World
Team Races Against Time to Save a Tangled Sea Lion in British Columbia
A team of marine mammal experts had spent several days in Cowichan Bay, British Columbia, searching for a sea lion with an orange rope wrapped around its neck. As the sun set on Dec. 8, they were packing up, for good, when a call came in.
The tangled animal, a female Steller sea lion weighing 330 pounds, had been spotted on a dock in front of an inn, leading into the bay in southwestern Canada.
The rope was wrenched four times around her neck, carving a deep gash. Without help, the sea lion would die.
The team had been trying to find the sea lion for a month, and on that day, with daylight running out, the nine members that day knew they needed to work fast. They relaunched their boats and a team member loaded a dart gun and shot her with a sedative.
“Launching the dart is the easiest part of the whole operation,” said Dr. Martin Haulena, executive director of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, which conducted the rescue alongside Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “It’s everything that happens after that, that you just have no control over.”
Steller sea lions, also known as northern sea lions, are the largest such breed. They are found as far south as Northern California and in parts of Russia and Japan. A male Steller sea lion can weigh up to 2,500 pounds.
The Cowichan Tribes Marine Monitoring Team assisted the rescue society, calling it whenever the sea lion was spotted. The tribe named her Stl’eluqum, meaning “fierce” or “exceptional” in Hul’q’umi’num’, an Indigenous language, according to the rescue society.
After Stl’eluqum was sedated, she jumped from the dock into the water. Recent torrential rains and flooding had stirred up debris, making the water brown, and harder to spot the sea lion, Dr. Haulena said.
Several minutes after the sea lion dived into the bay, the drone spotted her and the team moved in.
The rope had multiple strands and it was wrapped so deeply that she most likely wasn’t able to eat, Dr. Haulena said. At first, the team had trouble freeing her.
“You couldn’t see it because it was way dug in underneath the skin and blubber of the animal,” Dr. Haulena said.
After unraveling the rope, the team tagged her flipper, gave her some antibiotics and released her.
Freeing the sea lion was the culmination of weeks of searching and missed moments. The first call about the tangled marine mammal was made to the Fisheries and Oceans Canada hotline on Nov. 7, according to a news release from the rescue society. Then the society logged more calls.
The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, a nonprofit that works in partnership with the Vancouver Aquarium, searched for several days for the sea lion. The day they found her was the last of the rescue effort because bad weather was forecast for the area around the bay. The call that led them to Stl’eluqum came from the Cowichan Tribes, Dr. Haulena said.
The society, Dr. Haulena said, cares for about 150 marine mammals from its rescues every year — sea lions, otters, harbor seals and the occasional sea turtle. The group gives medical care to animals it takes in, such as Luna, an abandoned newborn sea otter who was three pounds when she was found and still had her umbilical cord attached.
Many of the society’s rescues involve animals tangled in garbage or debris, Dr. Haulena said.
Stl’eluqum was tangled in nylon rope commonly used to tie boats or crab traps, he said. When sea lions get something caught around their necks it can grow tighter until it cuts into their organs, sometimes fatally, he said.
“It’s our garbage; it’s our fault,” Dr. Haulena said. “It’s a large amount of animal suffering and not a good outcome unless we can do something.”
Published on •Updated
One day after the new parliament convened and Péter Magyar was sworn-in as prime minister, thousands have been celebrating Europe Day in Budapest, along with the 22nd anniversary of Hungary’s accession to the European Union.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
On 9 May 1950, the anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Schuman Declaration was issued, laying the foundations for the community now known as the European Union. Seventy-six years later, on the same day, Hungary swore in a new prime minister, something that will no doubt reshape the often tense relationship between Brussels and Budapest. The change of government has also left its mark on this year’s Europe Day.
“We are all very happy. I’ve never come out for Europe Day before, so I can’t compare it, but you can really feel the good mood, especially after yesterday,” said a young woman on Szabadság tér, the main venue for the events.
“I’m really pleased about it, to be honest, and I feel there is a much more enthusiastic and motivated atmosphere. Not least because we now have a chance to set off again on a shared path with Europe,” is how another participant summed up their feelings about the change of government.
The organisers have lined up a host of programmes for Europe Day, including concerts. As tradition dictates, the event was launched with a running race: this time the runners took on a half marathon, but they could also compete in relay teams if they did not want to cover the full 21 kilometres.
The Europe Day programme continues into the evening. The detailed schedule can be browsed here (source in Hungarian), with the band hiperkarma headlining tonight’s programme.
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — A hantavirus-stricken cruise ship with more than 140 people on board has arrived at Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, where the passengers and some of the crew are to disembark.
The World Health Organization, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions have said that nobody on board the MV Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus. Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.
As a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship is set to arrive at Granadilla port in Tenerife, Spain on Sunday morning, the WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expedition are coordinating the disembarkation of passengers and some crew on ground.
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor, with people ferried off in small boats. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms, and will only be taken off the ship once evacuation flights are ready to fly them to their destinations.
There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s health and interior ministers, were to be supervising the evacuation of the ship. Authorities have said the passengers and crew members who will disembark will have no contact with the local population.
Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
World
North Korea updates constitution to require automatic nuclear strike if Kim Jong Un is assassinated: report
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
North Korea has updated its constitution to require a retaliatory nuclear strike if leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated, according to a report.
The Telegraph reported the change comes amid heightened global tensions following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials during a recent conflict.
Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike in Tehran as part of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli military operation earlier this year, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The constitutional revision was approved during a session of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, which opened March 22 in Pyongyang, the outlet said.
ISRAEL TARGETS IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER IN SWEEPING STRIKES AS US JOINS ‘OPERATION EPIC FURY’
North Korea launched two cruise missiles and three anti-ship missiles from the destroyer Choe Hyon on Sunday, April 12, 2026, according to North Korean state media. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP)
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) briefed senior government officials this week on the update, according to the report.
The revised policy outlines procedures for retaliatory action if North Korea’s leadership is incapacitated or killed.
“If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately,” the updated provision states.
KIM JONG UN CALLS SOUTH KOREA ‘MOST HOSTILE ENEMY,’ SAYS NORTH COULD ‘COMPLETELY DESTROY’ IT
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech at the inauguration ceremony of Saeppyol Street in Pyongyang on Feb. 15, 2026. (KCNA via KNS/AFP)
Reuters previously reported that North Korea revised its constitution to define its territory as bordering South Korea and remove references to reunification, reflecting Kim’s push to formally treat the two Koreas as separate states.
That marked the first time North Korea included a territorial clause in its constitution.
Last month, Kim pledged to further strengthen the country’s nuclear capabilities while maintaining a hard-line stance toward South Korea, which he has called the “most hostile” state.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Kim Jong Un reportedly observed missile test launches in North Korea on Sunday, April 12, 2026. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service)
Kim has also accused the United States of “state terrorism and aggression,” and signaled North Korea could take a more active role in opposition to Washington amid rising global tensions.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-
Business3 minutes agoPressure grows on California attorney general to try to block Paramount’s deal for Warner Bros.
-
Entertainment9 minutes agoCulver City’s Wende Museum of the Cold War announces major expansion in Hawthorne
-
Lifestyle15 minutes agoAfter an L.A. windstorm, he used fallen trees to make furniture with a story behind it
-
Politics21 minutes agoBig donors backed Harris in 2024. For 2028, they’re not so sure
-
Sports33 minutes agoAfter years of playing through tears, Angel City players are grateful team supports moms
-
World45 minutes agoBudapest marks 22 years in the EU after political transition
-
News1 hour agoIran war, redistricting battle lead Sunday shows
-
New York3 hours ago‘She Studied Us for a Moment With Theatrical Longing’