CARLSBAD, Calif. (KSWB) – A “very pregnant” sea lion crashed an upscale San Diego County golf course Thursday, presenting a unique challenge for rescuers who eventually ushered her back to sea, according to Nexstar Media Wire on june 24.
Workers at Omni La Costa Resort first spotted the animal on the green Thursday morning. That’s some three miles from the coast, though rescuers later noted that the animal came inland via the Batiquitos Lagoon, likely making its on-ground trek “only” a mile or so.
Golf course staff called SeaWorld Animal Rescue, and when program supervisor Jeni Smith and her team arrived, the animal didn’t appear to be in distress or in any immediate danger, she told KSWB.
“She was comfy, cozy on the golf course,” Smith said.
And the animal, which Smith described as “fairly large” and “very pregnant,” didn’t appear terribly concerned about all the fuss.
“She didn’t seem to be too alarmed by us,” Smith said. “She did keep her eye on us, and she was just relaxing on, I think it was the 16th hole, I guess.”
That’s in contrast to a harrowing rescue Smith and her team made earlier this year when a sea lion managed to get onto a busy San Diego freeway.Does California have private beaches?
Still, the SeaWorld team wanted to get the mom-to-be back to her natural habitat quickly and carefully. Smith said it was too far to the lagoon to simply walk along, coaxing the animal back toward the water.
When they tried to approach the sea lion, she started waddling in the wrong direction — and moving pretty fast despite her significant size, Smith said. The rescuers blocked the animal’s path east with their truck and regrouped.
Smith eventually decided to enlist resort employees, giving them a “quick safety briefing” and handing each of them a “shield” — a big sheet of plastic with handles that they could use to block the animal’s path. Rescuers and bewildered golf course workers lined up and created a tunnel of sorts, giving the sea lion a path and guiding it toward the parked rescue truck.
The plan worked, and once the sea lion was safely corralled, the rescue team took off for nearby Carlsbad State Beach. There, a crowd of locals and summer tourists watched the rescue with excitement.
