Jun 26, 2009 8:20 pm US/Pacific
Sea Lion Continues Recovery After I-880 Rescue
OAKLAND (BCN) ―
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A baby sea lion is shown resting at the Marine Mammal Center after being found wandering on a busy Oakland freeway.
Marine Mammal Center
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A sea lion cowers under an Oakland Police patrol car after being found along Interstate 880 Monday.
CBS
A young sea lion that was rescued after wandering onto Interstate Highway 880 in Oakland on Monday is continuing to recover at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, center spokesman Jim Oswald said Friday.
The year-old animal, named "Fruitvale" by its rescuers after the neighborhood near where it was found, is one of several sea lions that the center has rescued because of an apparent shifting or dwindling of the animals' food supply, Oswald said.
Fruitvale was picked up by Oakland police Monday morning after being spotted around 5:45 a.m. waddling south in the Highway 880 center divide just south of Park Street.
Oswald said Monday that he heard that police had tried to block the sea lion's path with a patrol car.
"I'm told that one of them opened the door to the police car and little Fruitvale just jumped right in," he said.
Oswald said Friday that the center, which covers about 600 miles of California coastline between Mendocino County and San Luis Obispo County, takes in about 10 to 15 animals a day, a handful of which end up dying.
Sea lions subsist largely off anchovies, sardines and herrings, and Oswald said that it's not clear what's causing the food sources to dwindle.
"These little guys are definitely telling us something about the health of the ocean," Oswald said.
It's also unclear exactly how Fruitvale ended up in Oakland, although Oswald guessed the sea lion was either seeking food or was weakened and got lost.
Fruitvale is expected to survive and will be released when he is healthy, but was still being fed by tube as of Friday because he is not well enough to eat on his own, according to Oswald.
The sea lion weighs about 19 kilograms, but "he really should be more than that, about twice that size actually," he said.
Fruitvale is one of about 125 animals at the center, which about quadrupled its capacity when it reopened on June 15 after a major renovation, Oswald said.
Oswald said that the center can hold up to 200 animals, and that capacity isn't a problem as much as finding volunteers or funding to buy fish to feed the animals.
Those interested in volunteering or donating can visit marinemammalcenter.org.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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