Sea lion found shot on Kitsilano beach

Editor’s Note: This article included images and videos of a critically injured marine mammal, which can be difficult for some readers to see.

A young sea lion was found on Kitsilano beach Friday with a gunshot wound in her head, Vancouver rescue crews say.

The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Centre says the female sea lion remains in critical condition as of Sunday morning.

Lead veterinarian Dr. Martin Haulena says the mammal is underweight, lethargic and remains weak.

“Our team says she appears generally malnourished, and her eyes are closed still,” a statement from the aquarium reads. “[Haulena] also said that priority of the team is stabilization and pain control. Then the team will do diagnostics to see more about her health and potential for re-release. She remains in poor condition but made it through last night.”

The Marine Mammal Rescue Centre responded to a call about a juvenile female sea lion in need of assistance on Kits Beach. This species of sea lion should be in a group with others, but she was alone. She will be brought to the Rescue Centre for examination and stabilization. pic.twitter.com/Y1SL9ZBOTe

— Vancouver Aquarium (@vanaqua) March 18, 2022

In an interview with CityNews Haulena pointed out the sea lion’s vision is compromised with one eye completely non-functional.

“The other eye has a clear cornea, but there are obviously lesions around the eye. Looks like there’s a cataract there as well,” he added. “So I’m not sure how much return of vision we could get from that eye.”

Usually, veterinarians wait a few days before providing fluids, pain medication and antibiotics and support that animal before they carry out a more in-depth exam under anesthetic Haulena says.

“So there could be other problems that we might discover,” he said.

“With a visually compromised animal that …  if it can’t see well enough, unfortunately, becomes a non-releasable animal. The fortunate part about that is the aquarium that can provide homes to a certain number of animals that can’t be released.”

Todd Hauptman with the aquarium also told CityNews, the nature of these kinds of rescues in the early hours and days doesn’t make it clear if the mammal will make it through or now.

“But obviously the team is doing their level best to make sure that she does survive and can ultimately, the goal is to rerelease her back into the wild.”

Rescues say, they were surprised that this species of sea lion was found alone, as they usually swim in cohorts. But Hauptman clarifies the sea lion may have been separated because it was blind and weak.

“It’s not that it got shot in Kitsilano. So it probably got shot some days or maybe a week ago,” he explained. “The big issue with shooting sea lions is the fact that people don’t often know what they’re doing. And either intentionally or unintentionally don’t actually get a clean shot and cleanly kill an animal. The biggest issue for me on this is an animal that’s suffering for a long period of time.”

The aquarium is reminding locals that if you see a marine mammal you believe is in need of assistance, resist the urge to intervene.

Instead, call Marine Mammal Rescue Centre at 604-258-7325 or the Department of Fisheries and Oceans at 1-800-465-4336.