Washed Ashore
updated: Nov 30, 2012, 1:51 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

We are at Hendry's and this poor creature is dead :( We can't make out how or why. Or what it is. It looks like a baby sea lion. I just called dispatch so they can check it out.

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Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 348858	2012-11-30 01:57 PM
Nature. It's a wild thing.
COMMENT 348860	2012-11-30 02:00 PM
That's a decayed head of a halibut. Likely filleted on a boat just off shore and remains dumped.
COMMENT 348868P	2012-11-30 02:06 PM
seriously?
COMMENT 348869	2012-11-30 02:07 PM
Halibuts are flat - that aint flat.
COMMENT 348876	2012-11-30 02:15 PM
It's a sea monkey from one of the guys on the panga boats..
COMMENT 348877	2012-11-30 02:15 PM
Halibut? Was that an answer just for the halibut...
COMMENT 348878P	2012-11-30 02:17 PM
Death, just a part of life.
COMMENT 348879	2012-11-30 02:19 PM
looks like rock cod.
COMMENT 348884	2012-11-30 02:22 PM
I see an eel head in the last photo.
COMMENT 348890	2012-11-30 02:26 PM
Looks like a seal pup to me
COMMENT 348899	2012-11-30 02:40 PM
OP here. The rangers got there, and they confirmed it was a sea lion pup :( I didn't stay around to see what they did with it. My 4 year old discovered it. Played with it, as she thought the fin was a piece of kelp. So, we rushed out of there to get here though-roughly washed...eeck! They said she would be fine.
COMMENT 348900	2012-11-30 02:40 PM
The primary cause of death is life itself. Can't have one without the other.
COMMENT 348905	2012-11-30 02:53 PM
Grody!
RICHYRICH	2012-11-30 02:55 PM
Juno? I don't know but Alaska.
COMMENT 348908	2012-11-30 02:58 PM
Part of the experience of life, of going to the beach, into nature away from the groomed white sand beaches, is also experiencing death. I love going to the beach and seeing living creatures, but also discovering shells, bones and seeing how the ocean reabsorbs all the creatures that it provides for, and in doing so, provides for others... What a wonderful opportunity to explain the circle of life and how nothing, nothing is wasted in the ocean. I hope that opportunity was not missed... Too many have lost touch with nature, true nature, brutally honest and sometimes cold, nature.
BULLSEYEB	2012-11-30 03:03 PM
Thank you for the update, OP.
COMMENT 348916	2012-11-30 03:06 PM
It's a fish. They live in the ocean, and just like us one day they die. I am gonna go outside now.........
COMMENT 348918P	2012-11-30 03:08 PM
We are sort of like big game hunters in the Victorian era. Except our iphones are our muzzle loaders, and our quarry is anything we see that's dead. Or alive.
COMMENT 348945	2012-11-30 03:38 PM
On a long enough time line the survival rate for everything drops to zero.
ANIMALLISTNER	2012-11-30 03:42 PM
Its a seal pup.. Check the tail!
COMMENT 348957	2012-11-30 03:58 PM
Edhat - can we run a poll on how many readers enjoy the snarky comments that get posted when they involve deceased animals? We are all related on this planet, and death, whether by natural causes or others - all of them deserve some respect. A poll might give us some insights as to where most readers stand on this.
COMMENT 348958	2012-11-30 04:03 PM
I must admit that I am especially sensitive to that issue, as I have worked with wildlife for the past 21 years.
YIN YANG	2012-11-30 08:37 PM
Um, yeah, that head ain't flat, and excuse me, but finding the HEAD of a sea mammal after a report of a dead HEADLESS sea mammal that was first reported as an overturned kayak is notable. (The OP posted in this thread that the head had been identified.) Thank you, OP, and to the poster in the kayak thread! I imagine some agencies are interested in this. (reading and thinking before speaking or writing is good advice. Keep your eyes open & mouth shut. Sorry. I'm done grumping. And yes, I misspeak and jump to conclusions a lot too. We're human.) Post from 11/20 08:30: http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=104472&showcomments=T#topComment "I happened to arrive at Goleta Beach when this was happening- and it was indeed a very large and bloated dead marine mammal (minus a head BTW) washing in along the pier. There were concerned folks on the pier who must have thought it was an upside-down kayak. The conditions were very stormy and rough, making it difficult to see clearly. ... "
YIN YANG	2012-11-30 08:48 PM
I'm wrong. Can't be just a seal head if a flipper is attached, can it? Plus, it's small in relation to the description of the dead animal in the overturned kayak report. Maybe, hopefully, probably, it's a naturally dead pup. I jumped too far! But what a coincidence. (EITS, I know what you do. Thank you.)
COMMENT 349125	2012-12-01 08:40 AM
Fish don't have necks.
COMMENT 349159	2012-12-01 10:00 AM
It appears from the photos that the seal's torso is buried under the sand and still attached to the head and flipper.

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