Featured Image Credit: http://elelur.com/mammals/harbor-seal.html
By Sarah Sharkey
Sarvey Wildlife Care Center in Washington is currently constructing 15 new marine mammal rehabilitation pools. These pools will be the first saltwater pools in Washington and will at least double the capacity of the center to rehabilitate marine mammals.
Space is a big issue for this facility and according to Dr. Lahner, “Some animals that needed rehabilitation weren’t rehabilitated. They were either left on the beach or humanely euthanized because there was no space for them in a rehabilitation facility.”
There is a huge need for rehabilitation space at the center, especially because it is the only center in the state of Washington that can rehabilitate these animals. Some frequent visitors to the center include Harbor seals. But with these new pools, the center will also be able to accommodate harbor porpoises, stellar sea lions, and the endangered Guadalupe fur seal.
The pools are modeled after the ones at the Marine Mammal Rescue Center in Vancouver, B.C. The hope is that the increased capacity will allow the rescue crew to reduce the number of hard decisions that they currently have to make, if there is space for everyone then it no problem to bring an injured animal back to the center for rehabilitation and then return the animal to the wild.
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