Sea lion pup rescued on 880 freeway in Oakland

A wayward sea lion pup found himself in a bad part of town this morning -- the freeway -- before being rescued, the Mercury News reported.

Around 5:45 a.m. drivers began calling in a seal "walking around" in traffic, CHP Officer Peter Van Eckhardt said.

The sea lion was first reported near Park Street, and by the time Oakland police were able to find and pick it up, it had moved up to the 66th Avenue area of the highway, Van Eckhardt said.

"There's some estuaries around the Coliseum there," Van Eckhardt said. "It must have come up out of the bay into one of the drainage canals. They don't move very well on land."

The baby sea lion was taken to the Marine Mammal Center across the bay in Sausalito -- the very same Marine Mammal Center that our Travel section featured just a week ago in a report on the opening of a new facility there. The article mentioned that the center was housing "86 California sea lions, 41 Pacific harbor seals and 14 northern elephant seals." But now that number is closer to 87, unless the little pup decides to walk on the wild side sometime soon.

-- Tony Pierce

Comments

[JMG]

I'm so thankful that there are people in the world that help make the lives of animals better and rescue them from potentially tragic situations. A BIG THANKS to the rescue team!!!!

[Tammy]

Poor little guy! He must have been pretty panicked. Glad he's OK!