B.C. marine mammal experts on Monday urged the public not to discard debris into the ocean after a sea lion got entangled in rope for several days last week.
"It's so important not to discard rope, fishing gear, plastics into the marine environment," said Paul Cottrell, pacific marine mammal management coordinator at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, in an interview with ctvbc.ca.
It can lead to a "slow, painful" death, he said.
Fortunately, the sea lion that got entangled last week on Race Rocks, a marine ecological reserve off the southern tip of Vancouver Island, was able to be rescued.
Ryan Murphy, a marine scientist and manager at Race Rocks, reported the distressed sea lion to the B.C. Marine Mammal Response Network early last week.
On Thursday, a response team took a boat out to the sea lion. The team consisted of Cottrell, Lisa Spaven, the network's response coordinator, and Martin Haulena, a veterinarian at the Vancouver Aquarium.
"This animal was totally entangled and could move very little," Cottrell recalled.
The rope had wrapped around one of the sea lion's flippers and was digging into its flesh.
Video shot by the team showed the sea lion flailing in and out of the water.
Haulena tranquilized the sea lion.
He and Cottrell pulled the sea lion onto the rocks, and then Cottrell used a knife to cut away the rope.
The animal had been entangled for at least four or five days, Cottrell said.
"He appeared a little groggy. He hung around us for 15 minutes, then we moved off."
Cottrell said it's not always possible to intervene in entanglement cases.
If rescue members feel they can't get to the animal immediately after it's been tranquilized, they often won't proceed out of concern that it'll dive into the water and drown.
