lion if he wouldn’t fit through the hole.