Sea Lion Found Tangled In Fishing Line With Stomach Full Of Rocks Happily Returns To Sea

Nov 23, 2020 by apost team

A sea lion named Chompers has returned back to the ocean in November of 2020 after being rescued in July of 2020 off of a buoy in the waters of Newport Beach, California. Chompers had spent the summer at California's Pacific Marine Mammal Center recovering from injuries that caused her unable to eat. Since Chompers has recovered, she has been released back out into the wild, and her reaction to returning to the sea is nothing short of wholesome and heartwarming. 

According to CBSN Los Angeles, sea lion Chomper was released at the age of two years old from California's Pacific Marine Mammal Center at Laguna Beach in California, after having a rough summer recovering from injuries. Her injuries were caused by a fishing line hook that was caught in her neck, and because of that infected wound, she was unable to fish properly. Poor Chompers had resorted to eating rocks and weighed a mere 70 pounds when she was rescued in the waters of Newport Beach in July of 2020. The center x-rayed Chompers and found a total of 24 rocks in her stomach—which explained to rescue workers why the underweight sea lion had been refusing to eat since her retrieval. 

apost.com

The center gave details about Chomper's condition in a news release on Tuesday, November 10, 2020, according to The Charlotte Observer. The release said:

“Chomper was rescued off a buoy in Newport Beach. She was entangled in fishing line with a hook embedded around her neck. Buoy rescues can not only be challenging because of the elements, but also the unpredictability of these wild animals.”

Although the rescue ended up going smoothly, Chomper's troubles were not immediately solved. The infection the sea lion had gotten from the entanglement had steadily gotten worse, and she even had to go through surgery. Chompers hung in there and withstood the surgery to remove the fishing line, but even after her wounds were cared for, she wouldn't eat. This is when the x-ray revealed the rocks, and the rescuers had a better insight into Chomper's condition. 

According to The Sacramento Bee, the center said:

"The weight of the rocks in their stomach may help relieve the discomfort of feeling hungry. However, in the long term, ingesting rocks can result in severe weight loss if they are not vomited up and the sea lion doesn’t start successfully foraging for appropriate food."

According to the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries' website, California sea lions usually eat a wide variety of prey, including "squid, anchovies, mackerel, rockfish, and sardines—found in upwelling areas." The website also says that California sea lions are known for taking fish from commercial fishing equipment, fishing lines, and "fish passage facilities" that are found in areas with dams and rivers. This may have been one of the reasons that Chompers go tangled up in the fishing line in the first place, but nonetheless, it was important that the center removed rocks from her stomach and got her back to eating her normal diet as soon as possible.

There were several failed attempts to stimulate Chomper's appetite and even to get her to throw up the rocks on her own. Eventually, the center decided to remove some of the rocks via endoscopy, which was "a procedure where a camera is passed from the mouth into the stomach and tools are used to grab the rock so they can be pulled out of the stomach through the mouth," according to the press release from the center.

Via endoscopy, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center successfully removed a total of 12 rocks from Chomper's stomach, and then they thankfully got her to puke up the other twelve rocks on her own. Only a few days after the rocks were finally removed from her stomach, Chompers began eating fish again, and by early November of 2020, she had gained a total of 45 pounds back! This weight gain put her back on track to being healthy, and she even felt so good that she was able to forage for food herself. 

On the 6th of November, 2020, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center released Chompers back into the ocean, allowing her to be reunited with her natural habitat after successful rehabilitation. The center even shared the joyful moment on their Facebook page with a video and the caption "be free and thrive Chompers," for the rest of the world to enjoy. Be sure to take a look at Chomper's big moment below!

We're so glad Chompers was rescued and rehabilitated successfully! Isn't watching animals like sea lions return to their natural habitats just heartwarming? Be sure to pass this happy-ending on to other animal lovers!