A call from a contractor on an oil platform off Huntington Beach led a rescue team from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach to free a sea lion entangled in fishing line.
Video of Saturday's rescue by Orange County's only licensed marine mammal facility follows on the next page.
]
See also:
Gray Whale Entangled in Fishing Net
[VIDEO of Sea Lion Lunch:] Gray Whales Provide Killer Poses for Dana Point Excursions
Death: It's Not Just for Adult Sea Lions
Videographer Priscilla Salazar, who joined Pacific Marine's Dean Gomerall, Scott Sedlick and Wendy Leeds on the rescue operation, captured the following footage.
When the contractor called the marine mammal facility, there were actually seven sea lions near the oil platform appearing to be suffering from some kind of line entanglements around their necks, as well as a pup who looked ill.
But when the rescue team arrived, they could only get to the one adult female on the oil platform. She appeared to have at least two other injuries from recent tangles with gill nets, according to Pacific Marine officials.
Sedlick secured the sea lion while Gomersall cut away the netting before she was set free. The team also managed to capture the malnourished, four-month-old pup, who was taken back to the marine mammal center for treatment. The pup was nicknamed Jefferson after an oil platform contractor.
However, despite the gloved high fives over a successful rescue operation, Pacific Marine soberly reminds the public that mammals are increasingly winding up in fishing nets and lines.
Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.