Anonymous
By the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (CIMWI)
A heroic effort to help a sea lion that was stabbed in the face!
[On Sunday], a skilled and experienced CIMWI volunteer was able to safely and successfully remove a knife from the face of an adult make California sea lion near the Channel Islands Harbor public boat launch ramp.
Thankfully, the knife missed all vital structures of the sea lion’s face and the wound will heal on its own!
The knife was imbedded in the sea lion’s snout up to the handle. CIMWI used a pole with a hook blade on the end to snag the belt cutter slot on the handle of the knife. Our volunteer pulled the hook blade straight and used slight upward presser to avoid cutting the sea lion as the blade came out of its face.
The sea lion only reacted to our CIMWI volunteer as the blade came out of his snout. This was a huge advantage to the success of our mission as the sea lion weighed about 400 pounds and he could have charged at any time and potentially hurt our volunteer.
The sea lion jumped off the dock as soon as we removed the knife. We observed the animal swimming around for about 10 minutes before he hopped up on a nearby dock finger. We continued to observe the sea lion at a distance and he was still sunning himself when we left.
Our team member’s skilled and stealth technique using the blade hook at the end of the pole saved this animal from further danger from the knife that was imbedded in his face! This sea lion now has a second chance at life.
NOTE: Photos are not the highest quality as they were taken from a safe distance so we didn’t cause the animal to react and jump off the dock into the water before we got a chance to help and remove the knife from his face. The animal was first reported at 7:20 AM by Channel Islands Harbor Patrol at Hollywood Beach but it retreated to the water and swam over to a dock near Channel Islands Harbor public boat launch ramp.
