Marine debris is bad enough when it washes up on our shorelines. Imagine what it’s like for animals who call the water their home, like sea lions.
Off the coast of Vancouver Island, staff from the Vancouver Aquarium have been helping rescue sea lions entangled in debris like packing straps, ropes, wires and plastics. The location is near Fanny Bay and just north of Washington state and the St. Mary-Milk Rivers basin.
The effort is one of many conducted coast-to-coast to clean up waterways. Others include beach projects by the Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.
The work is difficult and expensive. A professionally trained veterinarian from the Aquarium’s Marine Science Centre, along with others from the Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, recently freed two California sea lions near Vancouver Island.
The sea lions are temporarily sedated and the gear is removed, using a boat, while the animal remains in the water.
Four other entangled sea lions were sighted in the area during the recent rescue operation. It’s estimated there are 400 sea lions snared in trash along the coastline.
Credit: Vancouver Aquarium
The effort costs about $2,000 per rescue, for the Aquarium’s travel costs, team time and the anesthetic drugs used on the sea lions.
A less-expensive and practical alternative would be to convince more people to properly dispose of their trash, and “lose the loop” when throwing away packing straps, six-pack rings, ropes, wires and other plastics.
Credit: Vancouver Aquarium
In other words, snip it --- use a pair of scissors to slice straps into pieces before you throw them away, just in case they somehow make their way into the water.
The Aquarium also urges people to get involved in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, an initiative of the Aquarium and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The Vancouver Aquarium Sea Lion Disentanglement Project has been funded by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, allowing Wendy Szaniszlo, Vancouver Aquarium associate researcher, to document how and how often Steller sea lions are getting entangled in marine debris, and allowing Dr. Martin Haulena, Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre head veterinarian, to develop safe, reliable methods of disentanglement specifically addressing sea lions.
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