Sea lion was determined to make flight for holiday
He got to the airport early, then returned after being escorted away Thursday
OAKLAND » A young sea lion apparently knew where to head to get away for the holidays. Now wildlife officials are trying to find its family.
The sea lion pup wound up on the grounds of the Oakland International Airport early Thursday, then returned again after initially being escorted back to the San Francisco Bay by Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
“We are not sure where he was trying to go but likely a flight to Hawaii,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote on Twitter in a post that showed deputies walking the sea lion back to the water. “He was very cooperative and deputies coaxed him back to the bay where he is safe.”
The agency posted the tweet after the pup showed up around 2 a.m. to an area of the airport that was not near the runway, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said. A patrol deputy on duty saw the pup originally, he said, and they later determined it swam through a canal to get onto the airport.
About six hours later, the pup returned, and the Sheriff’s Office summoned the USDA Wildlife Services and the Marine Mammal Center. Crews from those agencies were able to catch up to the sea lion in the canal, Kelly said, and they put it in a small kennel.
From there, they took it to the Marin Mammal Center, where it will be treated. Officials eventually will try to return to the pup to the bay, Kelly said, but that timeline hasn’t been established.
“We think it’s lost,” Kelly said. “Maybe it got separated from his mother.”
The unexpected showing did not interrupt normal airport travel, Kelly said.