At Corona Del Mar today.....

[baadfish69]

Well....I never even got my line in the water. There was a few guys fishing, but I never saw them catch anything all day. Why did I not get any fishing in you ask?

Well when I get there I decide to walk the jetty before lugging my gear over there. I get to the jetty and a lady asks me if Im there to save the sea lion. So Im like, "What are you talking about?". She points out a sea lion on the jetty who looked to be in pretty bad shape. The sea lion had fishing line around its head and into its mouth ripping thru the flesh of its cheeks, possibly preventing the lion from feeding. She asks me to cut the line from the sea lion, and Im like "You crazy lady." So I bust out my Iphone and google sea lion rescue, and up pops http://www.pacificmmc.org/index.html. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center. So I call them and the guy says we will be there in 20 mins. Sure enough, they arrive like an army on a mission. All kinds of gear and just an absolute passion by the whole crew to save this sea lion.

I even got to help carry the lion in the cage back to their truck. It was a very interesting day, especially considering that when I was a teen, I wanted to work with marine life.

Anyhow, I snapped some pics so here they are....

[gavin310]

Awesome! That's really cool you were able to help save that sea lion.

[one_leg]

Now they can nurse it back to health on order for it to snatch our catches away from us again. Well, I guess it's better than sitting there watching it suffer, or listening to the ol' lady bitchhh about it all day long. Where are the great whites when you really need em?


Congrats on your amazing adventure. Really!!! You did that poor creature a huge favor.

Too bad you didn't get to fish. Maybe next time. Thanks for the report/pics.

[legacy1]

Poseidon owes you one now!

[J12]

what you did was really great. and good thing you had an Iphone!

[BIGRED KILLA]

Thanks for the pics that seal was in bad shape sad to see it but at least you helped it you should call in a couple days to see how it is doing i am curious.You will get good karma from the seal gods..lol







Bigred

[baadfish69]

Thanks for the pics that seal was in bad shape sad to see it but at least you helped it you should call in a couple days to see how it is doing i am curious.You will get good karma from the seal gods..lol







Bigred



Yeah, actually I do plan to contact them. Upon reading their website they are heavily reliant on donations and volunteers. I was thinking of "adopting" that specific sea lion. Helps them feed the sea lion and stuff for the 1-2 month stay before they release it. Ill call them on Monday and see what the news is.

Thanks for all the kind words!

[olfishergal]

Thanks for helping, No one likes to see any creature suffer.

[baadfish69]

This is the email I received from the center:

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your email! Once we got the animal to our center, we put him
in a special cage so we could remove the netting safely. He also had a fish
hook in his mouth which we removed. We started him on antibiotics and gave
him worming medicine as well as IV fluids when he was in the cage. We moved
him to a pen with a small pool and that is really helping with the healing
of his wounds. We named him Joker because he will always have a "smile
scar". He's eating well which is a very good sign! I've attached some
pictures. We are open daily from 10-4 if you would like to stop by and
visit.

Best,
Michele Hunter
Director of Operations/Animal Care"


And here are the pics she sent:

[fish_sauce]

very cool! :Cool:

i don't think you could have handled the situation any better than the way you did. people forget that those things are wild creatures, (as opposed to cute fuzzy things) and they completely put down their guard. I see it happen all the time, fishing at the bays/surf...seeing people try to pet the pups when they come out of the water.

maybe this is a calling, to do something you're passionate about. :Wink:

[bones]

I know alot of fisherman who would have done nothing for the seal sad to say. Some fisherman have had bad experiences involving seals and those experiences have made them hatefull towards them. They forget that mankind is only visiting The seals domain. We are guests in THEIR house so to speak IMHO. I personally hate to see any living creature suffer even though I know that sometimes mother nature can be harsh. A little more than a month ago I had a simuliar experience at Marina Del Rey when I was fishing with a few FNN members. There was a very small pup on the jetty that was about three ft long and couldn't have weighed more than 35lbs. She looked so small and helpless. She had kind of a glazed looked in her eyes and wouldn't move away when approached. We figured she was either sick, starving or maybe was hit by a boat but something was wrong for sure. She had dead squid and other dead bait around her like the people on the jetty were trying to feed her.I couldn't even concentrate on fishing and had no idea who to call so I walked to the nearest lifeguard station and asked the lifeguard on watch to make the appropiate call. He seemed very concerned but I made sure that I got his full name to hopefully ensure that he followed up with the call. Big Red and I had a recent hard time with the brown pelicans in Santa Barbara eating our baits as soon as they hit the water and some of the birds had multiple hooks in their mouths with mono trailers in tow. It sucked to see them in that shape so we spent alot of our fishing time holding the birds stable while removing the hooks from their mouths.Yeah....The pelicans are a pain in the azzzz but we didn't even think twice about what had to be done.
Your kindness will be rewarded and I'm sure you felt like you made a difference.....Great Job!
By the way.....Can the people you called handle any area and is there a 24 hour contact or hotline?

[troutdog]

Very well done BF69, you definitely made the "right call" out there. Very cool to have gotten that follow up email from the rescue crew. Keep fighting the good fight buddy!


TD

[Captain Boracho]

Thank you for taking time to help this poor animal. Its funny how some people live with so much hate that they wish harm on one of natures creatures, like someone said earlier we are visiting there domain. Your a good man and you will be repaid very soon for your kind deed.

[baadfish69]

I know alot of fisherman who would have done nothing for the seal sad to say. Some fisherman have had bad experiences involving seals and those experiences have made them hatefull towards them. They forget that mankind is only visiting The seals domain. We are guests in THEIR house so to speak IMHO. I personally hate to see any living creature suffer even though I know that sometimes mother nature can be harsh. A little more than a month ago I had a simuliar experience at Marina Del Rey when I was fishing with a few FNN members. There was a very small pup on the jetty that was about three ft long and couldn't have weighed more than 35lbs. She looked so small and helpless. She had kind of a glazed looked in her eyes and wouldn't move away when approached. We figured she was either sick, starving or maybe was hit by a boat but something was wrong for sure. She had dead squid and other dead bait around her like the people on the jetty were trying to feed her.I couldn't even concentrate on fishing and had no idea who to call so I walked to the nearest lifeguard station and asked the lifeguard on watch to make the appropiate call. He seemed very concerned but I made sure that I got his full name to hopefully ensure that he followed up with the call. Big Red and I had a recent hard time with the brown pelicans in Santa Barbara eating our baits as soon as they hit the water and some of the birds had multiple hooks in their mouths with mono trailers in tow. It sucked to see them in that shape so we spent alot of our fishing time holding the birds stable while removing the hooks from their mouths.Yeah....The pelicans are a pain in the azzzz but we didn't even think twice about what had to be done.
Your kindness will be rewarded and I'm sure you felt like you made a difference.....Great Job!
By the way.....Can the people you called handle any area and is there a 24 hour contact or hotline?


I totally know what you mean. Ive actually been charged and bumped by a huge sea lion while fishing that harbor in my float tube. Scariest thing ever! But I cant be mad at the animals.

Pacific Marine Mammal Center (http://www.pacificmmc.org/index.html) handles (from what I understand) all of Orange County coastline. However, the supervisor was telling me that they are linked with other centers in case they cant handle one in your area. So if interested just keep this phone # in your cell 949.494.3050 just in case. I know we anglers come across these creatures alot, so you never know when you might be needed to help too.


Again, thanks everyone for the kind words.....

BaadFish69