Seal rescued, released

Duchess, a northern fur seal who was found wounded in Huntington

Beach, was released into her natural habitat Sunday in the Channel

Islands.

The fur seal -- rare in these waters -- was rushed to the Pacific

Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach on Aug. 17. When she arrived,

Duchess was severely dehydrated, emaciated and had a long gash on her

rear left flipper.

Officials at the nonprofit animal rescue center did not know how

the Alaska native got so far south.

“She got very, very lost,” said Emily Wing, director of

development and marketing for the center. “Maybe she was just

following a cold water current that went a way it didn’t normally

go.”

Dean Gomersall, an animal care supervisor who helped bring Duchess

to the center, said he was surprised to arrive in Huntington Beach to

rescue a “stranded sea lion covered in tar” and find that it was

actually a northern fur seal.

“We rarely see these animals this far south,” Gomersall said. “We

have only cared for nine of them in the past 15 years and the last

one was five years ago.”

Duchess is the first sub-adult northern fur seal to be admitted to

the center. The resident veterinarian estimated Duchess to be about 2

or 3 years old, according to her length. All of the previous eight

were newly weaned pups.

Of the 171 animals the center cares for in an average year, the

vast majority are California sea lions, Pacific harbor seals and

northern elephant seals. The center is also a holding station for

dolphins, porpoises and whales awaiting transportation to larger

facilities in San Diego or Santa Barbara.

A healthy northern fur seal of this age should weigh between 90

and 100 pounds, but when Duchess was brought in she weighed 63

pounds. She was tube-fed until she could start eating whole fish and

was released after she started diving for fish on her own. By then,

she had gained nearly 30 pounds.

According to the center, the habitat of northern fur seals is

limited to the North Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea and the Sea of

Okhotsk off the eastern coast of Siberia.

Duchess was released off San Miguel Island, the northernmost of

the Channel Islands and the closest area to Orange County where

northern fur seals are common.

The gash on her flipper could not be explained. It was too even to

have been caused by a propeller wound or a shark bite, Wing said.