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MOM & POP Help needed for sea lions

Weymouth News - 6/28/2017

Pop: Another vanilla loaf cake for your strawberries, Mom. I sometimes think that Eb is psychic - you buy strawberries and he makes a vanilla loaf cake. Telephone? Oh, you call him and mention the strawberries. Got it! He certainly loves strawberries. The mere mention of the word seems to make his eyes glisten. Make mine a super slice.

You're going to find this hard to believe ... Harry Cooper from San Francisco showed at Eb's looking for Snaid. He and Snaid are old buddies. The only problem is that Harry likes his 'tea', and brought a bottle of rye whiskey with him. Yup ... Snaid fell off the wagon. Eb got so disgusted that he just left in anger.

Well, apparently the conversation between Harry and Snaid was about the U.S. Navy using sea lions to detect mines and enemy divers in the Persian Gulf. Snaid said that Harry was crazy; Harry has a volatile temper. Correct! They went at it. When Eb returned, Harry had left and Snaid had a black eye. Eb gave him the ice bag. Mr. Dolan heard Snaid talk about the Navy and the sea lions; hit the computer, and printed material from Wikipedia and the Internet site Sea-lion-World.

People tend to think that there is one species of sea lions when, in fact, there are seven. The one fact indisputable is that sea lions are large. Males are larger than females. A male California sea lion can average 660 pounds and be about 8 feet long; the female weighs about 220 pounds and is about six feet long. Steller's sea lion is the largest species with the male weighing 2,200 pounds and a length of 10 feet.

Sea lions are found in water bodies all over the world from tropical areas to sub-arctic, but not in the North Atlantic Ocean. Scientists are unable to explain why since there is an abundance of food, and the water temperature seems to be no problem. Scientists really only know the basics about sea lions, their anatomy and mating habits.

They are classified as mammals and have torpedo-shaped bodies, perfect for fast swimming. Lifespan is about 15 to 20 years. Male sea lions reach sexual maturity at about 5 to 7 years. We know that sea lions are social animals and have extremely large colonies. We also know that they have a variety of ways to communicate and emit three different sounds, but don't know the significance of each. Sea lions are considered to be highly intelligent.

Mom: Sea lions have been used by circuses and marine mammal parks to perform various tricks such as throwing and catching balls on their noses, running up ladders, or honking horns in a musical fashion. Trainers reward them with fish. It takes up to a year to train them to perform. However, their memory is so strong that they can perform perfectly after three months of resting and not performing.

Some organizations such as the Humane Society of the U.S. and Peta, object to using sea lions and other marine mammals for entertainment, claiming the tricks are 'exaggerated variations of their natural behaviors'. World Animal Protection is another organization that is against the use of sea lions for entertainment.

The U.S. Navy uses the California sea lion in military applications with its Marine Mammal Program in which the sea lions are trained to detect naval mines and enemy divers. In the Persian Gulf, the sea lions can swim behind divers approaching a U.S. vessel and attach a clamp with a rope to the diver's leg. Navy officials state that the sea lions can do that in seconds, before the enemy realizes what has happened! Animal organizations believe that the sea lions are put in danger. However, the Navy insists the sea lions are removed once their mission is completed.

Sea lions are capable of deep dives by reducing heart rate to well below surface rates. Oxygen is saved by reducing gas exchange as well as energy required for a high heart rate. It is a control mechanism to allow a switch from pulmonary (heart) oxygen to oxygen stored in muscles which are needed when diving to deep depths. High pressure associated with deep dives that causes gases such as nitrogen to build up in tissue is controlled by sea lions in that manner.

Sea lions feed on a wide variety of seafood, mainly squid and fish, sometimes clams. Commonly eaten fish and squid species are: salmon, hake, whiting, anchovy, herring, rock-fish, lamprey, dogfish, and market squid. They mostly forage near mainland coastlines, the continental shelf and seamounts. They may eat alone or in a group depending on the amount of food available; they sometimes cooperate with other predators such as dolphins, porpoises, and seabirds when hunting large schools of fish.

Sharks and killer whales prey on sea lions, especially when the sea lions have to go to deeper water to forage for food. Sharks attack by ambushing them while they rest on the surface.

The future is unsure for many species. Years of destruction by humans has taken its toll. Environmental concerns continue to cause problems for them in their natural habitats. Even with conservation efforts in place, there is still a great deal to be done.

By the way, I forgot a mention that Harry had a black eye also, and he and Snaid hugged each other before Harry left - good buddies ... perpetual schoolboys.