Seal Deaths Called Normal for Season
When Jim Russell of Ventura set out for his afternoon walk by the Ventura Harbor, he thought something was amiss.
Russell, 49, usually heads from the harbor to the Santa Clara River, but he cut his Friday walk short when he noticed the first of a dozen dead seals at the shore, he said.
“I thought that 12 were a lot more than I had seen in that concentrated an area,” he said. “I was curious as to why there were so many there.”
Kathy Jenks, director of animal regulation for Ventura County, said such a number of dead seals washed ashore is not unusual, although she could not give a cause of death for those 12 seals. This time of year, her organization buries as many as 20 or 30 seals in a weekend, she said.
Animal regulation does not keep statistics on seal mortality, but she could tell no difference in the amount of money spent on seal burial this year versus last.
Although, 10 to 12 seal deaths a day is considered normal, if such a rate continued all summer, “that might be unusual.”
“We don’t get excited about it,” Jenks said. “We just bury them.”
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