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King, the emaciated sea lion rescued in Redondo Beach, back in the ocean

April 1, 2023

Spectators watch as the Marine Mammal Care Center released 4 rehabilitated sea lions back to the ocean in San Pedro on Friday, March 31, 2023. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Dr. Lauren Palmer Hospital Director for the Marine Mammal Care Center speaks to the media ahead of the release of 4 sea lions back to the ocean after being rehabilitated
in San Pedro on Friday, March 31, 2023. One of the sea lions was King, a young male sea lion, was found in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach back in January. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

The Marine Mammal Care Center released 4 rehabilitated sea lions back to the ocean in San Pedro on Friday, March 31, 2023. The first out of the gate and eager to plunge into the ocean was King, a young male sea lion, found in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach back in January. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Marine Mammal Care Center employees release 4 rehabilitated sea lions back to the ocean in San Pedro on Friday, March 31, 2023. One of the sea lions was King, a young male sea lion found in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach back in January. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Pat Light who found King, a lost sea lion, speaks to the media ahead of the release of 4 sea lions back to the ocean after being rehabilitated in San Pedro on Friday, March 31, 2023. King, a young male sea lion was found in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach back in January. Today King and 3 female sea lions returned to the sea. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

King, the stranded sea lion found seeking warmth and food at the King Harbor Yacht Club in San Pedro on Jan. 26, 2023, was taken to the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro where he is shown here on Jan. 31 after a few days in recovery. He was released later into the ocean at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro on March 31, 2023. (Photo Jan. 31, 2023, by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

A stranded sea lion pup that showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach began eating shortly after he was taken in for recovery at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

A stranded sea lion pup showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach on Jan. 26, 2023, and was taken to the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro where he recovered. The pup, named King, began gaining weight quickly — shown here on Jan. 31, 2023 — and was released back into the ocean on March 31, 2023, at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

A stranded sea lion pup showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach and recovered at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. Nicknamed King, he’s shown here on Jan. 31, 2023, just days after being taken to the center where he began gaining weight quickly. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

A stranded sea lion pup showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach recovered at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. The pup, named King was released on March 31, 2023, at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro after recovering at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. After finishing lunch at the center on Jan. 31, 2023, he checked the bowl for more. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

The rescued sea lion pup named King, found at the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach on Jan. 26, 2023, began gaining weight early at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, shown here on Tuesday, January 31, 2023, and was released back into the ocean on March 31, 2023. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

King, a stranded sea lion pup that showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach on Jan. 26, 2023, was released back into the ocean at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro on March 31, 2023, after recovering at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. He’s shown here in his early days of recovery on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

A stranded sea lion pup showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach, and recovered at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. Photo taken in San Pedro on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

“King,” the stranded sea lion pup, look for more food during the early days of his recovery at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro in January. He showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach and club members contacted a rescuer for the Marine Mammal Care Center who picked him up. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

A stranded sea lion pup that showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach on Jan. 26 was released at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro on Friday, March 31, 2023, after recovering at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. (Photo courtesy of King Harbor Yacht Club )

A stranded sea lion pup showed up in the kitchen of the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach on Jan. 26, 2023, and was taken to the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. (Photo courtesy of King Harbor Yacht Club )

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The air was brisk, the sun shining and the waves were breaking on the sand — as King, the wayward sea lion, returned to the ocean.

The young sea lion, which had spent the past two months on the mend at San Pedro’s Marine Mammal Care Center, briskly flopped his way to the Cabrillo Beach waterline on Friday, March 31, as a couple of dozen onlookers bid him a cheerful send-off.

“Go King!” shouted one spectator watching the sea lion, who in January had wandered, malnourished, into Redondo Beach’s King Harbor Yacht Club, where he was found curled up next to the stove in the warm kitchen.

King, who is named after the yacht club, wasted no time bounding out of his rehabilitation crate on the beach and into the cold Pacific waters that were home. With another recovered sea lion companion — King ws among four total that were released Friday — he bobbed through the waves and into the ocean until he disappeared from view.

“Oh, they’re so happy,” one onlooker said, watching the sea lions dip in and out through the waves on their journey home.

Among the well-wishers on the beach was Pat Light, volunteer membership chair at the King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach, who was there the night the sea lion was discovered in the kitchen.

“It’s just so exciting to see,” she said of the release early Friday morning.

Light was joined by several others from the yacht club who assisted in King’s rescue. They received a special invitation to be there from the Marine Mammal Care Center, where King has been recovering all this time.

“He looks great,” said Light, who recalled how skinny and lethargic the pup was just a few months ago.

For John Warner, the CEO of the Marine Mammal Care Center that nursed King back to health, it was “a joyful day, to be sure.”

It was after the dinner hour, around 9 p.m., on Jan. 26, when King was found. The skinny pup had somehow crawled up onto a dock, then up a ramp and around a back patio to slip inside the warm kitchen at the King Harbor Yacht Club.

Estimated to be about 6 or 7 months old at the time, the pup was first spotted by Lupe Ruiz, the club’s food manager, who told Light, “We have something in the kitchen I need to show you.”

At the time, Light said in a Feb. 1 interview, “I thought, ‘Well, that’s unusual.”

And then the big question was what to do next.

Police officers initially responded to their call. But eventually, someone knew to contact the rescue group that works with the Marine Mammal Care Center, a rehab facility that takes in sick and injured sea lions and harbor seals.

The story from there was a happy one. The pup did well, said Marine Mammal Care Center veterinarian Lauren Palmer, who got the call that evening that he was being brought in.

King weighed about 31 pounds, and needed tube-feeding and hydration. But other than malnutrition, he didn’t seem to have any other health problems, Palmer said at the time.

Within a few days, the pup was eating some “pretty good-sized fish,” Palmer said.

By the time he was released on Friday, King weighed 95 pounds.

“He enjoyed his meals,” Palmer, who also was on hand for the ocean release, said on Friday. “He’s definitely a consumer.”

While the 95 pounds is a bit heavier than the goal weight, she said, the winter months, especially with all the recent cold weather and rain, required a bit extra.

“We think it gives them a better chance if they have a few extra pounds,” Palmer said.

Melanie Lundquist, who, along with her husband, Richard, is a Marine Mammal Care Center donor, also watched King and the other sea lions return home Friday.

Ultimately, she said, she’d like to see the center expand.

Currently, it’s on Los Angeles Unified School District property, within Angels Gate Park on Gaffey Street, and can hold about 120 pups, but fewer adult sea lions. Warner, who took over the San Pedro facility in January after coming from the larger Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, said he would also like to see the center add a saltwater pool to its fresh-water recovery pools.

The Marine Mammal Care Center is the only center of its kind serving the large L.A. coastal area between Malibu to the north and Seal Beach to the south.

“We really don’t have what we need,” Lundquist said of the San Pedro center. The mission, she said, “is to make sure we care for the (environmental) mess we’ve made.”

Orange County Register

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King, the emaciated sea lion rescued in Redondo Beach, back in the ocean

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