Mammal momma

For the past 19 years, Michele Hunter has been Orange County’s unofficial pinniped matriarch. As the director of operations/animal care for Laguna Beach’s Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Hunter oversees the rescue and rehabilitation of dozens of distressed seals and sea lions each year.

Under Hunter’s direction, about 70 animal care volunteers and 10 education volunteers retrieve sick and injured aquatic mammals along a 42-mile strip of coastline that runs from the shores of Seal Beach to the cliffs of San Onofre. The center averages 200 rescues a year with a success rate of about 70%, according to Hunter.

From the moment these at-risk sea mammals are plucked from beaches and harbors until they’re strong enough to survive in the wild, center staffers are there nursing them back to health.

One rescuee, Rosita, a baby harbor seal, spent her first nights with the center in a baby’s bassinet.

“I feel extremely fortunate to work with animals and for an organization that I am passionate about,” Hunter said. “Even after a 14- to 16-hour day, knowing you’ve made a difference in the lives of these animals, makes you keep coming back. We also have the important opportunity to speak on their behalf to members of the public that visit our center and afford them the opportunity to see first hand what some of the animals are recovering from.”

Careful handling required

The animals are tube-fed with a rich blend of warm water, herring pieces, Karo Syrup and fish oil. A marine mammal milk replacement is administered to the very young as well. They also receive a daily vitamin — formulated for marine mammals — and antibiotics if prescribed. During the height of the busy season, center staffers may perform 100 tube feedings in one day.

Although the Pacific Marine Mammal Center offers the best of care, the atmosphere of the center is anything but tranquil. Restraining and feeding these disoriented animals is difficult and their bites are often worse than their barks.

“They do bite and yes it does hurt,” Hunter said. “But we are careful to never let our guard down around these wild animals. When handling them we wear protective gloves, clothing and boots.”

But sharp teeth aren’t the only occupational hazards of pinniped rescue. Hunter and her dedicated volunteers work long hours and there’s no predicting when or where a large rescue might come about. One of the most unique rescues occurred when animals had to be saved not from the ocean, but from the center’s grounds.

Mudslide engulfed center

It was 1998 and the rains of El Nino sent muddy water running into the facility’s outside pools. Within minutes of moving all the animals inside, a mountain of mud engulfed the pens and pools. A record 25 pinnipeds had to be tagged and released that day. Three years later two of them were spotted by a researcher on the Channel Islands.

In 2002, more than 125 animals had to be rescued from the ocean in a matter of five weeks due to a domoic acid outbreak. There were sometimes 10 rescue calls in a day.

One volunteer told her boss at work she had to leave to come to the center to help because this was her family and they had an emergency, Hunter recalls.

For many of these humanitarians, the mammalian wards of the center are just that — an extended family.

And so it must be with a heavy heart that, after rescuing, naming and nursing these animals back to health, it’s time to return them to their natural surroundings. But according to Hunter it’s a “positive emotional journey.

“When you are able to watch an animal be released back to the ocean it’s an extremely proud and bittersweet moment.”