SAN DIEGO — A Guadalupe fur seal is recovering at SeaWorld San Diego after being stranded by a storm.
The young pup was stabilized at Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute, who provided him with immediate medical care. He was then moved to SeaWorld San Diego, where the rescue team will care for him long term on his journey to recovery.
Jeni Smith from the SeaWorld San Diego rescue team said it took around-the-clock care, including several feedings overnight, to make sure he was getting enough nutrients to recover.
“He was in an area that could have been very harmful to him,” Smith said. “And it was during a time when California was having a lot of storms, so we’re not really quite sure what happened. But he was in pretty bad shape.”
The young fur seal is out of immediate danger now, but the threat against his species remains. Guadalupe fur seals were hunted nearly to extinction for their fur and were thought to be extinct until scientists found a small surviving population in the 1950s. Since then, there has been a massive effort to make sure they don’t disappear forever.
Steven Dunning is part of the team that takes care of injured Guadalupe fur seals. His personal connection to them was forged into a passion that shaped his career.
“They are one of my favorite animals,” Dunning said. “One of the first animals I rescued when I came to the rescue team a long time ago was a fur seal.”
SeaWorld San Diego is the only facility in Southern California authorized by NOAA for long-term rehabilitation. The team makes sure everyone gets their daily medication and also makes sure they’re practicing the skills they need to hunt in the wild, such as eating their fish in the water instead of on land.
Dunning said the goal for every animal who comes through their rehab facility is to release them, and their fur seals are getting stronger every day.
“There is a lot of hope for them,” he said. “So they’re doing pretty well.”
Smith said the team also acts as the eyes and ears of conservation scientists working to save the species, monitoring behavior and collecting samples for them to study and record.
“All of this work that we’re doing, all of this information we’re gathering, all the time that we’re taking and observing them and just gathering as much information as we can — I hope that it makes a difference in the entire population,” she said. “I think it is, and with these success cases, we can see it from rescue all the way to the return.”
The rescue team is hoping to release the fur seals together within the next year. The species typically grows about 5 feet to 7 feet long and lives about 20 years.