So Long Muffler and Diesel

“Are we ready?” I ask.

Tim replies,“Yep.”

The kids pull back the doors on the transport kennels and there our seals went, undulating towards the water on Bishop’s Beach in Homer. Diesel and Muffler looked stunned and confused as they made their way to the water. They had a line of cheering children to their right and stern officials looking on to their left. And in the middle was me, standing next to an empty kennel furiously trying to snap pictures and holding back tears at the same time. They were tears of many emotions: happiness, sadness, fear and relief. I was happy to see Diesel and Muffler returned to the wild but, sad to see ‘my babies’ go as well. I feared something/everything was going to happen to them and we would not be there for protection. I also felt this sense of relief at seeing them go. Muffler had made it despite being so close to death two months ago. She had been chosen to be the one outfitted with a satellite tag for that very reason.

I almost forgot what a rough time Muffler had the first two weeks we had her. She came to us on May 23rd from the Homer Spit after she was observed on the beach alone for a 24 hour period. Her umbilical remnant was still very fresh, so it was estimated that she was less than 5 days old. Muffler arrived dehydrated and underweight. She was given fluids sub cutaneously and via tube to rehydrate her. Despite this Muffler struggled to produce a bowel movement. We tried administering fluids, laxatives and enemas but still nothing. X-rays revealed she had an intestinal impaction (blockage). This is something common among stranded pinnipeds not just seal pups. Stranded seals and sea lions will ingest gravel, sand, anything nearby for reasons unknown. Stress? Hunger? It is most likely for pups that they inadvertently ingest it while suckling on a flipper.

There really wasn’t much more we could do for her but keep doing what we were doing and watch for poop. At the same time Muffler was running a fever and would experience on again/off again lethargy. Whether this was related to the impaction or not was left to be seen. It got so bad she could barely hold her head up and would remain in the same position we left her in for hours at a time or until we went to tube her. Then one day she pooped...and I’ve never seen so many people excited over seal poop. She remained with a high temperature and mild lethargy for a few more days and then she started to progress. I remember seeing her rolling around in her tote with her flippers in the air and that is when I knew she had turned a corner...she was finally acting like a kid. She also had turned into the most vocal of our seals and would call out to other seals or to any noise we made. I was happy to see Muffler this way. From that point on she moved to condoville, was weaned on to fish and eventually joined Gasket in ODL 5. It was easy to forget the rocky start she had especially when seeing her make a break for the ocean on that beach in Homer.

Let’s not forget Diesel, he was there too, although his story isn’t so complicated. Diesel was observed over multiple days by the Wolfforth family in Kachemak Bay. Momma was seen in the area, but after over 24 hours of observation they were not reunited. Diesel was captured and driven by boat to Homer. Once at the SeaLife Center, Diesel weighed 10.0 kilograms. His examination showed multiple lacerations around his head and face. We were never able to determine what had attacked him. All we could do was administer antibiotics and keep the wounds clean.

If you can recall from my previous posts Diesel was the one to give me my wake-up call regarding my restraining techniques. He was the one that made me realize that being on auto-pilot around animals has the potential to be very dangerous. I learned a very important lesson from Diesel and I will always remember him for that.

Diesel had been weaned on to fish quite easily and he progressed to ODL 5 with little drama. When it came to co-habitating with Gasket and Muffler he held his own and got his fair share of fish that came shooting out of the fish cannons. That also led to him gaining weight with ease and reaching the 25 kg release weight goal by the end of August. By the time he was cleared for release in early September he was a whopping 29.6 kg. It was safe to call him orca bait at that point.

That extra poundage didn’t seem to slow him down any and he beat Muffler into water even with a bit of a delayed start. Diesel had been turned around in his kennel and I needed to tip it up to get him turned around and on his way. By that time Muffler was about half way down the beach. Once Diesel was in the water I could see him pause for a moment and look back at us on the beach and then swim a little farther out. He did this a few more times probably to make sure we were really letting him go and that we weren’t going to rush into the water after him with nets in hand to snatch him up and take him back to Seward. It wasn’t too long before I lost sight of him and I turned my attention to Muffler and that florescent orange satellite tag on her back. She was easy to follow and she was slowly making her way out into the bay very much in the opposite direction of where Diesel had been heading. I was told later that at releases involving multiple seals, their solitary instinct kicks in and they usually go their separate ways. We were only able to track Muffler and she seems to be sticking to the Kachemak Bay area. I can only hope that Diesel is doing well on his own. I hope that both seals have a long and happy existence.