A Guadalupe fur seal is recovering at the Vancouver Aquarium after being rescued thousands of kilometres from its home off Baja California.
The seal, an adult male, was spotted Tuesday off Ucluelet by Wendy Szaniszlo, a Vancouver Aquarium research associate. She alerted Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parks Canada and the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.
The seal was seen again Wednesday, but officials weren’t able to corral it until Thursday, when it was spotted on a beach within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. It was then transported to the aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.
Martin Haulena, head veterinarian at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, said the seal is emaciated and dehydrated. Haulena said the species, which breeds on Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, is rare in B.C., which is outside its normal range.
Guadalupe fur seals are listed as a threatened species in the U.S.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event” last fall after sick and dead Guadalupe fur seals began washing up along the California coast.
Scientists believe warmer waters off the West Coast — dubbed “the blob” — could be to blame for the strandings. Some species of fish the seals eat may have moved farther north than usual to avoid the warmer waters.
