California Wildlife Center in Calabasas gets federal grant

For the fourth time, the city of Malibu has helped secure a federal grant for the California Wildlife Center in Calabasas. The money -- $80,520 -- will aid the facility's mission of rescuing and rehabilitating seals, sea lions and dolphins along the Malibu coastline.

The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant is awarded annually by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"These funds will significantly help us continue our efforts in improving rescue programs, upgrading the center's equipment and promoting protection of wildlife," said Cynthia Reyes, the center's director of marine mammal response.

John H. Prescott, who died in 1998 of cancer at age 63, was a conservationist, marine biologist, diver, congressional adviser and whale expert. Early in his career, he studied how dolphins navigate and described how they send out high-frequency sonic pulses and then focus the returning signals inside a football-shaped region of their foreheads.

-- Martha Groves

Photo credit: A baby elephant seal lies on a beach in Malibu before being rescued by the California Wildlife Center.  Michael McGehee / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Dave]

It would be nice if the structure of the page allowed FB links to show the appropriate picture, rather than the ad (the KABC logo is the only thumbnail option)

[Kurtis Thorsted]

Leave all the animals alone, they are not attacking anybody, they should be attacking our Senators and congress.

[Mike OHara]

"Lies" on a beach. (Intransitive.)

[Jason Moore]

I very much support the wildlife center, and I'm completely in support of rescuing marine mammals. Particularly the starving sea lions who have been washing ashore in droves this year. However, I am stunned that the Federal government could be so schizophrenic as to hand out tens of thousands of dollars to "rescue" sea lions in California, at the same time they are also authorizing (and spending millions of dollars to bring about) the killing of sea lions on the Columbia river between Oregon and Washington. Perhaps the feds are ignorant of the migration patterns of sea lions? Because sea lions MIGRATE between Southern California and the Columbia river every year.

This means they will be spending tens of thousands (laudibly) to save sea lions in California, and then spending millions to kill THE SAME SEA LIONS the next spring.

Please, NOAA, stop killing sea lions! Salmon are endangered because of over-fishing, dams, and habitat destruction. They are not endanged due to sea lions, as anyone even remotely familliar with the ecological history between the two species would realize. No amount of sea lion killing will ever bring back the salmon. STOP killing sea lions, STOP ignoring the real problems, and START SAVING BOTH SPECIES.