Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome back to so Cal with Val, where we explore
the people, the places, and the passions that make Southern
California really shine. Today's episode is truly something special, especially
for those of us who love the ocean, it's wildlife,
and we love protecting the coastal communities. We're diving no
pun intended, into the incredible work of the Pacific Marine
(00:44):
Mammals Center in Laguna Beach, a nonprofit that's been rescuing, rehabilitating,
and releasing marine mammals for over fifty years. Some of
you may have never heard about it, so this will
be a really special episode for you. They've saved thousands
of sea lions, seals, and other marine life, all while
(01:04):
educating thousands of school kids and visitors like us about
the ocean conservation. And joining me today is Glen Gray,
CEO of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, who leads this
award winning organization with heart, innovation and a vision definitely
for the future and a love for the ocean of course.
(01:26):
So whether you've lived in SoCal your whole life or
you're just discovering coastal gems, you won't want to miss
what Glen has to share, especially going into the summertime.
He's going to share about sea lions, rescues, volunteer heroes,
ocean health, and even how you can get involved if
you choose to. So let's get started. Welcome Glen Gray
(01:49):
to sokaal with Val.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Thank Val, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Tell us, so, first of all, congratulations on being named
California's Nonprofit of the Year. So tell us what does
that recognition mean for this center?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh, thank you, belly, Yeah, that was that was quite
a pleasant surprise. What happens every year the State Assembly,
so the senators and assembly people get to choose a
non profit from their respective jurisdictions, and so Senator Strickland
selected us. So that put us in a group of
(02:27):
one hundred and forty for profits out of a thousand
in the state. So it's quite an honor. We certainly
cherished it. As you said in the beginning, we've been
working pretty hard for a little over fifty years, and
so it's nice to have that recognition, especially for our
(02:48):
employees and our volunteers that really will make it happen.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And that is an award for your district, for your
Senate district, or for our county in Orange County.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
In this particular case, it was we were selected by
Senator Strickland for a nonprofit within his district, which for
the most part covers the same geographical area that we cover,
the coastal area of Orange County.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So that's that cover like even Huntington Beach.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
It actually starts north in Seal Beach leave his district
fades a bit more inland when we get down towards
Data Point.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, it's a big area, it is, And I'm sure
and I'm sure his nonprofits doesn't just have to be
in ocean oriented.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Oh no, no, it could be any In fact, out
of the one hundred and forty that were recognized, we
were only one of two that were environmentally oriented.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, it's kind of interesting considering how important the environment
is to everybody in these days. But that's great, that's
great to know. What do you think are some of
the things that contributed to your recognition.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well, Centator Strickland had an opportunity to visit us and
became more well, i'll backtrack just a little bit. He's
very ocean conservation oriented and animal protection oriented, so I
think we resonated with him on both of those levels
and then once he got to know us, he liked
most people. We actually have kind of a saying internally,
(04:20):
we go gush, I didn't know we did that, or
I didn't know what you did that. We do so
many different things and so and hopefully your viewers will
appreciation for that. But that's what happened with Centator Strickland.
As we talked, he goes, oh, I didn't know you
did that. I didn't do that. So pretty soon it says, okay,
it's pretty obvious choice.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, that's great. Absolutely, that's wonderful. And you're located in
the canyon behind Laguna Beach for our listeners and our viewers.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Sure, so, yeah, we're in the Laguna Canyon Road. To
kind of give you put that in context, if you
know where the toll road is, halfway, say between the
toll road and main beach.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay, the toll road being this three yes, correct, Okay,
all right, great, And have you been in the same
building the whole time?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Been there since the late seventies. It's we have a
long time the little red barn so and it's one
of those things that people drive by they go, yeah,
I've seen that barn. I always mean to stop there.
What is it? So we don't like to be the
best cap siecret, but sometimes we are. But yeah, it's
a well that's a little red barn. Anymore, we're going
under construction, so it's going to be a big red barn.
(05:27):
But it's pretty noticeable as you drive through the canyon.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So can you tell us a little bit about how
the Pacific Marine Mammal Center got it start?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Oh, that's a great story. So it started with a
young girl walking along the beach in Laguna and she
saw a sea lion in distress. But she wasn't quite sure,
but she could tell that it was in distress. She
wasn't quite sure what to do about it, so she
approached a lifeguard and that's how it started. So that
(05:58):
lifeguard rest took care of that sea lion. Then he
brought in his fellow buddy, lifeguard John, and the two
of them started taking care of sick injured sea lions,
initially just there in looking at beach, because they were
looking at beach lifeguards. And from there it grew John
(06:22):
John Cunningham and Jim Stouffer, or the two gentlemen. John
was also shortly after that a teacher had looking at
Beach High School, and so he started to incorporate marine
biology marine conservation into his coursewar into his curriculum at
the high school. And the funny part of it was
(06:43):
when they first started, they were taking these patients home
and taking care of them in baby pools in their backyard,
if you can imagine that. So quickly the word got
on more and more people asked for them to rescue
more and more animals. Obviously, they couldn't do that in
baby pools in their backyard forever. So they approached this
(07:06):
hardly and that's how they came into the barn. It
was a city property, City of Living to Beach property
that wasn't being used. So they took over the barn
and literally the kids from the high school came down
and dug pools.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Originally, what a great story of community action, right right,
people taking part taking action on something that they see
and need. So tell us how did you get involved?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I got involved through the board, I have to
give credit words to First, my wife got involved and
so I was around it, but I was busy in
my other career at the time, and there was the
board has six year term limits, so she was turning out,
and the Governess committee happened to be meeting at our
(07:55):
house that day, saying, gosh, Catherine, you're going to turn out.
We're going to get to replace you. And all of
a sudden, the heads kind of looked over at me,
and I think I just got volunteered. But it was great.
Katherine and I have a real love for the ocean.
We're very avid scuba divers, and that was kind of
the first connection from diving into the organization. So she
(08:17):
turned out. I came on. I was on the board
for just about six years and the former CEO resigned
and we're starting to look at, you know, the process
of recruiting and all that, and my wife said, well,
why are you give it a Oh, I forgot a
missing peace. I had retired or attempted to retire, right
(08:39):
at the beginning of the pandemic, which was kind of
odd timing. So I was keeping myself busy, especially being
on the board of PMMC. Former CEO left asked forward,
Katherine said, why don't you try it? I called the chairman.
He goes, it's a great idea. So he pulled the
rest of the board and that's how I became CEO
about three years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Three years ago, and may I ask what field of
work you were in before? What is it all related
to anything like this?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Absolutely unrelated. I called it my second act. I was
a banker for forty years, oh my, which gave me
the opportunity to be the treasure. If you're a banker
and you're on a not for profit work, you harmly
get to be the treasure. Is the thing, because when
you're the treasure on a board, not for profit board,
it does give you a better insight into the inner
workings of the organization. So it does. It does adam
(09:30):
in my favor.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
And also the responsibilities that people sometimes just don't understand
how important it is to have certain funds for things.
They don't think about it, you know when you ask
for donations. But things do cost money to operate. Yeah,
and especially in the case like this where you're trying
to save the lives of our little sea animals. So
(09:52):
tell us what species specifically you care for.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Sure, predominantly California sea lions. That's the larger popular within
sort of our jurisdiction, which is, by the way, we
cover the fifty two mile coastline of Orange County. So
essentially seal Beach to sand On no for you. So
within that, as I mentioned, California sealions, seals, elephant seals.
(10:16):
People often don't think that elephant seals come this far south.
They're kind of better known to be up from San
Simon area, but they do make their way down Harbor seals,
occasionally fur seals, and then once in a while Guadaloupe
fur seal makes its way up from the Mexican waters.
So that kind of covers the seal world in a
(10:37):
pet world. And then we also attend to dolphins, whales,
and turtles.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Oh in turtles of course. So that if when it
is rescued or when you find it to be heard
or something, if it's inside that fifty six mile radius,
you care for it. That's right, we do, because I
guess you don't have like it's not like you have
a mark on or something it says it belongs to
(11:05):
San Francisco Ocean, right, It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
If it has been rescued before it. So we're called
the Stranding Organization, and we're one of thirteen up and
down the coast of California. So there's one in San Diego.
We cover Orange County, La, so on and so forth
up the coast, and when any of us treat a
patient and it's rehabilitated, we're sending it back home to
the ocean. We do actually put a little tag. It's
(11:29):
not a microchip satellite, but it is a numerical tag.
So if they do make a return visit, we can
tell from the tag which center organization they came from,
was us LA or San Diego, and by number, then
we can go into the database and find out, oh,
that was this particular sea lion that was rescued on
that date and was cured of this particular element. So
(11:49):
it's a pretty good database. The good news is we
don't get two main return patients.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
That's that I was going to ask you, do you
ever have any ever have any that come back to
you that you say, oh, this one is.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, Johnny. Occasionally. In the three years though that I've
been in this position, we've only had one come back,
and that was a more recent situation because it was
affected by the demoic acid bloom that hit us this
past summer. So it wasn't quite thinking.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Clearly, yeah, and how has the mission of the center
evolved over time.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Well, keeping in mind how it started, it was really
just about tending to the sea lions, and then as
it grew it encompassed the rest of those other types
of pentepeds that I mentioned, and then more recently, and
i'd say within the last four years, we've really taking
(12:49):
steps to branch into a tending to Wales and dolphins
in particular. Some we've always attended to the sea turtles,
but there aren't that many the sea turtles in the
Orange Guiny coastline, so it's basically the seals are now
more recently dolphins in Wales. But the other way our
(13:10):
mission has really expanded is taking the knowledge that we
gain through the rehabilitation phase and translating that two different directions,
one into research, so that we're not just always treating
the symptoms, but we're trying to get to the causes.
And then the other really fascinating thing is to take
(13:32):
that knowledge and incorporated into our educational curriculum. So we
in a normal year when we're open. We're temporarily closed
right now for construction, although we're still we still have
a hospital that's functioning, we just can't welcome guests right now.
But in a regular year, with summer camps and all
(13:53):
the outreach we do, we come in contact with over
forty thousand kits through our educational programs. So that is
a huge shift in terms of kind of our evolution
is to take that knowledge that we're learning and then
really do something meaningful with it.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
So do you have situations where you call the center
in Dana Point or one up in Carmel or Monterey
and say, we've got a guy here who looks like
we can't figure out what the problem is.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Oh, in terms of if it was a return.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
The animals, Yeah, we have a turtle that we don't
know what this is. He's got a mark on him
and we don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, call him. But there's also a database that we
can tap right into, so we can tell from this
numerical tag, we can get this whole. It's like medical records,
electronic medical records for sea mammals, so we'll know where
he was rescued and when or what he weighed when
he came in and what he wighed when he went out,
and what he was treated for. So that might be
(14:52):
the starting point. Was it a repeat or we always
do an intake exam, so we have a pretty good
idea what we're dealing with right away.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Didn't you ever have a situation where you have one
that you can't deal with and you send them off
to somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
There's well, sadly, there's some cases where youth in Asia
is just the more humane action to take, and that
unfortunately occurred more than we like this past several months
due to the toxic bloom. So that is an unfortunate outcome.
But there's another more interesting, fun outcome. And sometimes a
(15:32):
patient might be with us too long and they become habituated,
they're too comfortable around humans. But they're they're they're healed.
But we can't put them back in the ocean because
once they see humans again, they'll they'll think, oh, humans, food,
you know, I'll go there. So we try to find
them a forever home, which is an aquarium. So we
have some of our former patients in aquariums all over
(15:55):
the country. Is that right, Yeah, we just sent one.
You're to the Smithsonian.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, Oh how fun, What a great experience. It must
give you a warm heart to feel that you're passing
them on to someone. They're they're going to have a
good home and.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh absolutely, and we stay in touch and they send
us you know, webcam videos and then when you know
people are traving, I want to go see so and
so with the Smithsony and the Atlanta's acquiring more.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
What a great? Yeah, that what a great How fun
that would be? Yeah, and especially if you know that
it's traveling and I've seen a movie about a penguin
who goes back to its home. You know, just how
rewarding to be able to know that you have a
connection with those animals as well, because I think people
don't see them as is you're that you're able to
(16:48):
have a relationship with them, right, or how do you
build the relationship with a sea lion? But I'm sure
that there are ways that you communicate with them.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah. The the challenging part is to is to not
get to involved so that we don't habituate them. But
my gosh, they're almost like having puppies, you know, is it. Yes,
we're so cute and they're vocal and they play. Yes,
but we have to be careful not to make it
too comfortable.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yes, the sea lions are definitely vocal. Yeah, there have been.
Before we get off this topic, though I do have
to ask you. You know, we've heard recently about the
whales that have come, you know, come up to the
beach and have been have died either before when they
(17:34):
arrived on our beaches here in southern California and an
Orange County.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Correct, correct, Yes, we've had four.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Has there been any did anybody come up with any
reasons for those? You know, we heard some some theories,
but those of us who aren't involved in as closely
as you are, wouldn't follow it as much as you do.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, a couple of them are still being researched. We unfortunately,
when when a whale ends up on the beach, it's
it's pretty much came over. They've come there to pass
away peacefully. So what we try to do, if it's possible,
if the crowds will allow us, we send in a
(18:12):
team to do basically an autopsy, and we take samples
and have those samples analyzed. And so of the four
relatively recent whale beachings, I say, within the last say,
for four months or something, we have received information back
on two out of those four that the cause, that
(18:35):
contributing factor of the cause of death was what they
were eating. This toxic bloom. We think in one of
the other cases it might have been a boat strike
which hampered it. Because keep in mind, the migration of
the whales that we're dealing with in Orange County or
in la are traveling through the shipping channels and there
(18:59):
is a lot of pick out there. And if you've
ever seen the bow of a sea going ship, you
don't notice that from above water, but below there's a
very bulbous sort of point underneath the water, and sometimes
the whales get caught on that and they just off.
(19:20):
That was the cause of death.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And are you the only source in Orange County for
these kind of things? If someone finds as sea animal
on the beach, are you the one they call?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah? For Orange County we are, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
And then you have teams that are available anytime of
the day or night to go out and help.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
We don't typically rescue at dark because it can be dangerous,
but from okay, sun up to sunset, we are busy. Yeah.
We have a fleet of trucks. I'd like to kind
of refer to them as our ambulances, and they are
on call for that good what almost eighteen hours?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
And do you have situations where you get, you find
that one of them is caught in a net or something,
and you're able to free them and get them back out.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Sometimes. Yeah, Now, if they're caught, we try not to
go into the water to rescue them because they're very unpredictable.
They're very strong. Imagine a super big butterfly net. You
know that we're capturing them with, yes, but they have
so much power and torque they could pull our rescue
right into the water with them. So we try to
(20:29):
be very careful. We try to the vast majority of
our rescues are on the beach or very close to it,
maybe maybe in the surf line. Even in the harbors.
We try not to do too much on the docks
unless they're area where it's not eminent that they're going
to jump back into the water. Again, it's just the
(20:49):
unpredictability of the animals.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But the idea is to cut the net off of them.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So yeah, so if we can get them, and we're
quite successful doing that. We've seen it entangled with fishing nets,
you know, the plastic containers for like a six pack
of pepsi or whatever, you know, Sometimes those get trapped
around their necks. The old monoline fishing line will get
(21:15):
caught around them. Uh. With dolphins and whales, it's a
much much bigger situation. In fact, we're kind of going
back to your earlier question about how we've evolved. We're
now part of a whale disentanglement team that is authorized
under the juristiction of Noah, and so we will be
(21:36):
part of a team that goes out on the water
to actually disentangle a whale that may have a gill
net wrapped around its fluke. That's an amazing heart I mean,
it's heart wrenching to see, but it's so rewarding when
we see that that gill net come off of them.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Oh, I'm sure, Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. I need
just can only imagine how frustrating it must be for
that animal to not be able to move and yeah,
and how afraid they must be.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
We tracked one last year for four days that traveled
up and down the coast of Orange County until we
could get close enough. It just basically had to get
a little bit more tired to allow us. Oh, but
it's a very coordinated effort with about four boats and
then we have a very fast think of it in
terms of the kind of boats might imagine a Navy
(22:31):
seal team uses, right, that gets us in very close.
We have drone operators keeping tabs of the whales so
we know where it's at. And then we get in there.
The very trained people that we have get in there
with what kind of looks like a tree trimming device,
you know, where you pulled up the lever and we
can sever those those gillnets off of it.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, and these people are your rescuers, your team, these
people that do this all the time time or do
they have other jobs and this.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Is these people. Well, we do have some volunteers that
are qualified to go out on these rescues as well,
but the lead people on the rescues are our own employees,
full time employees.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
So this is not a task for like the harbor master.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Right. No, they may assist though, because, like I said,
sometimes if if we're trying to not corral, but keep
track of a whale as it's traveling, we get an
amazing amount of volunteers. I mean, we'll have the whale
watching boats a lot of times that's where the call,
the initial call for help comes in because they're out
doing their you know, well, watching with their clients and
(23:38):
they'll see something so they'll call in. They'll give us
the coordinates. Sometimes harbor patrol will go out to keep
an eye on it, or and then we come out.
And then we have volunt we have affectionately called the
PMMC fleet. It's just volunteers with boats. We put a
call out and if they're available and their boats available,
they'll come out and help keep an eye on things.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Great stories, gosh I, you know, you know, you know
this stuff must happen, but you never really get the
chance to talk to someone like you who's involved in
it every day. So tell us about your expansion. You
mentioned it a little bit earlier that you're building a
larger facility or doing some tell us what that is
and what's going to look like.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So it's got two really important components to the main
well revert to is the barn. I used to call
it the little Red Barn, now the Big Red Barn.
So the educational area in that will double and the
hospital part of it will also double in size. So
we're going to be able to from an education point
(24:44):
of view, run larger and more frequent summer camps. And
then from a treatment area. Our treatment rooms are going
to be larger, more sophisticated. And we're also what we
formerly had seven pools, we took all those out. We're
putting in ten new pools that are completely plumbed differently
(25:05):
into a water recycling reclamation facility, which we've never had before.
Until that opens in a few months, we have for
years just been doing what we call dump and film,
so as the pools get soiled, dirty, the water needs
to be changed, we dump it refill the That meant
(25:26):
we went through a lot of water. We're the second
largest water user in the city of Laguna Beach, second
only to the city and you think about it, they
have you know, baseball fields and parks and you know,
a lot of areas. So we were using a lot
of water, about five million gallons a year. So this
water wrap facility is going to enable us to recycle
(25:47):
upwards of ninety percent of that water.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
That's incredible, that's huge.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So you know, double the size of the education, much
more enhanced hospital and the water reclamation facility. Very excited
about getting back home.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, and it's very environmentally more than not friendly isn't
the right word, but it's certainly giving back to the environment,
because after all, you're involved in saving exactly saving the
oceans and saving the oceans from the animals, so to
be able to salvage that water and make sense out
of that is also certainly important. So having the new
(26:26):
red Barn. Was this built with donations strictly donations? Yeah, yeah,
we're entirely well, I won't say entirely. It's kind of
a good thing now with government funding being in doubt,
we were not very vulnerable to that. Only about five
percent of our total budget was government grants, which were
(26:47):
not guaranteed year over year, so of course that where.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
They never were. So the good thing is we learned
to to survive without them. So we're entirely dependent on donations.
We do not charge our visitors, you know, to come
into our visitor yard. We're not like an aquarium. There's
no admission.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
So you have just fundraising events. You have private citizens
who care so much about your cause that they're donors.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, we're very fortunate. We have a donor group that
is very loyal, but we're always adding new people. You know,
every month, a lot of people donors will start with us,
you know, they'll buy a brick in the yard for
two hundred dollars and this enjoyable experience for them and
they can come in and see their name, and we've
had people say well, I'll just give me ten dollars
(27:37):
every once in a while, and then they enjoyed the
story and then it just builds and builds and builds.
So we're very, very dependent and grateful to the donors,
most of which are individuals, families, some family offices. We
don't have a big sort of corporate donor platform. We're
working on that. We think there's an opportunity there because
(28:00):
a lot of companies are becoming more environmentally conscious and conscious,
so there's opportunities there of course.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yes, And as a matter of fact, the person who
introduced us leading up to today's interview happens to be
one of your donors and his family spends time there.
They love it there. And my assistant you're in our company, said, oh,
my granddaughter loves it there. She goes there as often
as she can. So we had some ties here that
we weren't didn't even really.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
At all about it. We love it.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, you talk about your environment and you're assuming your
education programs. Tell us what that is.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Okay, Well, it kind of has three different forms on site. Uh,
what I find is the most enjoyable is the summer camps.
You know, the kids come in on a Monday and
they're kind of shy, and we take them through and
they get to learn a lot about marine biology, and
they get to go see the patients and they have
(28:56):
some lab work, and by Friday they're just crazy. Have
them fun, you know. So that's their elementary school up
to up to about well freshman grade. We're trying to
work and develop our curriculum to keep it fresh and
to offer things that might be of more interest for
(29:17):
those in high school. But you know, when kids get
to be at that age, they have so many different
things going on and we're not trying to compete with that.
So our niche is really elementary school. And in fact,
just you know, prior to our closure for construction, we
received number one place for kids and number one place
for kids with respect to STEM education in Orange County,
(29:41):
so we must be doing something right on that. So
that's the on site stuff that's yes. Then we do
outreach where we go to the schools or to community events.
And then the third element is we broadcast like this,
we broadcast into hospitals. That's an amazing program broadcast into
(30:05):
children's hospitals. So we're we do a collaboration with Ryan
Seacrest Studios. So right it's just a secret foundation funds
and builds studios, production studios like this into children's hospitals
and then it's there to accept programming. And we're one
(30:26):
of the programs that beams into these children's hospitals. So
we're coming in contact with kids all over the country.
We have eighteen hospitals that we've being our content into
and we send them out a little kid ahead of
time that it's kind of you can follow along. It's educational,
it's fun, it's a little plushy, and we tell the
(30:47):
stories of our patients. And these kids are in hospital,
they're dealing with their own personal situation, but they hear
the story of our patients and our patients getting better
and so it gives them, you know, some hope and encouragement.
It's a wonderful program. Love it.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
And how is that broadcast? Is it like on on
a YouTube channel or.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Well right now, it's it's oh, I'll say up until
our reopening. It's basically been kind of through Zoom, but
part of our new building we're actually creating a real
production studio.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And are these like one hour programs one hour classes?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, about about an hour because you got to figure
the kids are you know, they're in a hospital and
they've got a lot of things going on and you
got to keep their attention for a while. But yeah,
they're about an hour program.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I wonder if there wouldn't also be an audience among
people who are older and unable to go out, who
are also loving this. They grew up near the ocean,
people who who either have grown up or who just
love the ocean and see animals and wouldn't also find
this fascinating.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I think you're absolutely right. I think the opportunities on
the broadcast are huge, and so when we designed our
new building or new building, but redone building, we actually
are creating a dedicated broadcast studio. So our intent is
to have live programming as well as you know, a
(32:22):
YouTube channel, and perhaps also throw in some podcast as well.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I'd certainly like to talk to you about that. I
think have some opportunities we could expand into that area.
So this year tell me, and I'm sorry that I
don't know. I may not even use the right terms,
and I certainly am not the expert on this that
you are, But I know that a lot of people
have heard a few words and are curious, just as
I am. So this year there have been reports of
(32:52):
is it demoic acid algae blooms impacting marine wildlife in
southern California. So tell us, first of all, what does
that mean, what is it, what does it look like?
And what role has your center played in responding to this?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Okay, thank you. It's been a huge issue this year. So.
Deumoic acid is a fancy term for toxic algae, and
it used to happen every once in a while, sort
of the shift between El Nino and La Ninho years. Yes,
(33:28):
but there's no pattern like that anymore. We were hit
pretty bad twenty twenty three. Twenty four was mild, but
it was unusual in that it was a successful successive year,
and then this year it happened again, and this year
it was the worst on record. What the basic cause
(33:50):
of it is is it's an upwelling of currents that
bring nutrients that are deeper closer to the surface into
the feeding zone. This year that started in late March.
Back in twenty twenty three, we weren't impacted by it
(34:11):
until June this year. It started earlier, lasted longer, and sadly,
one of the coincidental issues was the fires in La
so out that pink fire retardant that on it that
fire is basically water and fertilizer, And shortly after the
(34:36):
fires were extinguished, there was that the atmospheric river conditions
of rain brought that runoff down. So I mentioned earlier
that there's several different stranding organizations up and down the coast.
There's one in Malibu. They were absolutely crushed patients. And
(34:57):
then as the currents brought that nutrient rich fertilizer into
the algae bloom area, La got hit and we got hit,
and then San Diego. San Diego's got that plus the
pollution from the Tijuana River, so they got kind of
a double whammy. But for us, we saw a huge
(35:18):
influx of animals being affected by this toxic algy. So
what happens the algae is fertilized to a point where
it's toxic. The algae is eaten by the smaller you
know fish, the smaller fish eating but bigger fish bigger
fish eaten by the seals. So by the time and
(35:39):
not just the seals, the dolphins and the whales, so
by the time they're eating, they're eating something that has
a high concentration of this toxicity. How it manifests itself
is through a kind of a neurological imbalance, a seizure. Yeah,
I equated it too. I had a pet dog a
while back that had was prone to seizures, and it's
(36:02):
it's horrible. I mean, there's very little you can do.
You know, they're there, your best friend. One moment, they're
going through a seizure. They don't know you, they don't
want to see you. They would bite your hand if
you got near it. You just have to kind of
let it take its course. Almost the same thing, you
know when you see, uh, the sea lions. So they
would come on to the beach and go into a
(36:25):
seizure or another interesting way to tell, we call it stargazing.
Normally seals are fairly active or less just to sleep, uh,
but they'd be stargazing and they'd be kind of sitting
there and just literally gazing up and not moving. So
that's a good sign that something's going on. So that
(36:47):
gives as an opportunity to rescue them. If we get
to them early enough in their toxicity stage, call it
that we can treat them. Basically, the toxin is a
water soluble toxin, so we just shot out much like
you might have a drip IV in the hospital. We
try to flush that toxicity out of the body and
(37:09):
if we can get to them quickly enough we get
that protocol going, we can save them. This past year
April May into the first part of June, our batting
average was not what it used to be because the
severity of the toxicity, and it was affecting a lot
of females that were with baby. They weren't full turn
(37:36):
they were four to five months pregnant, which meant that
the fetus was also affected by that toxicity through the uterus.
So it was a rough year this.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Year and then so those but those mostly there were
animals that had had swimmed down the coast and then
they just start eating it as they got into this area.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, well there they could be animals that are fairly territorial.
I mean, we know seals travel great distances. They'll go
all the way out to the Channel Islands and come here
and go up and down. But the issue that they
had whether they were in the waters off of Orange
County or La or by mel but the feeding zone
that they typically swim through was the zone that was
(38:26):
being so affected by this toxic algae. And it wasn't
just the seals, as that same feeding zone that the
dolphins and the whales were traveling through. Now, some species
of whales, as they migrate back to Alaska, they're just migrating.
They don't even eat. But some species of whales do
(38:47):
eat while they might while they're traveling. And that's when
I mentioned earlier. Two of those four whales that he referenced,
we think a contributing factor to their death was eating
that toxic algae.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
And even as large a creature as they.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Are, but imagine how much they consumed.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Well, because it was so concentrated, it was all in
one area, Everything that was there was contaminated.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
It was like a smartest board, but it was contaminating.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
It was all bad for you.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
And we've never got that problem with whales before, nor
dolphins one or two in a season, but this year
the dolphins were very vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
So what are some of the threat I'm sorry God,
what are some of the threats facing the mammals right now?
And what are you able to do to get in
front of those problems.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Well, usually when I'm asked that, I don't mean to
be insulting by this comment. But most of what our
patients are dealing with and what we're in turn dealing with,
is unfortunate human behavior. So we're allowing the oceans to
warm up, which is causing this toxicity to occur. More often,
(40:03):
we allow far too much runoff pollution, setting aside the
fire issue, which is a very unique circumstance, just normal
runoff fertilizer. You know people that use you know, in
their own yards, it makes its way down to the ocean.
Plastics are horrible. We have patients that, especially if they're
(40:25):
having trouble finding food and they're desperate, that they'll eat things.
I mean, the leat rocks, they'll leak plastic. And then
you mentioned earlier about the entanglement. They'll get entanglements around plastics.
All that is human caused. Yeah, I know, people love
to for release parties or reveal parties. I mean, you know,
(40:46):
they'll let the balloons go, but those helium balloons they
get up a little bit offshore, they fizzle lot they
come down. It looks like a jellyfish to a seal.
Seal eats it that balloon and you know, in its throat.
So we deal with that as a part of our protocol. Now,
(41:07):
we started a couple of years ago, once we got
an XT reading machine. We x ray every patient upon intake,
just as a part of the protocol, just you know.
And sadly, almost thirty percent of our patients have been shot.
Now that might not be why they're in the hospital,
(41:27):
because they're incredibly resilient, they've got a fair amount of blubber,
but almost thirty percent of them have been shot.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
I'm listening to talk to you so fascinated by the story,
but also how much your life must have changed when
you got involved with this.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
It's totally different, Yeah, and you.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
You're you talk about things that you know. It's something
you know about and you're passionate about it. And ten
years ago it was probably a defficult foreign language.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, to go banking to this was quite a change.
But I'm really.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Enjoying it and it must be just so gratifying to
be able to make a difference in these beautiful sea animals.
It's amazing creatures.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Well, if you know, some of your viewers have probably
seen a release that is such an uplifting experience. It's
it's one our patients are healthy and it's time for
them to go home, and we take them down to
the beach and it's usually a really fun experience. We
have donors who you know, have supported us, or school
kids who have adopted a patient, and they'll come down
(42:36):
and they'll release, you know, they'll open the gate. We'll
watch anywhere from one to seven, you know, scamper out,
hit the surf and off they go. It's it's really
it's rewarding.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
And is it always done at the main beach in Laguna.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
No, Actually we do most of them at the Aliso
Creek Beach.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Oh you do.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
The reason being it's very accessible. We can pull our
trucks right up next to the beach, so we transport
our patients in basically large dog kennels, so we can
be right there at the beach and unload them and
set them free from the beach. Now that's for seals
and sea lions. For the elephant seals, they're much larger
(43:17):
by the time they're healthy. They're in the three d
and fifty pound range, and they're not very mobile on
a sandy beach, so we'll take them out by seat.
So I mentioned earlier, we have this wonderful group of
volunteers that donors as well, that own boats, and they
will allow us to load up anywhere from two to
(43:39):
four elephant seals and we take them out several miles
and release them at sea. They elephant seals are not
necessarily beach dwellers. They like the deep ocean, so that's
a good place to let them go home.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
If someone you have these these opportunities for people to
get involved, So do you have like can someone like
us come there and visit you?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah, once we're back open, our visitory art is open
every day, you know, absent like Christmas, a couple of holidays,
but from ten to four we're open. You can come
in free. If we have patients. There's I mentioned in
the remodel will be ten pools. Four of those will
(44:28):
be very visible to the public. A couple of them
aren't where we keep our more highly acute patients, but
those who are nearing their release dates, they're very visible
to the visitors. And there's dosins there in the visitory
art that will explain this is Lucy. She came in,
(44:54):
you know, twenty five pounds a couple of months ago,
dealing with dehydration, and now she's weighing sixty pounds, and
you can see the before in the after, and then
you can get to see them frolicking around. One of
the really fun things we're going to have it when
we reopen is one of the pools will actually have
a viewing window. It's kind of lower so that the
(45:17):
kids can kind of walk down a couple of steps
and view into the pool to see the seals kind
of frolicking around. I refer to that as kind of
our pre release pool. Those are the healthiest ones. They're
getting ready to go home. They're probably going to go
home within the next couple of weeks. They're fed differently,
they're not tossed food. They have to compete because in
(45:40):
a few days a week they're going to be out
in the real world. So we just throw the food
into the pool and they have to compete. It's really
fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And so adults can come with or without children.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Sure, oh yeah, yeah, we have a lot of adults
that come through and I think it's going to once
we reopen, it's even gonna be a little bit better
for adults because we're changing kind of the information that
we make available in the visitor yard, tearing it to
a lot of different types of audiences, not just for
the kids. I mentioned earlier that we take the knowledge
(46:14):
that we've gained from what we are doing in the
hospital for the treatments, and that makes its way into
our educational curriculums, but it also is an element of
our research. We do an awful lot of research, both
by ourselves and in collaboration with other organizations universities around
the country, So there'll be displays about our research work,
(46:37):
which will probably be a little bit more interesting to
the adults.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
So are you contacted regularly by universities or other facilities
that have needs for information you might be able to offer.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
We are, In fact, we joke a little bit that
we're kind of a parts order, and I don't mean
that in a bad way. But when we do autopsies,
they're technically called nee cropsies, but it's basically an autopsy
on an animal. We take a lot of samples and
we have several of the sub eighty degree freezers full
(47:13):
of samples and give you an example. We didn't know
for sure, but we thought it would make a good
idea to take nasal swabs during the pandemic, and so
we have a sample of that. And sure enough the
university was making some calls and said, by any chance
did you happen to take nasal saw to be, Yeah,
(47:33):
we've got a fears of freezer full of them. So
but now it's not just by chance. People know us
now university leading research universities. They know what we do
and that we have these freezers, and so we get
contacted regularly to collaborate on research more local univers Scaffoian Irvine,
(47:55):
well not exactly Davis UH San Diego State. So we
do a lot of collaborations with them.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Of the other facilities as centers, i'll call them, that
are similar to yours, up and down the coast as yours,
set aside from any of the others by any certain
characteristics or things that you do.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Yeah, there's one other one up in Saucelito that is
similar to us. The two of us are noticeably different,
larger and more diverse because of the educational components and
the research components. Most of the others they may have
a little bit of education or a little bit of research,
(48:42):
but they don't have the breadth of what we do
or the one up in Sauceellto. And the other thing
that makes that distinction for Sauce Leto or US is
we're teaching locations. So if you're a VET intern, you're
a vet. You want to have an intern for marine mammals.
There's not a lot of places to go. If you're
(49:03):
VET and you want to treat you know, domestic animals
or farm animals, even zoo animals, there's places to go,
but if you want to treat marine mammals, there's not
very many places you can go to get that kind
of training. So where I believe one of four in
the country where you at Hinjurn can get that type
of training?
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Is that right? So what is your vision for your center? Well,
there probably are two. One probably is your personal one
and probably is that of your board.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
Yeah, no, no, Well, being a former board member, they're
pretty much in sync. But I know it's on our time.
I don't have time to tell you everything, but i'd
say what we're where we're at right now, We're on
the cusp of doing some great things. I can't wait
for us to get back in to take advantage of
our new hospital and the ability that that then gives
(49:54):
us to do more advanced type of animal care, and
then the education that I talk about. The water reclamation
I talked about, and then the on water part is
one of to me, one of the most fascinating aspects
of our future. Being able to get out on the
water and do assess health assessments, not just necessarily coming
to the rescue of a whale or a dolphin, but
(50:16):
to be to monitor them. So we're creating a drone program.
We actually, through cal State Fullerton has a drone program
now we have two licensed drone operators and they're continuing
their education to get higher levels of licensing. So we'll
be able to go out and monitor the health of
Visa VI drones, of whales and dolphins. And I think
(50:38):
that opens up a world of research for us.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
And is that new to this field.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yes, very new, very new. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah, it would normally be done by universities or is
that something that is set like your.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
University is yet it's it's it's it's a function of
the drone technology that's gotten better.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
And sure, yeah, absolutely, that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
And the cam now that can be placed into the drones.
We even are aware now with the technology and being
able to have a drone can tell us the size
weight of a whale. We can put I'm going to
oversimplify it, but imagine like a Petri dish connected to
the drone that can capture a whale's breath and we
(51:22):
can get a DNA on that.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
Oh gosh, that's fascinating. That would be amazing, wouldn't it.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
And I learned when I was Yeah, I learned when
I was gonna Alaskan cruise that every whale has the
back of their tail is different, Yes, like a fingerprint.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Yeah. And similarly, and a dolphin that dorsal, it's like
a fingerprint, is that right. Yeah. We're creating a Dolphins
Spotter program for people to just you know, if you're
at the beach, you can even with the simple iPhone,
you know, given the proximity of the dolphins, you can
take a picture of that and load it to this
(51:58):
Dolphin Spotter app and uh, you know, be a dolphin
spotter and you know, contribute to that database.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
So if your center had a mascot or a poster
or animal. What would it be.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
It's Sammy. He's actually on loan at the Santanna Airport.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yes, because of our closure, we had this beautiful statue
of Sammy the Sea Lion, and we didn't want him
to get hurt with all the or damaged with all
the construction, so we we lent them to We lent
him to the hospital the excuse me, to the airport.
So he's down a baggage thing. Well, they actually were
moving him around. It was hilarious. We got some pictures
as they were moving Sammy around. He was sitting at
(52:39):
the sushi bar for one of the pictures, and there
was a gentleman who didn't quite understand that this was
a set up picture. Oh my god, there's a sealed
sushi bar. They took him down to one of the
you know, the gift shops and they put a hat
on and the kids love it so that that that's
our mascot, and we actually have when we attended, we
(53:00):
have our mascots in costume. We have some young volunteers
that will dress up as a seal and sea lion and.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
Our little question of true for the afternoon. If a
sea lion could talk, what do you think it would
tell us?
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Food? Give me more? Right?
Speaker 1 (53:18):
Is that right? We have sea lions close to where
we live and they talk to us often.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
Yeah, yeah, not.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Us, they talk to everybody we happen to be there.
Glenn Gray, this has been delightful, entertaining and informational, so
much information. I certainly can't wait to come and look
at your center, and I certainly will be a visitor
yes when your new facility is completed, and I really
(53:45):
would like to talk to you about how we can
do some fun things for seniors as well. So we
want to thank you for sharing not only the mission
of your center, but the heart behind it, from life
saving and rescues, the cutting edge conservation to all the
things that you do with your heart and how we
can help you. So for anyone who would like to
visit them, we're going to have the information down here
(54:07):
on the bottom how you can find them and remember
that so cow with Val is your place for discovering
people and places that make life here so special, so interesting,
so fascinating, and why we love living in southern California.
So until next time, stay kind, stay coastal. Keep exploring,
and thank you Glenn so much for being with us
(54:29):
today and Soco with val.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Thanks Beal appreciate it's fun.
Welcome back to so Cal with Val, where we explore
the people, the places, and the passions that make Southern
California really shine. Today's episode is truly something special, especially
for those of us who love the ocean, it's wildlife,
and we love protecting the coastal communities. We're diving no
pun intended, into the incredible work of the Pacific Marine
(00:44):
Mammals Center in Laguna Beach, a nonprofit that's been rescuing, rehabilitating,
and releasing marine mammals for over fifty years. Some of
you may have never heard about it, so this will
be a really special episode for you. They've saved thousands
of sea lions, seals, and other marine life, all while
(01:04):
educating thousands of school kids and visitors like us about
the ocean conservation. And joining me today is Glen Gray,
CEO of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, who leads this
award winning organization with heart, innovation and a vision definitely
for the future and a love for the ocean of course.
(01:26):
So whether you've lived in SoCal your whole life or
you're just discovering coastal gems, you won't want to miss
what Glen has to share, especially going into the summertime.
He's going to share about sea lions, rescues, volunteer heroes,
ocean health, and even how you can get involved if
you choose to. So let's get started. Welcome Glen Gray
(01:49):
to sokaal with Val.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Thank Val, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Tell us, so, first of all, congratulations on being named
California's Nonprofit of the Year. So tell us what does
that recognition mean for this center?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh, thank you, belly, Yeah, that was that was quite
a pleasant surprise. What happens every year the State Assembly,
so the senators and assembly people get to choose a
non profit from their respective jurisdictions, and so Senator Strickland
selected us. So that put us in a group of
(02:27):
one hundred and forty for profits out of a thousand
in the state. So it's quite an honor. We certainly
cherished it. As you said in the beginning, we've been
working pretty hard for a little over fifty years, and
so it's nice to have that recognition, especially for our
(02:48):
employees and our volunteers that really will make it happen.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And that is an award for your district, for your
Senate district, or for our county in Orange County.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
In this particular case, it was we were selected by
Senator Strickland for a nonprofit within his district, which for
the most part covers the same geographical area that we cover,
the coastal area of Orange County.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So that's that cover like even Huntington Beach.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
It actually starts north in Seal Beach leave his district
fades a bit more inland when we get down towards
Data Point.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, it's a big area, it is, And I'm sure
and I'm sure his nonprofits doesn't just have to be
in ocean oriented.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Oh no, no, it could be any In fact, out
of the one hundred and forty that were recognized, we
were only one of two that were environmentally oriented.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, it's kind of interesting considering how important the environment
is to everybody in these days. But that's great, that's
great to know. What do you think are some of
the things that contributed to your recognition.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well, Centator Strickland had an opportunity to visit us and
became more well, i'll backtrack just a little bit. He's
very ocean conservation oriented and animal protection oriented, so I
think we resonated with him on both of those levels
and then once he got to know us, he liked
most people. We actually have kind of a saying internally,
(04:20):
we go gush, I didn't know we did that, or
I didn't know what you did that. We do so
many different things and so and hopefully your viewers will
appreciation for that. But that's what happened with Centator Strickland.
As we talked, he goes, oh, I didn't know you
did that. I didn't do that. So pretty soon it says, okay,
it's pretty obvious choice.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, that's great. Absolutely, that's wonderful. And you're located in
the canyon behind Laguna Beach for our listeners and our viewers.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Sure, so, yeah, we're in the Laguna Canyon Road. To
kind of give you put that in context, if you
know where the toll road is, halfway, say between the
toll road and main beach.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay, the toll road being this three yes, correct, Okay,
all right, great, And have you been in the same
building the whole time?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Been there since the late seventies. It's we have a
long time the little red barn so and it's one
of those things that people drive by they go, yeah,
I've seen that barn. I always mean to stop there.
What is it? So we don't like to be the
best cap siecret, but sometimes we are. But yeah, it's
a well that's a little red barn. Anymore, we're going
under construction, so it's going to be a big red barn.
(05:27):
But it's pretty noticeable as you drive through the canyon.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So can you tell us a little bit about how
the Pacific Marine Mammal Center got it start?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Oh, that's a great story. So it started with a
young girl walking along the beach in Laguna and she
saw a sea lion in distress. But she wasn't quite sure,
but she could tell that it was in distress. She
wasn't quite sure what to do about it, so she
approached a lifeguard and that's how it started. So that
(05:58):
lifeguard rest took care of that sea lion. Then he
brought in his fellow buddy, lifeguard John, and the two
of them started taking care of sick injured sea lions,
initially just there in looking at beach, because they were
looking at beach lifeguards. And from there it grew John
(06:22):
John Cunningham and Jim Stouffer, or the two gentlemen. John
was also shortly after that a teacher had looking at
Beach High School, and so he started to incorporate marine
biology marine conservation into his coursewar into his curriculum at
the high school. And the funny part of it was
(06:43):
when they first started, they were taking these patients home
and taking care of them in baby pools in their backyard,
if you can imagine that. So quickly the word got
on more and more people asked for them to rescue
more and more animals. Obviously, they couldn't do that in
baby pools in their backyard forever. So they approached this
(07:06):
hardly and that's how they came into the barn. It
was a city property, City of Living to Beach property
that wasn't being used. So they took over the barn
and literally the kids from the high school came down
and dug pools.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Originally, what a great story of community action, right right,
people taking part taking action on something that they see
and need. So tell us how did you get involved?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I got involved through the board, I have to
give credit words to First, my wife got involved and
so I was around it, but I was busy in
my other career at the time, and there was the
board has six year term limits, so she was turning out,
and the Governess committee happened to be meeting at our
(07:55):
house that day, saying, gosh, Catherine, you're going to turn out.
We're going to get to replace you. And all of
a sudden, the heads kind of looked over at me,
and I think I just got volunteered. But it was great.
Katherine and I have a real love for the ocean.
We're very avid scuba divers, and that was kind of
the first connection from diving into the organization. So she
(08:17):
turned out. I came on. I was on the board
for just about six years and the former CEO resigned
and we're starting to look at, you know, the process
of recruiting and all that, and my wife said, well,
why are you give it a Oh, I forgot a
missing peace. I had retired or attempted to retire, right
(08:39):
at the beginning of the pandemic, which was kind of
odd timing. So I was keeping myself busy, especially being
on the board of PMMC. Former CEO left asked forward,
Katherine said, why don't you try it? I called the chairman.
He goes, it's a great idea. So he pulled the
rest of the board and that's how I became CEO
about three years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Three years ago, and may I ask what field of
work you were in before? What is it all related
to anything like this?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Absolutely unrelated. I called it my second act. I was
a banker for forty years, oh my, which gave me
the opportunity to be the treasure. If you're a banker
and you're on a not for profit work, you harmly
get to be the treasure. Is the thing, because when
you're the treasure on a board, not for profit board,
it does give you a better insight into the inner
workings of the organization. So it does. It does adam
(09:30):
in my favor.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
And also the responsibilities that people sometimes just don't understand
how important it is to have certain funds for things.
They don't think about it, you know when you ask
for donations. But things do cost money to operate. Yeah,
and especially in the case like this where you're trying
to save the lives of our little sea animals. So
(09:52):
tell us what species specifically you care for.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Sure, predominantly California sea lions. That's the larger popular within
sort of our jurisdiction, which is, by the way, we
cover the fifty two mile coastline of Orange County. So
essentially seal Beach to sand On no for you. So
within that, as I mentioned, California sealions, seals, elephant seals.
(10:16):
People often don't think that elephant seals come this far south.
They're kind of better known to be up from San
Simon area, but they do make their way down Harbor seals,
occasionally fur seals, and then once in a while Guadaloupe
fur seal makes its way up from the Mexican waters.
So that kind of covers the seal world in a
(10:37):
pet world. And then we also attend to dolphins, whales,
and turtles.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Oh in turtles of course. So that if when it
is rescued or when you find it to be heard
or something, if it's inside that fifty six mile radius,
you care for it. That's right, we do, because I
guess you don't have like it's not like you have
a mark on or something it says it belongs to
(11:05):
San Francisco Ocean, right, It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
If it has been rescued before it. So we're called
the Stranding Organization, and we're one of thirteen up and
down the coast of California. So there's one in San Diego.
We cover Orange County, La, so on and so forth
up the coast, and when any of us treat a
patient and it's rehabilitated, we're sending it back home to
the ocean. We do actually put a little tag. It's
(11:29):
not a microchip satellite, but it is a numerical tag.
So if they do make a return visit, we can
tell from the tag which center organization they came from,
was us LA or San Diego, and by number, then
we can go into the database and find out, oh,
that was this particular sea lion that was rescued on
that date and was cured of this particular element. So
(11:49):
it's a pretty good database. The good news is we
don't get two main return patients.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
That's that I was going to ask you, do you
ever have any ever have any that come back to
you that you say, oh, this one is.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, Johnny. Occasionally. In the three years though that I've
been in this position, we've only had one come back,
and that was a more recent situation because it was
affected by the demoic acid bloom that hit us this
past summer. So it wasn't quite thinking.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Clearly, yeah, and how has the mission of the center
evolved over time.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Well, keeping in mind how it started, it was really
just about tending to the sea lions, and then as
it grew it encompassed the rest of those other types
of pentepeds that I mentioned, and then more recently, and
i'd say within the last four years, we've really taking
(12:49):
steps to branch into a tending to Wales and dolphins
in particular. Some we've always attended to the sea turtles,
but there aren't that many the sea turtles in the
Orange Guiny coastline, so it's basically the seals are now
more recently dolphins in Wales. But the other way our
(13:10):
mission has really expanded is taking the knowledge that we
gain through the rehabilitation phase and translating that two different directions,
one into research, so that we're not just always treating
the symptoms, but we're trying to get to the causes.
And then the other really fascinating thing is to take
(13:32):
that knowledge and incorporated into our educational curriculum. So we
in a normal year when we're open. We're temporarily closed
right now for construction, although we're still we still have
a hospital that's functioning, we just can't welcome guests right now.
But in a regular year, with summer camps and all
(13:53):
the outreach we do, we come in contact with over
forty thousand kits through our educational programs. So that is
a huge shift in terms of kind of our evolution
is to take that knowledge that we're learning and then
really do something meaningful with it.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
So do you have situations where you call the center
in Dana Point or one up in Carmel or Monterey
and say, we've got a guy here who looks like
we can't figure out what the problem is.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Oh, in terms of if it was a return.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
The animals, Yeah, we have a turtle that we don't
know what this is. He's got a mark on him
and we don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, call him. But there's also a database that we
can tap right into, so we can tell from this
numerical tag, we can get this whole. It's like medical records,
electronic medical records for sea mammals, so we'll know where
he was rescued and when or what he weighed when
he came in and what he wighed when he went out,
and what he was treated for. So that might be
(14:52):
the starting point. Was it a repeat or we always
do an intake exam, so we have a pretty good
idea what we're dealing with right away.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Didn't you ever have a situation where you have one
that you can't deal with and you send them off
to somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
There's well, sadly, there's some cases where youth in Asia
is just the more humane action to take, and that
unfortunately occurred more than we like this past several months
due to the toxic bloom. So that is an unfortunate outcome.
But there's another more interesting, fun outcome. And sometimes a
(15:32):
patient might be with us too long and they become habituated,
they're too comfortable around humans. But they're they're they're healed.
But we can't put them back in the ocean because
once they see humans again, they'll they'll think, oh, humans, food,
you know, I'll go there. So we try to find
them a forever home, which is an aquarium. So we
have some of our former patients in aquariums all over
(15:55):
the country. Is that right, Yeah, we just sent one.
You're to the Smithsonian.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah, Oh how fun, What a great experience. It must
give you a warm heart to feel that you're passing
them on to someone. They're they're going to have a
good home and.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh absolutely, and we stay in touch and they send
us you know, webcam videos and then when you know
people are traving, I want to go see so and
so with the Smithsony and the Atlanta's acquiring more.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
What a great? Yeah, that what a great How fun
that would be? Yeah, and especially if you know that
it's traveling and I've seen a movie about a penguin
who goes back to its home. You know, just how
rewarding to be able to know that you have a
connection with those animals as well, because I think people
don't see them as is you're that you're able to
(16:48):
have a relationship with them, right, or how do you
build the relationship with a sea lion? But I'm sure
that there are ways that you communicate with them.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah. The the challenging part is to is to not
get to involved so that we don't habituate them. But
my gosh, they're almost like having puppies, you know, is it. Yes,
we're so cute and they're vocal and they play. Yes,
but we have to be careful not to make it
too comfortable.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yes, the sea lions are definitely vocal. Yeah, there have been.
Before we get off this topic, though I do have
to ask you. You know, we've heard recently about the
whales that have come, you know, come up to the
beach and have been have died either before when they
(17:34):
arrived on our beaches here in southern California and an
Orange County.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Correct, correct, Yes, we've had four.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Has there been any did anybody come up with any
reasons for those? You know, we heard some some theories,
but those of us who aren't involved in as closely
as you are, wouldn't follow it as much as you do.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, a couple of them are still being researched. We unfortunately,
when when a whale ends up on the beach, it's
it's pretty much came over. They've come there to pass
away peacefully. So what we try to do, if it's possible,
if the crowds will allow us, we send in a
(18:12):
team to do basically an autopsy, and we take samples
and have those samples analyzed. And so of the four
relatively recent whale beachings, I say, within the last say,
for four months or something, we have received information back
on two out of those four that the cause, that
(18:35):
contributing factor of the cause of death was what they
were eating. This toxic bloom. We think in one of
the other cases it might have been a boat strike
which hampered it. Because keep in mind, the migration of
the whales that we're dealing with in Orange County or
in la are traveling through the shipping channels and there
(18:59):
is a lot of pick out there. And if you've
ever seen the bow of a sea going ship, you
don't notice that from above water, but below there's a
very bulbous sort of point underneath the water, and sometimes
the whales get caught on that and they just off.
(19:20):
That was the cause of death.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And are you the only source in Orange County for
these kind of things? If someone finds as sea animal
on the beach, are you the one they call?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah? For Orange County we are, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
And then you have teams that are available anytime of
the day or night to go out and help.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
We don't typically rescue at dark because it can be dangerous,
but from okay, sun up to sunset, we are busy. Yeah.
We have a fleet of trucks. I'd like to kind
of refer to them as our ambulances, and they are
on call for that good what almost eighteen hours?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
And do you have situations where you get, you find
that one of them is caught in a net or something,
and you're able to free them and get them back out.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Sometimes. Yeah, Now, if they're caught, we try not to
go into the water to rescue them because they're very unpredictable.
They're very strong. Imagine a super big butterfly net. You
know that we're capturing them with, yes, but they have
so much power and torque they could pull our rescue
right into the water with them. So we try to
(20:29):
be very careful. We try to the vast majority of
our rescues are on the beach or very close to it,
maybe maybe in the surf line. Even in the harbors.
We try not to do too much on the docks
unless they're area where it's not eminent that they're going
to jump back into the water. Again, it's just the
(20:49):
unpredictability of the animals.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But the idea is to cut the net off of them.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So yeah, so if we can get them, and we're
quite successful doing that. We've seen it entangled with fishing nets,
you know, the plastic containers for like a six pack
of pepsi or whatever, you know, Sometimes those get trapped
around their necks. The old monoline fishing line will get
(21:15):
caught around them. Uh. With dolphins and whales, it's a
much much bigger situation. In fact, we're kind of going
back to your earlier question about how we've evolved. We're
now part of a whale disentanglement team that is authorized
under the juristiction of Noah, and so we will be
(21:36):
part of a team that goes out on the water
to actually disentangle a whale that may have a gill
net wrapped around its fluke. That's an amazing heart I mean,
it's heart wrenching to see, but it's so rewarding when
we see that that gill net come off of them.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Oh, I'm sure, Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. I need
just can only imagine how frustrating it must be for
that animal to not be able to move and yeah,
and how afraid they must be.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
We tracked one last year for four days that traveled
up and down the coast of Orange County until we
could get close enough. It just basically had to get
a little bit more tired to allow us. Oh, but
it's a very coordinated effort with about four boats and
then we have a very fast think of it in
terms of the kind of boats might imagine a Navy
(22:31):
seal team uses, right, that gets us in very close.
We have drone operators keeping tabs of the whales so
we know where it's at. And then we get in there.
The very trained people that we have get in there
with what kind of looks like a tree trimming device,
you know, where you pulled up the lever and we
can sever those those gillnets off of it.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, and these people are your rescuers, your team, these
people that do this all the time time or do
they have other jobs and this.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Is these people. Well, we do have some volunteers that
are qualified to go out on these rescues as well,
but the lead people on the rescues are our own employees,
full time employees.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
So this is not a task for like the harbor master.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Right. No, they may assist though, because, like I said,
sometimes if if we're trying to not corral, but keep
track of a whale as it's traveling, we get an
amazing amount of volunteers. I mean, we'll have the whale
watching boats a lot of times that's where the call,
the initial call for help comes in because they're out
doing their you know, well, watching with their clients and
(23:38):
they'll see something so they'll call in. They'll give us
the coordinates. Sometimes harbor patrol will go out to keep
an eye on it, or and then we come out.
And then we have volunt we have affectionately called the
PMMC fleet. It's just volunteers with boats. We put a
call out and if they're available and their boats available,
they'll come out and help keep an eye on things.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Great stories, gosh I, you know, you know, you know
this stuff must happen, but you never really get the
chance to talk to someone like you who's involved in
it every day. So tell us about your expansion. You
mentioned it a little bit earlier that you're building a
larger facility or doing some tell us what that is
and what's going to look like.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So it's got two really important components to the main
well revert to is the barn. I used to call
it the little Red Barn, now the Big Red Barn.
So the educational area in that will double and the
hospital part of it will also double in size. So
we're going to be able to from an education point
(24:44):
of view, run larger and more frequent summer camps. And
then from a treatment area. Our treatment rooms are going
to be larger, more sophisticated. And we're also what we
formerly had seven pools, we took all those out. We're
putting in ten new pools that are completely plumbed differently
(25:05):
into a water recycling reclamation facility, which we've never had before.
Until that opens in a few months, we have for
years just been doing what we call dump and film,
so as the pools get soiled, dirty, the water needs
to be changed, we dump it refill the That meant
(25:26):
we went through a lot of water. We're the second
largest water user in the city of Laguna Beach, second
only to the city and you think about it, they
have you know, baseball fields and parks and you know,
a lot of areas. So we were using a lot
of water, about five million gallons a year. So this
water wrap facility is going to enable us to recycle
(25:47):
upwards of ninety percent of that water.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
That's incredible, that's huge.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So you know, double the size of the education, much
more enhanced hospital and the water reclamation facility. Very excited
about getting back home.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, and it's very environmentally more than not friendly isn't
the right word, but it's certainly giving back to the environment,
because after all, you're involved in saving exactly saving the
oceans and saving the oceans from the animals, so to
be able to salvage that water and make sense out
of that is also certainly important. So having the new
(26:26):
red Barn. Was this built with donations strictly donations? Yeah, yeah,
we're entirely well, I won't say entirely. It's kind of
a good thing now with government funding being in doubt,
we were not very vulnerable to that. Only about five
percent of our total budget was government grants, which were
(26:47):
not guaranteed year over year, so of course that where.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
They never were. So the good thing is we learned
to to survive without them. So we're entirely dependent on donations.
We do not charge our visitors, you know, to come
into our visitor yard. We're not like an aquarium. There's
no admission.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
So you have just fundraising events. You have private citizens
who care so much about your cause that they're donors.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, we're very fortunate. We have a donor group that
is very loyal, but we're always adding new people. You know,
every month, a lot of people donors will start with us,
you know, they'll buy a brick in the yard for
two hundred dollars and this enjoyable experience for them and
they can come in and see their name, and we've
had people say well, I'll just give me ten dollars
(27:37):
every once in a while, and then they enjoyed the
story and then it just builds and builds and builds.
So we're very, very dependent and grateful to the donors,
most of which are individuals, families, some family offices. We
don't have a big sort of corporate donor platform. We're
working on that. We think there's an opportunity there because
(28:00):
a lot of companies are becoming more environmentally conscious and conscious,
so there's opportunities there of course.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yes, And as a matter of fact, the person who
introduced us leading up to today's interview happens to be
one of your donors and his family spends time there.
They love it there. And my assistant you're in our company, said, oh,
my granddaughter loves it there. She goes there as often
as she can. So we had some ties here that
we weren't didn't even really.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
At all about it. We love it.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, you talk about your environment and you're assuming your
education programs. Tell us what that is.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Okay, Well, it kind of has three different forms on site. Uh,
what I find is the most enjoyable is the summer camps.
You know, the kids come in on a Monday and
they're kind of shy, and we take them through and
they get to learn a lot about marine biology, and
they get to go see the patients and they have
(28:56):
some lab work, and by Friday they're just crazy. Have
them fun, you know. So that's their elementary school up
to up to about well freshman grade. We're trying to
work and develop our curriculum to keep it fresh and
to offer things that might be of more interest for
(29:17):
those in high school. But you know, when kids get
to be at that age, they have so many different
things going on and we're not trying to compete with that.
So our niche is really elementary school. And in fact,
just you know, prior to our closure for construction, we
received number one place for kids and number one place
for kids with respect to STEM education in Orange County,
(29:41):
so we must be doing something right on that. So
that's the on site stuff that's yes. Then we do
outreach where we go to the schools or to community events.
And then the third element is we broadcast like this,
we broadcast into hospitals. That's an amazing program broadcast into
(30:05):
children's hospitals. So we're we do a collaboration with Ryan
Seacrest Studios. So right it's just a secret foundation funds
and builds studios, production studios like this into children's hospitals
and then it's there to accept programming. And we're one
(30:26):
of the programs that beams into these children's hospitals. So
we're coming in contact with kids all over the country.
We have eighteen hospitals that we've being our content into
and we send them out a little kid ahead of
time that it's kind of you can follow along. It's educational,
it's fun, it's a little plushy, and we tell the
(30:47):
stories of our patients. And these kids are in hospital,
they're dealing with their own personal situation, but they hear
the story of our patients and our patients getting better
and so it gives them, you know, some hope and encouragement.
It's a wonderful program. Love it.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
And how is that broadcast? Is it like on on
a YouTube channel or.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Well right now, it's it's oh, I'll say up until
our reopening. It's basically been kind of through Zoom, but
part of our new building we're actually creating a real
production studio.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And are these like one hour programs one hour classes?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, about about an hour because you got to figure
the kids are you know, they're in a hospital and
they've got a lot of things going on and you
got to keep their attention for a while. But yeah,
they're about an hour program.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I wonder if there wouldn't also be an audience among
people who are older and unable to go out, who
are also loving this. They grew up near the ocean,
people who who either have grown up or who just
love the ocean and see animals and wouldn't also find
this fascinating.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I think you're absolutely right. I think the opportunities on
the broadcast are huge, and so when we designed our
new building or new building, but redone building, we actually
are creating a dedicated broadcast studio. So our intent is
to have live programming as well as you know, a
(32:22):
YouTube channel, and perhaps also throw in some podcast as well.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I'd certainly like to talk to you about that. I
think have some opportunities we could expand into that area.
So this year tell me, and I'm sorry that I
don't know. I may not even use the right terms,
and I certainly am not the expert on this that
you are, But I know that a lot of people
have heard a few words and are curious, just as
I am. So this year there have been reports of
(32:52):
is it demoic acid algae blooms impacting marine wildlife in
southern California. So tell us, first of all, what does
that mean, what is it, what does it look like?
And what role has your center played in responding to this?
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Okay, thank you. It's been a huge issue this year. So.
Deumoic acid is a fancy term for toxic algae, and
it used to happen every once in a while, sort
of the shift between El Nino and La Ninho years. Yes,
(33:28):
but there's no pattern like that anymore. We were hit
pretty bad twenty twenty three. Twenty four was mild, but
it was unusual in that it was a successful successive year,
and then this year it happened again, and this year
it was the worst on record. What the basic cause
(33:50):
of it is is it's an upwelling of currents that
bring nutrients that are deeper closer to the surface into
the feeding zone. This year that started in late March.
Back in twenty twenty three, we weren't impacted by it
(34:11):
until June this year. It started earlier, lasted longer, and sadly,
one of the coincidental issues was the fires in La
so out that pink fire retardant that on it that
fire is basically water and fertilizer, And shortly after the
(34:36):
fires were extinguished, there was that the atmospheric river conditions
of rain brought that runoff down. So I mentioned earlier
that there's several different stranding organizations up and down the coast.
There's one in Malibu. They were absolutely crushed patients. And
(34:57):
then as the currents brought that nutrient rich fertilizer into
the algae bloom area, La got hit and we got hit,
and then San Diego. San Diego's got that plus the
pollution from the Tijuana River, so they got kind of
a double whammy. But for us, we saw a huge
(35:18):
influx of animals being affected by this toxic algy. So
what happens the algae is fertilized to a point where
it's toxic. The algae is eaten by the smaller you
know fish, the smaller fish eating but bigger fish bigger
fish eaten by the seals. So by the time and
(35:39):
not just the seals, the dolphins and the whales, so
by the time they're eating, they're eating something that has
a high concentration of this toxicity. How it manifests itself
is through a kind of a neurological imbalance, a seizure. Yeah,
I equated it too. I had a pet dog a
while back that had was prone to seizures, and it's
(36:02):
it's horrible. I mean, there's very little you can do.
You know, they're there, your best friend. One moment, they're
going through a seizure. They don't know you, they don't
want to see you. They would bite your hand if
you got near it. You just have to kind of
let it take its course. Almost the same thing, you
know when you see, uh, the sea lions. So they
would come on to the beach and go into a
(36:25):
seizure or another interesting way to tell, we call it stargazing.
Normally seals are fairly active or less just to sleep, uh,
but they'd be stargazing and they'd be kind of sitting
there and just literally gazing up and not moving. So
that's a good sign that something's going on. So that
(36:47):
gives as an opportunity to rescue them. If we get
to them early enough in their toxicity stage, call it
that we can treat them. Basically, the toxin is a
water soluble toxin, so we just shot out much like
you might have a drip IV in the hospital. We
try to flush that toxicity out of the body and
(37:09):
if we can get to them quickly enough we get
that protocol going, we can save them. This past year
April May into the first part of June, our batting
average was not what it used to be because the
severity of the toxicity, and it was affecting a lot
of females that were with baby. They weren't full turn
(37:36):
they were four to five months pregnant, which meant that
the fetus was also affected by that toxicity through the uterus.
So it was a rough year this.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Year and then so those but those mostly there were
animals that had had swimmed down the coast and then
they just start eating it as they got into this area.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, well there they could be animals that are fairly territorial.
I mean, we know seals travel great distances. They'll go
all the way out to the Channel Islands and come here
and go up and down. But the issue that they
had whether they were in the waters off of Orange
County or La or by mel but the feeding zone
that they typically swim through was the zone that was
(38:26):
being so affected by this toxic algae. And it wasn't
just the seals, as that same feeding zone that the
dolphins and the whales were traveling through. Now, some species
of whales, as they migrate back to Alaska, they're just migrating.
They don't even eat. But some species of whales do
(38:47):
eat while they might while they're traveling. And that's when
I mentioned earlier. Two of those four whales that he referenced,
we think a contributing factor to their death was eating
that toxic algae.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
And even as large a creature as they.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Are, but imagine how much they consumed.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Well, because it was so concentrated, it was all in
one area, Everything that was there was contaminated.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
It was like a smartest board, but it was contaminating.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
It was all bad for you.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
And we've never got that problem with whales before, nor
dolphins one or two in a season, but this year
the dolphins were very vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
So what are some of the threat I'm sorry God,
what are some of the threats facing the mammals right now?
And what are you able to do to get in
front of those problems.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Well, usually when I'm asked that, I don't mean to
be insulting by this comment. But most of what our
patients are dealing with and what we're in turn dealing with,
is unfortunate human behavior. So we're allowing the oceans to
warm up, which is causing this toxicity to occur. More often,
(40:03):
we allow far too much runoff pollution, setting aside the
fire issue, which is a very unique circumstance, just normal
runoff fertilizer. You know people that use you know, in
their own yards, it makes its way down to the ocean.
Plastics are horrible. We have patients that, especially if they're
(40:25):
having trouble finding food and they're desperate, that they'll eat things.
I mean, the leat rocks, they'll leak plastic. And then
you mentioned earlier about the entanglement. They'll get entanglements around plastics.
All that is human caused. Yeah, I know, people love
to for release parties or reveal parties. I mean, you know,
(40:46):
they'll let the balloons go, but those helium balloons they
get up a little bit offshore, they fizzle lot they
come down. It looks like a jellyfish to a seal.
Seal eats it that balloon and you know, in its throat.
So we deal with that as a part of our protocol. Now,
(41:07):
we started a couple of years ago, once we got
an XT reading machine. We x ray every patient upon intake,
just as a part of the protocol, just you know.
And sadly, almost thirty percent of our patients have been shot.
Now that might not be why they're in the hospital,
(41:27):
because they're incredibly resilient, they've got a fair amount of blubber,
but almost thirty percent of them have been shot.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
I'm listening to talk to you so fascinated by the story,
but also how much your life must have changed when
you got involved with this.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
It's totally different, Yeah, and you.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
You're you talk about things that you know. It's something
you know about and you're passionate about it. And ten
years ago it was probably a defficult foreign language.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, to go banking to this was quite a change.
But I'm really.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Enjoying it and it must be just so gratifying to
be able to make a difference in these beautiful sea animals.
It's amazing creatures.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Well, if you know, some of your viewers have probably
seen a release that is such an uplifting experience. It's
it's one our patients are healthy and it's time for
them to go home, and we take them down to
the beach and it's usually a really fun experience. We
have donors who you know, have supported us, or school
kids who have adopted a patient, and they'll come down
(42:36):
and they'll release, you know, they'll open the gate. We'll
watch anywhere from one to seven, you know, scamper out,
hit the surf and off they go. It's it's really
it's rewarding.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
And is it always done at the main beach in Laguna.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
No, Actually we do most of them at the Aliso
Creek Beach.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Oh you do.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
The reason being it's very accessible. We can pull our
trucks right up next to the beach, so we transport
our patients in basically large dog kennels, so we can
be right there at the beach and unload them and
set them free from the beach. Now that's for seals
and sea lions. For the elephant seals, they're much larger
(43:17):
by the time they're healthy. They're in the three d
and fifty pound range, and they're not very mobile on
a sandy beach, so we'll take them out by seat.
So I mentioned earlier, we have this wonderful group of
volunteers that donors as well, that own boats, and they
will allow us to load up anywhere from two to
(43:39):
four elephant seals and we take them out several miles
and release them at sea. They elephant seals are not
necessarily beach dwellers. They like the deep ocean, so that's
a good place to let them go home.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
If someone you have these these opportunities for people to
get involved, So do you have like can someone like
us come there and visit you?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah, once we're back open, our visitory art is open
every day, you know, absent like Christmas, a couple of holidays,
but from ten to four we're open. You can come
in free. If we have patients. There's I mentioned in
the remodel will be ten pools. Four of those will
(44:28):
be very visible to the public. A couple of them
aren't where we keep our more highly acute patients, but
those who are nearing their release dates, they're very visible
to the visitors. And there's dosins there in the visitory
art that will explain this is Lucy. She came in,
(44:54):
you know, twenty five pounds a couple of months ago,
dealing with dehydration, and now she's weighing sixty pounds, and
you can see the before in the after, and then
you can get to see them frolicking around. One of
the really fun things we're going to have it when
we reopen is one of the pools will actually have
a viewing window. It's kind of lower so that the
(45:17):
kids can kind of walk down a couple of steps
and view into the pool to see the seals kind
of frolicking around. I refer to that as kind of
our pre release pool. Those are the healthiest ones. They're
getting ready to go home. They're probably going to go
home within the next couple of weeks. They're fed differently,
they're not tossed food. They have to compete because in
(45:40):
a few days a week they're going to be out
in the real world. So we just throw the food
into the pool and they have to compete. It's really
fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And so adults can come with or without children.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Sure, oh yeah, yeah, we have a lot of adults
that come through and I think it's going to once
we reopen, it's even gonna be a little bit better
for adults because we're changing kind of the information that
we make available in the visitor yard, tearing it to
a lot of different types of audiences, not just for
the kids. I mentioned earlier that we take the knowledge
(46:14):
that we've gained from what we are doing in the
hospital for the treatments, and that makes its way into
our educational curriculums, but it also is an element of
our research. We do an awful lot of research, both
by ourselves and in collaboration with other organizations universities around
the country, So there'll be displays about our research work,
(46:37):
which will probably be a little bit more interesting to
the adults.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
So are you contacted regularly by universities or other facilities
that have needs for information you might be able to offer.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
We are, In fact, we joke a little bit that
we're kind of a parts order, and I don't mean
that in a bad way. But when we do autopsies,
they're technically called nee cropsies, but it's basically an autopsy
on an animal. We take a lot of samples and
we have several of the sub eighty degree freezers full
(47:13):
of samples and give you an example. We didn't know
for sure, but we thought it would make a good
idea to take nasal swabs during the pandemic, and so
we have a sample of that. And sure enough the
university was making some calls and said, by any chance
did you happen to take nasal saw to be, Yeah,
(47:33):
we've got a fears of freezer full of them. So
but now it's not just by chance. People know us
now university leading research universities. They know what we do
and that we have these freezers, and so we get
contacted regularly to collaborate on research more local univers Scaffoian Irvine,
(47:55):
well not exactly Davis UH San Diego State. So we
do a lot of collaborations with them.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Of the other facilities as centers, i'll call them, that
are similar to yours, up and down the coast as yours,
set aside from any of the others by any certain
characteristics or things that you do.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Yeah, there's one other one up in Saucelito that is
similar to us. The two of us are noticeably different,
larger and more diverse because of the educational components and
the research components. Most of the others they may have
a little bit of education or a little bit of research,
(48:42):
but they don't have the breadth of what we do
or the one up in Sauceellto. And the other thing
that makes that distinction for Sauce Leto or US is
we're teaching locations. So if you're a VET intern, you're
a vet. You want to have an intern for marine mammals.
There's not a lot of places to go. If you're
(49:03):
VET and you want to treat you know, domestic animals
or farm animals, even zoo animals, there's places to go,
but if you want to treat marine mammals, there's not
very many places you can go to get that kind
of training. So where I believe one of four in
the country where you at Hinjurn can get that type
of training?
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Is that right? So what is your vision for your center? Well,
there probably are two. One probably is your personal one
and probably is that of your board.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
Yeah, no, no, Well, being a former board member, they're
pretty much in sync. But I know it's on our time.
I don't have time to tell you everything, but i'd
say what we're where we're at right now, We're on
the cusp of doing some great things. I can't wait
for us to get back in to take advantage of
our new hospital and the ability that that then gives
(49:54):
us to do more advanced type of animal care, and
then the education that I talk about. The water reclamation
I talked about, and then the on water part is
one of to me, one of the most fascinating aspects
of our future. Being able to get out on the
water and do assess health assessments, not just necessarily coming
to the rescue of a whale or a dolphin, but
(50:16):
to be to monitor them. So we're creating a drone program.
We actually, through cal State Fullerton has a drone program
now we have two licensed drone operators and they're continuing
their education to get higher levels of licensing. So we'll
be able to go out and monitor the health of
Visa VI drones, of whales and dolphins. And I think
(50:38):
that opens up a world of research for us.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
And is that new to this field.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yes, very new, very new. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah, it would normally be done by universities or is
that something that is set like your.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
University is yet it's it's it's it's a function of
the drone technology that's gotten better.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
And sure, yeah, absolutely, that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
And the cam now that can be placed into the drones.
We even are aware now with the technology and being
able to have a drone can tell us the size
weight of a whale. We can put I'm going to
oversimplify it, but imagine like a Petri dish connected to
the drone that can capture a whale's breath and we
(51:22):
can get a DNA on that.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
Oh gosh, that's fascinating. That would be amazing, wouldn't it.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
And I learned when I was Yeah, I learned when
I was gonna Alaskan cruise that every whale has the
back of their tail is different, Yes, like a fingerprint.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Yeah. And similarly, and a dolphin that dorsal, it's like
a fingerprint, is that right. Yeah. We're creating a Dolphins
Spotter program for people to just you know, if you're
at the beach, you can even with the simple iPhone,
you know, given the proximity of the dolphins, you can
take a picture of that and load it to this
(51:58):
Dolphin Spotter app and uh, you know, be a dolphin
spotter and you know, contribute to that database.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
So if your center had a mascot or a poster
or animal. What would it be.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
It's Sammy. He's actually on loan at the Santanna Airport.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yes, because of our closure, we had this beautiful statue
of Sammy the Sea Lion, and we didn't want him
to get hurt with all the or damaged with all
the construction, so we we lent them to We lent
him to the hospital the excuse me, to the airport.
So he's down a baggage thing. Well, they actually were
moving him around. It was hilarious. We got some pictures
as they were moving Sammy around. He was sitting at
(52:39):
the sushi bar for one of the pictures, and there
was a gentleman who didn't quite understand that this was
a set up picture. Oh my god, there's a sealed
sushi bar. They took him down to one of the
you know, the gift shops and they put a hat
on and the kids love it so that that that's
our mascot, and we actually have when we attended, we
(53:00):
have our mascots in costume. We have some young volunteers
that will dress up as a seal and sea lion and.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
Our little question of true for the afternoon. If a
sea lion could talk, what do you think it would
tell us?
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Food? Give me more? Right?
Speaker 1 (53:18):
Is that right? We have sea lions close to where
we live and they talk to us often.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
Yeah, yeah, not.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Us, they talk to everybody we happen to be there.
Glenn Gray, this has been delightful, entertaining and informational, so
much information. I certainly can't wait to come and look
at your center, and I certainly will be a visitor
yes when your new facility is completed, and I really
(53:45):
would like to talk to you about how we can
do some fun things for seniors as well. So we
want to thank you for sharing not only the mission
of your center, but the heart behind it, from life
saving and rescues, the cutting edge conservation to all the
things that you do with your heart and how we
can help you. So for anyone who would like to
visit them, we're going to have the information down here
(54:07):
on the bottom how you can find them and remember
that so cow with Val is your place for discovering
people and places that make life here so special, so interesting,
so fascinating, and why we love living in southern California.
So until next time, stay kind, stay coastal. Keep exploring,
and thank you Glenn so much for being with us
(54:29):
today and Soco with val.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Thanks Beal appreciate it's fun.
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