The Marine Mammal Care Center is asking local cities to help pay for the rescue of seals and sea lions that come ashore due to illness, injury or threat of human contact. Officials there say the regional environment for the animals is causing an increasing public safety issue that the non-profit cannot handle alone.
Redondo Beach became the latest city to commit supporting that when the City Council at its meeting this week inked an agreement to pay the center $60,000 annually for three years for the rescue and rehabilitation of the animals locally.
The center operates on funding from private philanthropy and state grants, MMCC CEO John Warner said Wednesday, but with more sea mammals stranding, or coming onto the beach, each year along LA County beaches because of the lack of natural habitat in the region, it needs local help.
“We have the least remaining natural habitat for marine mammals than any other place in the state,” Warner said. “That causes these animals to strand on beaches that are packed with people, and means every animal that strands becomes a public health issue as well as an animal welfare issue.”
Many of the animals end up having to be rescued only because of their proximity to and interactions with people, which Warner said is a hard burden to ask private philanthropy to cover. Marine mammals are federally protected species, he added, so it’s expensive to train people to have the specialized skills to rescue seals and sea lions.
Redondo’s contract lasts from now until Oct. 14, 2027, but has provisions that allow the agreement to be terminated from year to year if the parties choose to.
Redondo Beach is a hot spot of sorts for sea mammal stranding, Warner said at the Tuesday meeting, with 28% of rescue calls into the center coming from the city.
In January, the San Pedro based non-profit sent similar proposals to every coastal city from Long Beach to Malibu, as well as City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, Warner said. Hermosa Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes have also signed onto the effort, he added, while Malibu declined and the others are still pending.
MMCC is asking local governments for about $750,000 collectively, Warner said, which is around 20% of the center’s $4 million annual budget. The ask for each city depends on the volume of stranded animals, the amount of beach ad other factors.
Along with the ongoing increase of stranded sea mammals, more pressure came in 2022 when the local rescue organization Marine Animal Rescue closed due to lack of funding, Warner said.
Marine Animal Rescue used to save and bring ill and injured sea mammals to the Marine Mammal Care Center for rehabilitation. Staff at MMCC since the closure has been picking up where the former rescue center left off, rescuing more animals themselves, Warner said.
But the burden has become more expensive than the center can handle as quickly as it needs to with its typical funding, he added.
“We are ready to deal with animal welfare issues as a nonprofit, but when the public safety issue becomes as great as it has in LA, we can still do the work, but we need help financing that to deal with these stranded animals in a timely manner.”
Warner said he hopes that “with each additional city, others feel compelled to join because it really is a regional approach.” “When we have mass stranding events, with larger amounts standing each year, we’ll have everyone contributing a small amount.”
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