SAN DIEGO — Meet Freeway. He is a teenage mischief maker, a land-loving sea lion fishing for freedom.
And now the pinniped, who earned notoriety in January when he shut down a busy San Diego freeway a pair miles from the ocean, is again.
Final month, somebody noticed him wandering up a storm drain in Logan Heights, a few half-mile from the place the drain hits San Diego Harbor. A SeaWorld Rescue group plucked him from the muck April 7. It took some coaxing to catch him, SeaWorld Rescue group supervisor Jeni Smith mentioned final week.
If he’d stayed in that storm drain, he would have made it again to the freeway interchange the place he disrupted site visitors in January. It is a direct shot.
Since his most up-to-date rescue, Freeway has been in a rehab of types, getting his conduct assessed. No person is aware of why he retains going to date inland.
On Jan. 7, Freeway made a brazen midmorning try to cross state Route 94 close to state Route 15, east of downtown San Diego. Shocked drivers screeched their vehicles to a halt on the sight of him. A couple of jumped out and stopped different vehicles so Freeway may scoot safely throughout eastbound lanes to the grass within the heart divide.
SeaWorld’s Rescue group responded, scooped him up, watched him for a month after which returned him to the ocean.
They’d first rescued him a couple of months earlier in November, once they discovered him strolling on to Harbor Island Drive. They rehabbed him at SeaWorld for every week, fitted his left flipper with an orange tag and dropped him again into the ocean.
January marked rescue No. 2. April made it three.
These are simply the rescues. He is been noticed ashore a couple of instances since that first rescue — Level Loma, Encinitas, Cardiff. However these spots are close to the water.
He does not have an official identify. SeaWorld’s Rescue group does not identify the creatures they save. However unofficially and affectionately, some name him Freeway.
After his freeway stunt, the rescuers added a second orange tag, this one on the fitting flipper, so he may very well be recognized shortly and simply.
The tags maintain figuring out knowledge, however they aren’t geo-locators, These dear trackers are used for endangered species and the like.
When SeaWorld Rescue received the decision a few sea lion in a storm drain final month, the caller couldn’t see the orange tags. However SeaWorld staffers suspected it was Freeway.
Smith mentioned his April journey took him properly out of his habitat.
“There was no meals supply for him. He was sadly amongst trash and purchasing carts,” she mentioned.
The animal reacted when he noticed the rescuers method, she mentioned. Once they provided up fish, he gladly took it. When animals wander out of their ocean habitat, it is normally for meals, Smith mentioned.
Freeway’s weight is nice and Smith believes he eats within the ocean with out drawback. His physique situation can be good, no bumps or bruises.
They determine he is about 10 to 13 years previous. Eventually verify, he weighed 85.5 kilograms — roughly 188 kilos.
Sea lions could be noticed hanging out in crowds, flopped onto one another. Nobody is aware of why Freeway just isn’t staying with an enormous group. At SeaWorld, he is been dwelling with three different three sea lions, and he has been social with them.
Freeway is certainly one of 37 sea lions SeaWorld has rescued this 12 months. Often, the group has to rescue an animal greater than as soon as. It isn’t typically, although, and more often than not the animals are discovered of their pure habitat. They might be emaciated, could also be tangled in fishing line, could have a shark chunk.
The purpose is all the time to get the animal wholesome and return it to the wild, Smith mentioned.
Freeway stays on the park whereas SeaWorld staffers proceed assessing his conduct and attempting to determine a plan for him. No date is ready but for his return to the ocean.
“We would like him to be in a secure scenario,” Smith mentioned. “We wish to do what’s finest for the ocean lion. … Proper now, as a result of he has been rescued 3 times in unsafe conditions, we try to determine what his plan is.”
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