Meet Joulu.
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| Joulu, in haste |
Joulu is a happy California sea lion. Joulu is running home to the Pacific Ocean from a kennel carrier in which he was placed at the crest of Rodeo Beach, facing west, for his release after a stint in rehab at The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) in Sausalito, CA.
Joulu is one of about 600 California sea lions, elephant seals, and harbor seals that find their way, mostly involuntarily, to TMMC each year. I say mostly, because TMMC admits a few marine mammals that are affectionately referred to as Repeat Offenders who just seem to prefer the hospitality in the company of other rescued marine mammals in an environment free of predators. This is a fraction of the total number that checks into the network of marine mammal centers along American shorelines every year. These centers rescue, rehabilitate, and release the animals back to the wild. They also study the animals so that we can understand our oceans better, and educate the public.
Occasionally someone will call and report a fur seal, sea turtle, or a dolphin in distress. When I arrived at TMMC on January 21, 2011, the day of Joulu's release, a concerned woman had just called to report that a penguin was walking along a road in Montara. Penguins don't normally frequent the northern hemisphere, which is that half of the planet in which Montara is situated, so the dispatcher thanked her for the call and told her it was probably a migrating sea bird and to call us back if things got worse.
Occasionally someone will call and report a fur seal, sea turtle, or a dolphin in distress. When I arrived at TMMC on January 21, 2011, the day of Joulu's release, a concerned woman had just called to report that a penguin was walking along a road in Montara. Penguins don't normally frequent the northern hemisphere, which is that half of the planet in which Montara is situated, so the dispatcher thanked her for the call and told her it was probably a migrating sea bird and to call us back if things got worse.
But this is a story about Joulu, a lovely sea lion who got to go home that day.
In his picture, he is dashing with impressive agility and speed as California sea lions do. Unlike seals, for whom sea lions are commonly mistaken, and who scoot along the beach on their bellies, sea lions use their flippers to walk or run.
Joulu, a male juvenile, was first observed on Monterey State Beach on December 23, 2010 drinking water and lethargic on the sand by the base of Wharf #2. A rescue attempt was aborted when Joulu returned to the ocean. He was spotted again on December 29, and this time the rescue was a success. Joulu was transported to Sausalito for the vet team to evaluate on December 30. At 39 kilos he was moderately underweight, so he received treated for malnutrition and released 22 days later.
Some arrive at TMMC so young that they don't even know how to hunt for food. As such, they are stabilized and then enrolled in Fish School, where a team of trained volunteers teaches these pups how to catch fish. Once they are healthy and demonstrate they can hunt for, catch, and eat fish on their own in the pools, the pupils are about ready for release.
For Joulu's release, like most others, a team of TMMC staff and volunteers loaded him into a kennel carrier and lifted him onto the bed of a pick-up truck.
Joulu, a male juvenile, was first observed on Monterey State Beach on December 23, 2010 drinking water and lethargic on the sand by the base of Wharf #2. A rescue attempt was aborted when Joulu returned to the ocean. He was spotted again on December 29, and this time the rescue was a success. Joulu was transported to Sausalito for the vet team to evaluate on December 30. At 39 kilos he was moderately underweight, so he received treated for malnutrition and released 22 days later.
Some arrive at TMMC so young that they don't even know how to hunt for food. As such, they are stabilized and then enrolled in Fish School, where a team of trained volunteers teaches these pups how to catch fish. Once they are healthy and demonstrate they can hunt for, catch, and eat fish on their own in the pools, the pupils are about ready for release.
For Joulu's release, like most others, a team of TMMC staff and volunteers loaded him into a kennel carrier and lifted him onto the bed of a pick-up truck.
I drove the truck accompanied by a young volunteer who recently moved to the area from Rome, Italy by way of New Jersey. When we arrived at the release point, a short lumber down the hill to Rodeo Beach from TMMC, a crowd had formed. Several groups of school children on field trips anticipated Joulu's arrival and release. They formed a wide lane through which Joulu would parade, hastily, to the water's edge before diving home.
Joulu was ready to go, and vocalized his impatience in the kennel just before another TMMC volunteer leaned down to open the gridded steel door to set him free. Like most California sea lions in this situation, he bolted.
Most of the sea lions that check out of TMMC are released in what is known as the Red Triangle. One apex along the perimeter of this triangle is Bodega Bay, from which one side of the triangle heads southwest just far enough to encompass the Farallon Islands. There, the triangle turns sharply southeast to Big Sur. The shoreline along the north route back to Bodega Bay from this point makes up the third side of the triangle. Any living creature inside this perimeter is part of the food chain, with great white sharks right up close to the top. Despite sensationalism, sharks tend not to eat people. They prefer to feed on sea lions. Things get bloody, and that is why the triangle is named Red. Which is something of a concern to a lot of people who think about this the first time they see one of these rehab graduates bolt for the water.
Most of the sea lions that check out of TMMC are released in what is known as the Red Triangle. One apex along the perimeter of this triangle is Bodega Bay, from which one side of the triangle heads southwest just far enough to encompass the Farallon Islands. There, the triangle turns sharply southeast to Big Sur. The shoreline along the north route back to Bodega Bay from this point makes up the third side of the triangle. Any living creature inside this perimeter is part of the food chain, with great white sharks right up close to the top. Despite sensationalism, sharks tend not to eat people. They prefer to feed on sea lions. Things get bloody, and that is why the triangle is named Red. Which is something of a concern to a lot of people who think about this the first time they see one of these rehab graduates bolt for the water.
Joulu is likely headed for the Farallon Islands. We know this because the few animals TMMC has released with tracking mechanisms have done just that, swim almost a straight line west from the coast, skim across the Cordell Bank, and reunite with their cronies on the rocky cliffs of the Farallons. There's a great book called Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey about the Farallons, which I highly recommend.
As a California sea lion, Joulu is a pinniped, which is a group of animals that includes seals, sea lions, fur seals, and walruses. They are particularly fascinating. For one, they are mammals, like us. They are socialized, and I can tell you first hand they are very clear communicators even though they don't speak English. They possess giant brown eyes and long whiskers. They are wild. They bite. Their seafood diet is very similar to our seafood diet, so we learn a lot about the quality of our seafood supply by studying their health.
As a California sea lion, Joulu is a pinniped, which is a group of animals that includes seals, sea lions, fur seals, and walruses. They are particularly fascinating. For one, they are mammals, like us. They are socialized, and I can tell you first hand they are very clear communicators even though they don't speak English. They possess giant brown eyes and long whiskers. They are wild. They bite. Their seafood diet is very similar to our seafood diet, so we learn a lot about the quality of our seafood supply by studying their health.
They will look you in the eye from depths no human has ever experienced.
In one special way, as evolution would have it, they have retained an unusual characteristic: they inhabit land and water. Imagine a life with those dimensions.
I have observed at almost every California sea lion release that when the animal reaches the water's edge, it stops, looks left, looks right, gives something a thought, and then slips easily into the ocean. You can see Joulu do this in the slide show above. A few seconds later, a bob up, another look around, and like wild animals do, they dip under, gone.
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