Jul 8, 2008 5:37 am US/Pacific
Trapped Sea Lion Rescued From Bay Area Creek
SANTA CLARA (CBS/AP) ―
A dozen wildlife volunteers using fishing nets and a dog kennel sucessfully rescued a sea lion Monday afternoon that was trapped in a creek in Santa Clara.
The wayward California sea lion had been stuck in a shallow strip of water along a concrete channel of San Tomas Aquino Creek, near San Tomas Expressway and Scott Boulevard, since June 27.
"This location is about three miles from the waterway,'' said Jim Oswald, spokesman for the Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center, which succeded on it's third attempt to save the 6-foot, 200-pound juvenile mammal.
"This rescue went fabulous. It was a textbook rescue," Oswald said.
Wildlife experts believe the rescued sea lion is a female and have named her "Santoma" after San Tomas Expressway, Oswald said.
Crews from the center had tried unsucessfully to rescue the sea lion when it was first spotted in late June, and then again on July 1, but Oswald said they just couldn't catch it.
The amount of water and mud in the channel where she was stuck made the rescue attempts difficult, Oswald explained.
People watching the sea lion prior to Monday's successfull effort said it had been swimming frantically in all directions, looking for a way out of the channel.
After workers were able to safely corral the sea lion, the animal was taken to the Marine Mammal Center for a checkup by veterinarians who will evaluate it. The sea lion will stay for several days of observation before being released back into the ocean — most likely at either Point Reyes or San Mateo County's Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.
No one is quite sure how the sea lion made its way up the channel from San Francisco Bay.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
