Return to the wild: the story of Number 74

Growing up I was always fascinated by marine mammals and collected every piece of information I could get my young hands on. My career goals shifted from an aspiring whale trainer to a journalist, but my obsession with these sea creatures has stayed with me. As my first year of graduate school came to an end the 2013 Unusual Mortality Event caught my attention and soon became the topic of my thesis. ❧ I had the opportunity to shadow the rescuers who were working front and center to save the young California Sea Lions. They told me many stories from this event. Here are two that demonstrate their dedication to helping these animals. ❧ SeaWorld, California's southernmost rescue center was a particularly unique case in this year's unusual stranding season. Because of their location so far south, they rarely see the higher numbers of sea lion strandings that Los Angeles and Orange County witness annually. ❧ When the numbers of rescued sea lions climbed in L.A. and O.C. SeaWorld offered help to these exhausted centers and took into their care some of the patients from the San Pedro Marine Mammal Care Center. ❧ By the time they taken in pups from surrounding shelters, the UME moved south. They now had to fight to take care of the sea lions they had rescued as well as those they had taken in to alleviate the burden from other centers. ❧ The California Wildlife Center was known for rehabilitating land animals from surrounding areas. They also assist in rescuing stranded sea life and transporting them to marine care centers. ❧ Jeff Hall was responsible for the coordinating rescues for the stranded pups. He recalled being inundated with calls from surrounding beaches where they had been washing up. He even made rescues by himself in the middle of the night. ❧ Although his center did not rehabilitate the sea lions, often times they would bring them in overnight if surrounding centers were too full. He and his team couldn't bare the thought of the yearlings starving to death. ❧ The numbers began to lower by fall of 2013 and the centers concluded the rehabilitation of the last patients brought in by the event. This was when I met Number 74, a two‐time stranded pup whose endurance and fight for survival became the inspiration behind my thesis.