I joined Tom Osborne on the visit to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC). I was quite impressed with the center and how much they do. As Tom wrote, “It’s a kitchen, nursery, swimming pool, trauma center, laboratory, radiology department, research school, and more”.
However, think about why they need to do all that? Mostly it’s because so much human damage to their environment. Yes, it possible some are rescued due to conflicts with other ocean creatures, but we are by far their worst enemy. We fish in their waters and leave nasty hooks in them. The x-ray of poor Haggis that Tom mentioned was heartbreaking. We even heard about mammals being brought in with gunshot wounds. However, likely the worst damage is due to human caused climate change. Tom writes about the warmer waters and the separated malnourished mammal babies needing PMMC’s help. Let’s also not forget the damage to many other animals (and plants) due to climate change.
If we want to co-exist on this planet without damaging other species and requiring this “repair shop”, we must start to act differently. We need to respect our environment and the other living creatures on it more. I am glad that PMMC exists, as the animals need their expertise. I only wish we needed them less.
Jonathan Light, Laguna Niguel
