Adorable Baby Harbor Seal Hitches A Ride

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — At the Laguna Beach Pacific Marine Mammal Center, baby Harbor Seal Lumiere has become a constant source of playtime antics. Over the weekend, JoAnn Smith shared her images of the little sea lions at play in the pools of the PMMC.

Krysta Higuchi, Events and Public Relations Coordinator at PMMC took some time to chat with Patch about baby Lumiere's journey at the center.

"Lumiere was rescued from San Clemente in April of 2017," Higuchi said. "Most likely he was born in January. We've had him about five months."

A typical stay for the seals and sea lions at the center is about that long, but as this little guy came in severely underweight, Lumiere will be at the PMMC on the longer side of things, according to Higuchi.

"He just had a checkup at Sea World this week, and had a full veterinary workup with the assistance of those Sea World rescue technicians," Higuchi said. The jaunt to San Diego involved a Harbor Seal Pup inside a pet carrier for a short day trip.

The doctors gave the little guy a good report, as he is gaining weight which is the goal of the PMMC. Lumiere is on his way to recovery, and will hopefully be released soon.

His buddy, Berrie, is a Northern Elephant Seal who was rescued at the end of July, 2017.

"Berrie was rescued at 78 pounds, which is birth weight for that species," Higuchi said. "Now, as he is 6 or 7 months old, he has almost doubled his weight."

Both Berrie and Lumiere are close to being released back into the wild, Higuchi said. In the mean time, they have each other to play with once in a while in the pools of PMMC. Caught on GoPro camera by Joanne Smith, the two were having some obvious fun over the weekend.

"Sometimes they will be at opposite ends of the pool and sometimes they enjoy each other's company," "California sea lions like to lie on top of each other. These guys do seem to enjoy each other."

Currently, the PMMC has six animals under their care: four sea lions, one elephant seal, and one harbor seal. Earlier this year, there were over 100 seals and sea lions splashing in the pools and eating, growing and gaining weight.

If you would like to support the PMMC, their current wish list involves: Stamps, gas cards, amazon gift cards, trash bags, tide, dawn, unflavored Pedialyte.

Find out hot to help at https://www.pacificmmc.org/

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Photos, courtesy Pacific Marine Mammal Center