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Cuddly Sea Creatures Can Put Bite on You

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Times Staff Writer

They have great long whiskers and huge brown eyes, but the baby sea lions or baby seals washing up on Orange County beaches also can take bites out of people.

In the past week, two yearling sea lions and a 5-month-old elephant seal have washed up, said Karin Wyman, curator of the Friends of the Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, the rehabilitation center for sick and injured seals and sea lions that are found from Seal Beach to San Onofre. “May-June is the season,” said Wyman. “Every year, it never fails. All these are coming in at the same time, and we expect it to continue through June.”

Jaw Power of Four Dobermans

“There is a real urge to want to pet and hold them,” said John Cunningham, director of the center. But cute and cuddly as they seem, seals and sea lions will bite and “a healthy 200-to-300-pound sea lion has the (jaw) power of four Dobermans,” he said.

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“Never has there been a case of rabies, but you can get other kinds of infections,” Cunningham said. The pups “can nip you pretty good because their teeth are really sharp.” There have been no instances of bites in Orange County this year, according to County Veterinarian Nila Kelly, but several bites by pinnipeds, a group that includes seals, walruses and other aquatic mammals with flippers, are reported every year in Southern California to local, state and federal officials by fishermen, animal control officers, lifeguards and inquisitive sunbathers.

Last year, a boy was bitten on the face by a California sea lion near Ventura. The year before, a girl suffered a severe bite to her abdomen when she tried to pet a distressed sea lion at Zuma Beach.

Also, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 prohibits anyone from disturbing, moving or even touching pinnipeds without authorization from the National Marine Fisheries Service. Severe violations of the act can result in imprisonment and civil penalties as high as $10,000.

The animals that come on shore are almost always starving, emaciated and are injured or ill, said Wyman. “Basically they’re coming up to die. If we didn’t pick them up, they would die.”

Pneumonia and parasites are the most common illnesses, she said. Many of the sea lions have fish hooks in their mouths, and the center has had animals with gun shot wounds.

Young pinnipeds are more likely to end up on beaches, and the young have a high death rate naturally, Cunningham said. “Half of the pups that are born die in the first three months. Those that make it, about 30% will die in the first year. Those’re the ones we get.”

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Wyman estimates that 60% of the pups that beach are California sea lions, 20% harbor seals and 20% elephant seals. Why they come to shore at this time of year “nobody’s really positive, but basically pups are on their own (at this time of year) and also very curious at this age about human beings. They’re out and about and when they get in trouble, they beach themselves,” she said.

People who run across a stranded seal or sea lion should stay clear of the animal and contact the lifeguard, local animal control agency or the center, Cunningham said. Besides not touching the animal, one should “make sure that no one throws water on it,” he said.

He said seals and seal lions, unlike dolphins, “can stay out of water indefinitely.” Many of the beached animals have pneumonia and an emaciated animal does not have that protective layer of blubber, so that “in some cases throwing water on them will make them go into shock and die,” Cunningham said.

Tania Pollak, a senior at Laguna Beach High School and a volunteer at the center, was bitten Monday by one of the recently rescued sea lion pups while she was feeding it. She said she has never had a serious bite but has been bitten about five times in the three years she’s been with the center.

All animals kept at the center are fed, treated and put back to sea, said Bill Ford, the center’s executive officer. Center volunteers do not touch or pet or try to tame the animals because “we don’t like to have the animals get in a position where they trust people because all human beings are not nice to them.”

“We have to recognize that the ocean is wilderness,” said Cunningham. “It’s like in Africa: you wouldn’t pet the lions.”

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