Kaouk - The Trailer Park Steller Sea Lion

Data provider
DFO Strait of Georgia Ecosystem Research Initiative
Originating data center
Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT)
Project partner
History

The Vancouver Aquarium has been involved in the rescue and rehabilitation of marine mammals for over forty years. In that time, the Marine Mammal Rescue centre has grown from admitting one or two animals in a season, to admitting nearly 100 in some years.

The program currently admits over 100 distressed marine mammals per year. Each of these animals requires our expert veterinary treatment and supportive care to recuperate before they are released back into the ocean.

The Marine Mammal Rescue centre is run without governmental operational support.


Species and Range

The program is available to assist distressed marine mammals from the length of the British Columbia coastline.

Elephant seals, sea otters, Steller sea lions, harbour porpoises, sea turtles, common dolphins, and killer whales have all been the subjects of our efforts, but neonate (newborn) harbour seals are the most commonly admitted patients to the Marine Mammal Rescue centre.

The current facilities of the Marine Mammal centre allow for on-site rehabilitation of seals, sea lions, sea otters, and small cetaceans such as harbour porpoises. The rescue of larger marine mammals would involve the use of ocean pens or other secondary facilities.


Goals

The primary goal of the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre is to provide housing and care for ill, injured, or abandoned marine mammals and to rehabilitate them for release back into their natural habitat.

Additional program goals include:

Establishing written protocols for the rehabilitation of different marine mammal species in order to serve as a resource in the event of natural or man-made disasters that impact upon marine mammals.

Monitoring the status of wild populations through the scientific study of ill or orphaned marine mammals treated by the Aquarium

Performing a public service to offer assistance to marine mammals that may be in peril due to habitat destruction and environmental damage caused by humans

Educating the public on how to properly respond to apparently stranded or diseased marine mammals

A male Steller sea lion was brought to the Vancouver Aquraium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre (MMR) on December 18, 2010. He was found the day prior, wandering around a trailer park in Port Alice, BC over 300 metres away from the ocean. Concerned citizens of the trailer park called Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and Officer Greg Plummer came to assess the situation. The rescue centre was then called and pictures of the animal were sent to allow the staff to be able to evaluate the sea lion. It was noted by staff veterinarian Dr. Haulena that the animal looked underweight and dehydrated, and because of the unusual behavior of the animal, he felt that the sea lion should be brought into the rescue centre for more of an evaluation. Arrangements were made with DFO to collect and house the animal over night, so he could be on the first plane to Vancouver in the am via Pacific Coast Airlines.

Once at the centre, “Kaouk” (as named by Greg Plummer) settled in nicely and was examined by staff. Despite being underweight and dehydrated, he seemed in fairly decent condition and was started on a diet of herring, which was slowly increased over time. As his herring amounts increased, so did his activity level and subsequently his waist line did as well. He ate very well from his first meal to his last at MMR, over doubling his weight from 50 kg, to over 110 kg! Once at a releasable weight and health, it was decided by DFO and Aquarium staff that he was happy and healthy enough to return to the wild. On March 17, 2011 he did just that and was released off the West Coast of Vancouver Island at Toquart Bary in Barkley Sound.

Before he was released, Kaouk was outfitted with a satellite tag to be able to monitor his whereabouts. This site was established so you too can monitor his daily activity.

Kaouk is the first Steller sea lion to be released from MMR and the first animal to be released from MMR outfitted with a satellite tracker. A big Thank you to Fisheries and Oceans Canada for your support and supplying the satellite and VHF tracking system for Kaouk.

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Visit STAT's project page for additional information.

The dataset has been updated over time as outlined below. Each entry includes the version number, release date, type of change, and a short description.

Overview

Attributes are defined by seaturtle.org.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downloadable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission.

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by OBIS-SEAMAP)
sort	Internal use
uid	Unique ID assigned by STAT
prognum	Program number
tag_id	PTT ID
utc	Date and time in UTC
lc	Location class
iq	Quality indicator
lat1	Latitude in decimal degrees
dir1	Dir 1
lon1	Longitude in decimal degrees
dir2	Dir 2
lat2
dir3	Dir 3
lon2
dir4	Dir 4
nb_mes	Number of messages received
big_nb_mes
best_level	Best signal strength in dB
pass_duration	Pass duration in seconds
nopc	Number Of Plausibility Checks successful (from 0-4)
calcul_freq	Calculated frequency
altitude	Altitude used for location calculation
sensors	Sensors
species	Species name
tsn	ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number added by OBIS-SEAMAP
timestamp	Numeric timestamp
project_id	STAT Project ID
lc_filter	Parameters to location filtering
speed_filter	Parameters to speed filtering
distance_filter	Parameters to distance filtering
topo_filter	Parameters to topo filtering
time_filter	Parameters to time filtering
angle_filter	Parameters to angle filtering
life_stage	Life stage of the animal
gender	Gender of the animal
wetdry	Wet or dry
wetdry_filter	Parameters to Wet or dry filterint
obs_datetime	Date and time (local time zone)
timezone_h	Time difference from UTC
dataset_id	Dataset ID by OBIS-SEAMAP