Whale Jail

When Pushki was brought to his new home on 12 November, he was scared, dangerously skinny and severely dehydrated. The two-week-old sea otter pup had been found crying on the beach in Homer, Alaska, seemingly having been separated from his mother. He needed help, fast.

Now, nearly a month later, he’s running the show at the Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC), an aquatic rehabilitation, scientific research and education facility in Seward, Alaska. The young sea otter, whose name captures his mischievous spirit (Pushki is another name for the Alaskan plant known as a cow parsnip, which can sometimes cause burns), has been keeping his veterinary team busy with his playful baby antics.

“He’s incredibly lucky to have this second chance at life,” said Lisa Hartman, the ASLC husbandry director. “If we weren’t here, he likely wouldn’t be either.”

But earlier this year, the research center seemed like the one in trouble. The ASLC is the only facility in the state that rehabilitates aquatic animals, and has a zoo and aquarium that are open to the public; in a normal summer, the center sees more than 160,000 visitors, largely from out of state. This year – because the vast majority of Alaska’s summer tourists come in on cruise ships, all of which were canceled due to the pandemic – it saw only a fourth of it normal numbers.

The future of the 22-year-old center – and the more than 4,000 creatures it houses – appeared uncertain. On 13 July, the ASLC announced they would be forced to close permanently unless they were able to raise $2m by the end of September.

Their plea resonated: by 1 October they had raised $4m, over half of which came from individual donors. Tara Riemer, CEO and president, said while they’re not yet operating at their prior level, at least they will remain open and be able to continue caring for their animals and conducting important research through the winter.

With several species of seals, a few sea lions, myriad fish and an assortment of marine birds, the ASLC has made a name for itself as a bustling aquarium in small-town Seward (population: 2,700). But it also punches well above its weight in the global conservation and science arenas.

The animals cared for at the center – some of which, like Pushki, have just been rescued and others which have been living there for much longer – have helped inform the greater aquatic and arctic research.

One of the center’s newest studies is looking at ice seals, who historically haven’t been studied as rigorously by the scientific community as some of their aquatic peers. Studying the seals, as the ice they reside on melts due to global warming, helps give researchers an understanding of “what’s happening with our environment and our ecosystems in real time”, according to Hartman.

“We’ve been able to gather information that nobody else has been able to gather before,” said Hartman.

by Bailey Berg, The Guardian |  Read more:

Image: Bailey Berg
[ed. Puff piece (with obligatory sea otter). Sounds great, right? What the article doesn't mention is that the Seward SeaLife Center was funded mostly by Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement monies (to the tune of approximately $38 million), as a sop to the City of Seward and Southcentral Alaska tourism industry. Widely derided as a "Whale Jail" at the time it was approved, it has never contributed greatly to marine research, especially for ice seals (see papers by J.J. Burns, Lloyd Lowry, Kathy Frost, Bob Nelson et al - AK Dept. of Fish and Game - for that). In fact, one might reasonably ask why it's involved in research outside the EVOS spill area at all, given the focus of settlement funds, which were to be used to restore injured resources within the oil spill impacted area. Ackk.]