Recently, when two dead sea lions and a harbor seal were found washed up on the shore near Laguna Beach’s downtown, city crews promptly buried the animals in the sand.
While a somewhat common method of disposal used by coastal cities, Craig Walker, who lives just south of Main Beach, isn’t happy with the solution or the idea of the stretch of beach being a marine mammal burial ground.
“Three times in a month, the city decides to bury seals and sea lions next to our house,” Walker posted on Facebook after the recent incident. “Last week, it was a 500 pounder. Not sure I like the smell of dead sea lions leaking into the ocean where I surf and dive.”
Walker, who watched with others as the dead animals were transported by tractor to the burial site early in the morning, said he made the post on social media to gauge how others in the community felt. More than 70 people reacted with varying opinions, including thoughts about towing the animals out to sea, incinerating them as the local marine rescue center does or putting them in dumpsters or city landfills.
“I’m kinda worried about it,” Walker said. “If one died, I wouldn’t be concerned, but it seems that this is the spot that the city has chosen to bury them.”
Walker, an avid surfer and diver, said he also wonders if putting the rotting carcasses in the sand might draw more sharks to the area.
“When we get a big swell this summer, will all these sea lions buried here come to the surface? They buried a whale at Strands (in Dana Point) and a couple at San Onofre, ever since we’ve had more sharks in the area,” he said.
City officials say if the animals are smaller, such as sea lions and seals, it’s pretty typical to bury them in the sand. Whales might be towed out to sea or cut apart on land and then trucked out.
The practice of burying dead marine mammals isn’t uncommon or against the law. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has asked local agencies to report strandings of dead or alive marine mammals – some cities do a better job than others – so they can be tracked, but doesn’t have a rule for their disposal, said Justin Viezbicke, the agency’s marine mammal stranding coordinator on the West Coast.
Capt. Patrick Foy, with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the method of disposal falls to the jurisdiction where the animals die – much like what happens to animals such as deer or bears that might be struck on a roadway.
“As long as the animal dies of natural causes, we aren’t involved,” Foy said. “Whales, sea lions and seals wash up all the time. Disposal of the carcass is done to best duplicate what happens in nature. If the animal starts to stink, it will be the realm of the (agency) who maintains the beach to deal with that. If a deer or bear is left on the side of the road, it is the responsibility of that jurisdiction.”
In a recent case, which occurred on April 4, city staffers were notified of a dead seal that washed up on Main Beach. With a busy day of visitors to the beach expected, officials said a Public Works Department crew buried the seal in the sand so it would not cause a foul smell or be tampered with.
Since Walker started the community discussion, city officials have contacted the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach for help and are looking at other options as well. The center is responsible for rescuing and rehabilitating marine mammals along the Orange County coastline.
The center does respond to reports of dead animals in cases where the animal is tagged, is endangered or if the animal is unique to our area – a few years back, a rare yellow-bellied sea snake was found. PMMC also responds to reports of dead whales.
Taking in dead animals for incineration would take away from the rescue’s funding for saving animals. Still, Krysta Higuchi, spokeswoman for the center, said PMMC will consider city officials’ request to take the “occasional animal.”
“As long as we’re not overwhelmed, we can do it,” she said.
Other local cities have also buried their share of animals in the sand. In San Clemente, Interim City Manager Erik Sund said small marine mammals are typically buried on the beach, but larger ones are removed and put into a dumpster or elsewhere.
“Four or five years ago, we had a whale where we used a flatbed truck to remove the whale from the beach,” Sund said. “But it’s so few and far between. It doesn’t happen a lot.”
“Sometimes, if a whale washes in, but isn’t onshore, we’ll pull it out to sea with help from either State Parks or Harbor Patrol. There are no regulations of dead sea mammal removal except notifying NOAA about whale removal.”
Sund said the city has an average of about three marine mammals that wash ashore a year.
In Newport Beach, city officials say they similarly bury smaller marine mammals on the beaches. Their strands are more expansive and that allows them to spread the carcasses out more than some cities, so there isn’t typically a problem with stench or exposure.
However, in one case of a buried whale, Newport Beach lifeguards had to deal with reappearing remains near 28th Street.
“For a couple of years, we’d get the smell,” Marine Safety Chief Mike Halphide said of the remains being exposed because shifting sand. “When we had years of strong surf and swells, it exposed it. We dealt with it for a decade. That was our lesson learned.”
Now, if they find a whale, which Haplphide said occurs every few years, the plan is to tow it out. Sometimes even then, the remains might float back in.
“There’s a spot that is about 25 miles offshore and five miles east of Catalina that we tow it to now,” he said, adding that the location was determined to be the best because of current and weather patterns.
Jim Serpa, a former supervising ranger at Doheny State Beach, also is very familiar with marine mammal disposal. He recalls disposal of a whale at Trails, three-mile area of beach fronting the San Onofre Bluffs State Campground south of the nuclear plant.
“It wasn’t buried deep enough or far enough away from the surf zone,” he said. “It became uncovered and broke apart and part of the whale floated down a couple of trails where it was buried again.”
Serpa said burying the animals on the sand is done because it’s “fast and easy.”
But, sometimes, pulling the large carcass of a whale to sea is a better option. That is what happened when Lily, a young gray whale, washed up at Doheny in 2010, drawing a tremendous amount of public interest and sympathy.
“She was so emaciated that when we went several miles offshore into deep water and cut the line, she sank like a stone,” he said, “unlike some whales that are full of bacteria and decay; producing gasses so that they remain floating.”