This morning at Champion Island I was notified by our guests Jay, Sandor and Cliff Scher about this sea lion with a fishing net around his neck. He was lying on a very small rock and the nylon was very tight around him. This was going to choke him slowly when growing.
It looked hopeless to try to save him, but our Zodiac driver Freddy said he could do it, so we returned with more manpower and tools plus a big thick plastic cover. Our lecturer and former Galapagos naturalist Bill Hendricks, who had past experience with this kind of operation, joined us along with another guest, Marc De Preter, hotel manager Willy and staff member Emma. The sea lion went into the water, but later showed up on land so that they could surround him and throw the cover over him. They managed to cut off the nylon, which was wrapped three times around his neck, so this juvenile sea lion can now happily grow into an adult.
Another guest, Samuel Kaplan, had taken it all on video so in the evening we could share with everybody the joy of saving a life in the Galapagos.
