Seal, Sea Lion Beach Burials Disturb Laguna Beach Locals

LAGUNA BEACH, CA —Laguna Beach locals balked at the sight of city workers burying dead seals and sea lions at least three times over the past month. Resident Craig Walker has witnessed city tractors digging holes to bury the large carcasses at the base of cliffs in the 500 block of South Coast Highway, near his beachfront deck, he tells Patch.

Walker, a longtime local who relocated to the beachfront neighborhood nearly a year ago, and his neighbors were disturbed by the sight of backhoes burying the animals between the Wyland Gallery and The Cliff restaurant near their homes.

On one recent occasion, workers buried the carcass of a small harbor seal in the sand, he said. He took to social media to ask the court of public opinion about the action.

"Three times in a month the city decides to bury seals and sea lions next to our house," he wrote in a Facebook post, adding: "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."

Patch reached out to the city, Police Department, Public Works, Animal Control and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center about the animal burials.

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which rescues ailing ocean mammals such as harbor seals and sea lions, has rescued many animals over the winter months. Many are rescued and returned to the shore, but this year, nearly 20 percent don't survive, said center spokeswoman Krysta Higuchi.

Though the center collects injured and sick seals and sea lions they don't deal with deceased animals found on area beaches, she says.

Experts from the center are called out for tagged seals and endangered animals, such as Guadalupe fur seals, as well as when living or dead dolphins or whales are discovered beached on the shore.

This year, cetaceans, seals and sea lions rescued by the center have an 81 percent survival rate, Higuchi says. That is fairly typical for this time of year, according to the center.

The center cremates seals and sea lions that die in its care; animals that die on the beach are buried by the city, Higuchi says, adding that the city does have limitations and regulations on what they are allowed.

Patch has reached out to the city to learn their regulations on the disposition of the carcasses.

For Walker, his biggest question is why bury the found seals or sea lions at all? Walker and his neighbors said they approached the city worker while they were in the middle of burying a small harbor seal in the third such instance in March.

"My neighbors all came out, and we tried to stop them," Walker told Patch."The city worker called the police, and the cops told us to take it up with the city."

Residents of the Laguna Locals Facebook group expressed their opinions on the matter.

Some suggested cremation, as the Pacific Marine Mammal Center practices. Others — Walker among them — felt that burial at sea would be more fitting for the dead ocean mammals.

"They should just be taking them out to sea and sinking them with concrete blocks," he said. That way, the circle of life could continue with ocean animals eating the remains on the seafloor.

"My concern is if they keep doing this, that the oils leaking out could attract sharks in the future," he said. "When we do have a large swell and sand gets removed, those carcasses they buried will be exposed."

Patch will update this report when it receives a response from Laguna Beach Animal Control.