The Marine Mammal Care Center is a rescue service for mostly beached sea lions and elephant seals. Passionate, dedicated volunteers make it all happen.
Susie asked her mural partner what brought the animals to the care center. I’m going to quote a little from her response:
Some number of them come in injured by fishing lines or nets, or even, amazingly, gunshots. The demoic acid that they ingest from fish is worsened by agricultural runoff into the ocean. And their food supply is also affected by competition from commercial fishing. So a percentage of the seals being treated are there due to human behavior. Also a percentage are there due to their own failure-to-thrive conditions.