baby baba ghanoush

Okay, so I probly shouldn't even count this rescue as mine. I wasn't even on the beach where he stranded. I was miles away, on a different beach, picking up a different species with the help of the fire department and the harbor patrol. I merely picked him up from the ranger station after his capture and helped get him fed. But this cute little sea lion weaner, Baba Ghanoush, is way more photogenic than the two elephant seals I did wrangle personally today so I couldn't resist claiming him as my own.

At just 13 kg, he is the picture of emaciation. I've intentionally spared you the full body shot. His saggy baggy skin is just so sad. I figure I'll get better pictures in the morning. (I had to brighten this one up in Photoshop. No flash photography is allowed and I took this just before his 9 pm feed.) But I decided to go with this one as I really wanted to get something posted.

The last two seal days I've had were much more discouraging and not as visually appealing. First I got to work with the otter we didn't want to pick up. She'd been steadily declining and regularly drawing a crowd despite, or perhaps because of, my signs. She was so very cute but, since she died on transport, I was having trouble putting a happy spin on her tale. At least that means she was a good pick up...

Then the next night, last night, I worked with my second ever adult harbor seal. Adult harbors would sooner die than strand so, not surprisingly, both died within hours of rescue. My first adult harbor was years ago and she died right after we tubed her (presumably from the fishing gear in her digestive track). Yesterday's seal had a much more obvious ailment - a gigantic shark bite that removed most of his femur. It isn't often when you're actually glad to see an animal die but this guy needed to go. I actually didn't work with him when he came in for which, I think, I am quite grateful. I was just on clean up detail, after finding him dead at 11 pm when it was time for more pain meds. I got some really great gruesome shots of the wound but somehow I don't think you need to see them. At least the seal got some good drugs before he passed. The other blessing is that he was a boy. This means we don't have to keep an eye out for a newly orphaned pup.

And so, even without these two dismal days to contrast, today was a good day. The coordination alone was a challenge. All three seals were called in within 10 minutes of each other and they were each in distinctly different directions. Amazingly, not only did we recruit enough help (including one guy who had to sit on the beach and wait for us for two hours), we also had a chance to get lunch (take out) and stop and pee (the real miracle).

Tomorrow will be an early morning with three mouths to feed, two pens to clean, and a transport to prepare so I guess I'm off to bed.