News

Harbor Seal Pupping Season Has Begun
Marine Mammal Institute: 04/26/2018

At springtime, harbor seal pups are frequently found alone on area beaches. They are usually not stranded but simply resting and waiting for their mothers to come back ashore to nurse them. Adult female seals are shy and unlikely to rejoin a pup if there is activity nearby. Please remember to stay away from seal pups and to keep dogs from disturbing them. Mother seals may only return to suckle their pup at night when people and dogs are not around. It is very important not to interfere with this process, and especially not to move a pup from where it is receiving care from its mother.

Bacteria outbreak strikes sea lions on Oregon Coast leading to warning for people and their pets
The Register-Guard: 10/27/2017

A bacteria outbreak is making sea lions sick along the Oregon Coast, so state officials are warning people and their dogs to stay away from the animals. The outbreak began in September and likely will last into December, said Jim Rice, coordinator with the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Anyone who comes across a sick sea lion or other ill marine mammal is asked to stay at least 50 feet away and call Oregon State Police dispatchers at 800-452-7888.

California Sea Lions Sick with Leptospirosis
OMMSN: 10/17/2017
Sea Lion Laying on Beach Sick with Leptospirosis

As in past years, we are currently seeing a significant increase in the frequency of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) appearing on Oregon beaches in varying states of health and disease. Many have been affected by Leptospirosis, a contagious bacterial infection of the kidneys. This disease causes animals to appear very lethargic and unable or unwilling to move their hind limbs, and is often accompanied by weight loss and pneumonia. While it is possible for infected animals to recover from this disease if given plenty of opportunity to rest, there is no option to rescue and rehabilitate these animals in...

MMI scientists present at Sharing the Coast conference
Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition: 03/03/2017

The Marine Mammal Institute will be well represented at this year's Sharing the Coast Conference in Waldport, OR. Leigh Torres will be providing the keynote address at 6:30 pm, Friday, March 3, 2017. Dr. Torres will discuss the latest in research into the lives of gray whales and other marine megafauna inhabiting our coastal waters and ways in which citizens can help scientists monitor whale populations. Her presentation is free and open to the public.

On Saturday, March 4, Jim Rice, coordinator of the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, will give an overview of the state’s marine mammal populations and explain how citizens can engage in tracking these populations through reporting stranded animals, alive or dead. The...

Oregon Sea Otters
OMMSN: 06/09/2014
Spate of cetacean strandings keeps Marine Mammal Stranding Network busy along central coast
Newport News Times: 03/07/2014

MMI’s Jim Rice, coordinator of the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and collaborator Debbie Duffield from Portland State University, have been busy performing necropsies on dolphins that stranded along the Oregon coast in late February. Tissue samples have been sent to OSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine, and others, for analysis. The causes of death are still undetermined. (The full article can be read in the Newport News-Times.)

Sea Lion Webcam at Newport OR Pock Dock 1
OSU Webcams: 07/29/2013

A new webcam has been installed at Newport’s popular sea lion haul out, Port Dock 1. This camera is monitored by the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network to check for injuries due to entanglements in fishery gear and marine debris. Sea lions periodically come ashore with plastic packing bands wrapped around their necks and fishing lures hanging from their mouths. A capture cage is sometimes deployed at this site to treat entangled sea lions.

New study questions the role of kinship in mass strandings of pilot whales
OSU News and Research Communications: 03/14/2013

Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, said genetic identification showed that, in many cases, the mothers of calves were missing entirely from groups of whales that died in the stranding. This separation of mothers and calves suggests that strong kinship bonds are being disrupted prior to the actual stranding – potentially playing a role in causing the event.

Green sea turtle rescued from Newport beach, doing well
Oregon Live: 06/26/2012

NEWPORT (The Oregonian) – Motel manager Frank Brooks called the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Then someone saw the turtle lift its head, someone else thought they saw it move a flipper, and so the race was on to save the 135-pound green sea turtle.

Gray Whale Carcass Washes Ashore South of Waldport
U.S. Coast Guard: 05/28/2010

On Saturday evening, May 22, the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network received a report from the U.S. Coast Guard of a decomposed whale carcass that had been sighted by helicopter about a mile offshore from Waldport. The following morning the carcass was sighted on the beach just north of Beachside State Park.

Members of the stranding network responded and found a 40 foot male gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) in an advanced state of decomposition. Photographs and measurements were collected and limited sampling of...

Sea Lion Disentangled at Lincoln Beach
OMMSN: 05/21/2010
Volunteers on beach running after entangled sea lion

On Thursday May 20, a team from the Marine Mammal Institute was able to successfully remove a plastic packing band that had been wrapped around the neck of an adult male California sea lion. This was our first attempt at removing debris from a sea lion on a beach.

We've also recently been successful with desentanglement efforts on a Steller sea lion at Sea Lion Caves and at our recently deployed disentanglement capture cage at the Bayfront in Newport.

Unfortunately, packing band entanglements are increasingly common with sea lions along the West Coast. These plastic strips are used in the packaging of many products, particularly frozen fish used for bait, and end up in...

California Sea Lion Disentangled at Newport Bayfront
OMMSN: 03/31/2010
Sea Lion in disentangle cage with with gaping wound around neck

On Wednesday March 31, 2010 we had our first opportunity to put our new Sea Lion Disentanglement Cage to good use.

You can follow these links for the story:

http://www.newportnewstimes.com/v2_news_articles.php?...

Rehabilitated Steller Sea Lion Pup Released
PEARL: 03/30/2010

A crew from the Pinniped Ecology Applied Research Laboratory (PEARL) with OSU's Marine Mammal Institute is helping the North Coast Marine Mammal Center (http://www.northcoastmmc.org/index.php) track a young female Steller sea lion who was released from the rehabilitation facility in Crescent City, CA on Saturday, March 27. Markus Horning and interns Julia Hager, Stephen Meck and Jennifer Olson glued a satellite transmitter to the fur on the animals' head using 5-minute epoxy. The transmitter allows researchers to track the sea lion's location on a daily basis. The device is expected to fall off by the annual molt in August.

This is the first time a...

Entangled Steller sea lion rescued at Sea Lion Caves
03/19/2010
Stranding sea lion laying head down in exhaustion

A sub-adult Steller sea lion was successfully disentangled from a trawl net at Sea Lion Caves on Thursday March18. Click HERE for details.

Sea Lion Disentanglement Cage Deployed at Newport Bayfront
OMMSN: 03/03/2010
Capture cage and sea lions on dock

A custom-built capture cage has been deployed at Newport's Port Dock 1 to address this problem of sea lion entanglement. The cage is basically a modified floating dock enclosed on four sides by a galvanized steel structure, with sliding doors on two sides. It is designed primarily to serve as an additional haul out area for sea lions to use freely, with its doors locked in the open position so animals can comfortably come and go as they choose.

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