Going home

Suzie Harrison

Perhaps they’ve been tapping their flippers together chanting there’s

no place like home.

If so, it worked because soon that’s where Harvey, Cosmo and Mr.

Peepers will be going -- home. They will be returning to the Pacific

Ocean at Aliso Creek Beach on Saturday. On June 21, Friends of the

Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center will be releasing three more California

Sea Lions that have been recently rehabilitated at the facility in

the canyon.

“There will be three released this Saturday and three next

Saturday, both at Aliso Beach, both at 10 a.m.,” Education Director

Beate Litz said.

She said each of the sea lions gets a name, they run through

various phases of themes for names such as cheese or wine or drinks.

“Cosmo came in when he was 6 months old, we found him in Crystal

Cove,” Litz said. “He came in February and weighted 23 pounds and at

the release we’ll announce his current weight.”

Cosmo was undernourished and dehydrated and had been weaned from

his mother for a while.

“The typical patients are at the weaned age, all born about June

because it’s the breeding season,” Litz said. “The average stay is

three to four months, it’s quite a rehabilitation process.”

Most of them are extremely underweight and dehydrated. Harvey was

rescued from San Clemente on March 20, is 9 to 12-months old and was

described as a bag of bones when they found him.

“They get water from the fish they eat, so if they haven’t been

eating they’re dehydrated,” Litz said. “It’s not healthy, if they

haven’t been eating and haven’t been nourished then they won’t have a

healthy immune system.”

She explained that they start off on a liquid diet for animals

that are extremely emaciated.

“Just like you would with someone who is anorexic,” Litz said.

“Slowly and surely as they get better, they’re worked up to solid

food.”

It’s integral for people who find an emaciated sea lion on shore

to call them or a lifeguard. Typically their response will be to feed

the sea lion and that’s wrong.

“With an emaciated animal, it’s one of the worst things for him,”

Litz said. “When they are that skinny their body functions start to

shut down. We slowly rehabilitate them to get their digestive system

functioning properly.”

Once on whole food the goal is to get them diving in the pool Litz

said.

Litz and volunteer Kirsten Sedlick couldn’t wait to tell the story

of how they came up with the name Mr. Peepers after they rescued him

together at Crescent Bay on March 18.

They recall that they got the call in the evening after they were

pretty much finished doing all they needed to for the day.

“A woman called, extremely panicked saying that she saw an animal

in the next cove north of Main Beach,” Litz said. “She had given us

her cell phone number. It was starting to get dark and we had a

flashlight. We were thinking the next cove north would be by Heisler

Park.

They couldn’t locate the animal or get through to the tourist on

her cell phone. Finally they did but at that time it was completely

dark.

“I was thinking ‘oh my goodness, I hope it’s not a big animal,’”

Litz said. “We had her meet us at our car , and she takes us to

Crescent Bay. So we’re backing down the steep hillside in the dark.”

She described that the animal was really well hidden, that they

wouldn’t be able to find him and offered her assistance.

“We were south on Crescent Beach, Beate is in font of me and has

the flashlight,” Sedlick said. “All I can hear her say is, ‘Kirsten

you’ve got to see this.’ There was a huge piling about six feet up;

from on top of that [the sea lion] slowly turned around to peek at

us. All you could see with the flashlight was his big eyes peeping

around the piling, so we named him Mr. Peepers.”

He was stuck, wedged in the piling.

Animals that are healthy enough to be released are often

sponsored.

“One of the Friends of the Sea Lion Kids’ Club members -- a local

Laguna Beach family, the Sackey family -- adopted Harvey and Mr.

Peepers.”

To find out more about the Friends of the Sea Lion, or Buddy,

Sammie and Martini -- the three sea lions that will be released June

21, or to make a donation, call 494-3050. The marine mammal center is

located at 20612 Laguna Canyon Road or online at www.fslmmc.org.