Local Mother Launches Campaign To Protect Stranded Sea Lions From Public
HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A statewide initiative to protect sick and stranded sea lions along the coast has become one local woman's personal crusade.
As record numbers of sick and dying sea lions continue to wash up on shores all along the California coast, evidence mounts of marine mammal abuse as the ill animals seem to be exploited by beach goers.
One local mother saw enough of this exploitation to take action, launching a campaign to protect the sick sea lions.
"I've seen them being poked with surfboards, kicked in the head, sodas poured on them, cheetos thrown at them, people have set their children on top of them to take selfies," activist Wendy Hawkins said. "They can't protect themselves. They're literally dying."
In less than a month, Hawkins' Marine Mammal Safety team is over 300 volunteers strong and counting. The volunteers walk the beaches in turn, and each time they spot a sick sea lion on shore, they place hazard tape around the animal to keep people away for mutual protection.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that warming temperatures in the ocean have attracted the sea lions' food, mostly sardines and squid, to deeper, cooler waters.
"We keep getting sea lions, we get a few every day that come up," one official said. "Sometimes it's pups, sometimes it's the older, bigger sea lions. The bottom line is that their ecosystem's been disturbed, and so they're coming ashore, which is not normal."
Hawkins spoke before the Hunting Beach City Council on Monday, requesting that officers enforce laws to protect the animals, and that her volunteers be allowed to put signs up on beaches, providing a number to call for help in the case a sick sea lion is stranded ashore, with a warning for beach goers not to approach.
Though approaching a sea lion is punishable by jail time or a hefty fine, lifeguards report that few seem to be heeding the warning.
For more information on what to do if you see a sea lion, or on how you can help, visit the Pacific Marine Mammal Center's page here.