Volunteer Shares Beauty of Marine Mammal Care Center By Writer and Contributor Emily McGinn
In 2015, photographer Jacquelyne May went down to the beach to take photographs of the water. She is also a painter, and she thought that if she took pictures of it, she would be able to paint it better. However, she walked away from her experience at the beach with much more than water photography. While there, she saw dead sea lions and malnourished pups. Seeing this drove her to take action to help.
May began collecting supplies from the community to help the Marine Mammal Care Center, a nonprofit in San Pedro that cares for sick marine wildlife. Eventually, she began to volunteer as a docent at the center.
Currently, the center has about 80 animals, May said. They have a few seals, but most of them are sea lions suffering from domoic acid poisoning from the toxic algal bloom occurring right now. Domoic acid poisoning, caused by an algae called Pseudo-nitzschia australis, occurs when an algal neurotoxin builds up in small fish, according to the Marine Mammal Center. Marine mammals such as sea lions eat these fish, and the toxin then builds up in the mammals. It can lead to brain damage, seizures and heart failure if it is not treated.
May said that the Marine Mammal Care Center team has noticed the number of domoic acid poisoning cases trending upward amid threats like climate change.
“It's spread all up and down the coast,” May says. “It’s from the warming ocean water temperatures and runoff from civilization, which allows [the toxic algae] to grow and thrive. We used to see it three or four times a year. This year, it started about two months earlier than usual, and we haven't seen it for that long.”
May encourages the community to get involved in the effort, as she has. When she first started at the Center, she did not know the difference between a sea lion and a seal. Now, she teaches visitors about marine life and is part of the rescue team that helps ensure beached sea lions and other marine life are kept safe before help arrives.
She emphasizes that anyone can help, either by paying attention to wildlife on the coast, by volunteering or by learning about the issues facing marine wildlife today.
“Probably the most important thing is, if you see a sea lion on the beach, that's not normal,” May said. “Especially beaches where people are, they don't normally come up. Don't ever come closer than 50 feet, because they're fast. They can run three times as fast as a human, and they're wild animals. They're cute, but they can be dangerous.”
May hopes to continue to be part of the mission to help sea lions heal, and to help people form connections with nature at the Marine Mammal Care Center.
“People just love them. They're really cute animals, and they're fun to watch when in the hospital. They're in pens, so you can get closer to them than you would in nature. They have personalities, and they play. They're just really neat animals.”
Bio:
Emily McGinn is a journalist based in the Los Angeles area. She enjoys reporting on and writing about a variety of topics from lifestyle to news, especially in her areas of specialty, environmental science and political science.