A young, orphaned harbor seal is recovering at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, just one of many found this summer.
The pup was retrieved from Douglas Island near Juneau on Monday after marine mammal experts responded to a call. The pup had multiple infected lacerations and was very thin.
Julie Speegle with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said their veterinarians have stated that this has been an unusual marine mammal season.
Speegle: “We just have seen a higher than usual number of harbor seal pups, or I should say seal pups because it hasn’t just been harbor seals.”
The seal pup arrived at the Alaska SeaLife Center weighing only 16.5 pounds. If she recovers and passes physical and mental tests the Center plans to release her back into the wild this fall near her original location.
Another puzzling trend, the Gulf of Alaska has seen 14 fin whales die this summer.
Speegle said increased toxic blooms may be partially to blame for the unusual behaviors.
Speegle: “There’s naturally occurring algae blooms and in certain ocean conditions they just explode in population and they can have a toxic substance. If the population is low on those blooms they’re not problem but if there’s a lot of those blooms they can increase toxicity, especially for animals that live in the water.”
One theory as to why toxic blooms have increased is because of the higher ocean water temperatures the Pacific Ocean is experiencing.
