The day before a judge’s decision that may condemn the entire Children’s Pool harbor seal colony, SeaWorld biologists rescued a pup that swallowed a fishing hook and nearly strangled itself with the attached monofilament.
“That’s a happy ending, finally,” said Children’s Pool seal volunteer Marjane Aalam. Aalam has scouted area waters for the past two weeks, searching for the injured pup she spotted two Sundays prior.
“The string’s not too deep,” said SeaWorld marine biologist Mike Glenn. “It will have a scar but it should be OK.”
When rescuers arrived at SeaWorld with the male pup, they discovered that he had swallowed a fishhook, which lodged inside his cheek. The fishing line wrapped around the seal’s neck and could have strangled him as he grew, according to Dave Koontz, SeaWorld communications liaison.
“He’s a good weight, the wound was treated and we will continue to treat it to make sure there’s no infection,” Koontz said. “At some point in the near future, we hope to release him back to the wild.”
Koontz said keepers might release the pup “” who weighs about 45 pounds “” back to the sea anywhere from a few weeks to a month from now.
Seal Watch volunteer Ryan DeBellis said he monitored the pup for two weeks. Volunteers called SeaWorld to rescue it when they spotted the seal, but many times the colony was flushed into the water by beachgoers.
“Right out of the water I saw blood coming out of its neck ” it was pretty bad,” DeBellis said.
“That seal came back up only because there were no people on the beach,” Aalam said.
Seal Watch and other volunteers like Aalam warn tourists watching La Jolla’s harbor seal colony not to frighten the seals, especially during pupping season. As more seals have begun using the beach to haul out, tensions have escalated between seal activists and divers and local swimmers, who have traditionally enjoyed the Children’s Pool because of a breakwater built in 1931.
Although seals fall under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which says humans cannot harass them or scare them in any way, because of an ongoing lawsuit, the city may not protect La Jolla’s colony any longer.
“We got word today that both requests were denied. The seal case is over. The city must comply with the judgment,” La Jolla attorney Paul Kennerson said Monday of an ongoing case against the city, in which Kennerson sued, representing a swimmer cited for flushing seals. Kennerson said he wants the seals gone.
Judge William Pate ruled in 2005 that the City of San Diego must reduce Children’s Pool bacteria levels to swimming standards “” Kennerson said he wants the city to dredge. But Brian Pease, attorney for Animal Protection Rescue League, Seal Watch, appealed to the federal court, saying the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act trumped everything, Kennerson said.
“[Judge] Miller threw the case out, so Pease appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals,” Kennerson said.
Then one judge was accused of having pornography on his computer, so Pease went back to the 9th Circuit, asking them to hear the case en banc, according to Kennerson.
The same three-judge panel denied the petition for rehearing, Pease said.
“This is the last piece in the mosaic,” Kennerson said. “Mark this date: this morning, July 28, 2008.”
According to Pease, the denial for rehearing was expected, but Seal Watch wanted a rope erected that separates the seals from humans during pupping season.
“We can’t enforce the MMPA because we’re a private party,” Pease said. “Our case was focusing on getting that rope up and we weren’t saying the MMPA requires a rope “¦ The court didn’t dismiss our case on merit ” they just said that private parties can’t enforce the MMPA.”