This summer’s poisonous algae bloom that sickened and killed hundreds of sea lions and dolphins off Southern California left behind a crop of young pups at local marine mammal rescue centers.

Now that the young sea lions have a few months under their belts experts at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, the Marine Mammal Center Los Angeles and San Diego SeaWorld are betting the long hours of dedication from their care teams will pay off and the pups can make it to the ocean.

Historically, animals younger than 6 months raised in rescue facilities are placed in captivity, but these pups are showing they can hunt, capture and kill fish on their own.

This weekend, three sea lion pups born at PMMC and raised in the red barn along Laguna Canyon Road since early June will join three other pups at San Diego SeaWorld in preparation for their release.  PMMC’s pups, Raindrop, Miley and Kenny, were each born to mothers poisoned in the toxic bloom that began off Ventura County and spread during the summer into ocean waters off Los Angeles and Orange County.

Dr. Alissa Deming, PMMC’s head veterinarian, said while the bloom was likely the most devastating in recent times, she was thankful it began in late May, close to the full gestation terms for the pups. Often, spring blooms come when pups are not fully developed and their prognosis is dim.

Labor was induced in the mothers who were stranded on local beaches to stop the toxic exposure to the pups and to give the moms the best chance to survive. Deming and her staff held their breath, she said, hoping the pups wouldn’t present with seizures or other neurological conditions brought on by the poisoning.

The vet staff had wanted to keep the pups with their mothers, but the toxins made at least one dangerously aggressive.

So, Deming pulled the pups together and Rainbow, the most tranquil sea lion mom, stayed with her own Raindrop and became a surrogate for Miley and Kenny. The pups were able to nurse from her and get important nutrition from the milk that helps build their immune systems, the doctor said.

“We wanted the pups to be together like they are on the islands so they could learn from each other,” Deming said. “Sea lions learn from other babies. They hang out together and play when their moms leave them there and go out to fish. They hang out in little groups called posses and then go out and fish together.”

The center considered keeping the moms with the pups once they were recovering, Deming said, but decided because the breeding season for sea lions started in August, it made sense to release them.

“We wanted them to go out and meet a boy so they would have a pup for the next summer,” Deming said, adding that most sea lion moms are raising a newborn while carrying an enbryo. Female sea lions become sexually mature at 5 years old and, if all goes well, they continue to have a pup each year.

Once the moms were released, feeding the pups became harder, Deming said.

“We tried to stay hands-off and no talking around them, but we had to tube-feed them,” she said. “It did take a lot of effort to make sure they were putting on the weight and eating at night.”

A high-fat content formula did the trick and the babies grew plumper. Then, totally uncommon when working with sea lion pups, Deming kicked up the efforts and tried to feed them with cut-up herring.

“To eat fish, the pups would pick up tiny fish pieces to suckle and once in a while, they would swallow,” she said. “After three weeks, they were diving in the pool like big sea lions.”

All the while, the veterinarians at the region’s rescue centers were discussing what would give the pups their best chance at going to the ocean. Dr. Lauren Palmer from the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles and veterinarians at SeaWorld also had young pups from the algae bloom.

They decided the PMMC pups, three more at SeaWorld and six at MMCLA could be a sample set to see if a new rehab plan could work.

“A lot of credit goes to Dr. Palmer,” Deming said, “she’s recognized how many pups have stranded and then got back to the point you can’t see a difference between them and other sea lions.”

On Friday night, PMMC held a farewell party for the pups before they headed this weekend to SeaWorld and Deming said she’s excited by what they will learn with more exposure to other sea lions their age.

PMMC is also about ready to move operations to a temporary spot by the city’s dog park while it undergoes a $14 million expansion, so keeping the pups would have been hard.

“SeaWorld will be good for them,” Deming said. “They will be exposed to the other pups and even older sea lions. They’ll learn something isn’t good behavior and they’ll adjust and become polite little sea lions.”

Matt Schuiteman, a zoological specialist with SeaWorld’s rescue team, said he also looks forward to their arrival and seeing their progress. They will join one pup born at the facility and two rescued from the beach.

“PMMC did a wonderful job in getting their animals on fish so quickly,” he said. “We were blown away with their success.”

Schuiteman said his seal lions were bottle-fed and only recently have they tried fish. While all have shown an interest in hunting the fish in water and then catching and killing them, the difficulty has been getting them to swallow the fish.

“The swallowing action is the toughest thing to do,” he said. “It extends muscle action and they need to trust it’s food. Getting that large fish in is a pretty big deal.”

His goal is to get their pups eating before they meet up with the PMMC pups. One, named 23 and found on the beach as a premature pup, has made the biggest strides in trying to eat fish. She, Schuiteman said, will be the ambassador to meet the PMMC pups first, who he imagines might be a little scared in the new facility.

“Having the ambassador is great; they’ll have a new animal in their own size to check out,” he said. “If that’s a positive interaction, it’s a sign they’ll do well. Sea lions are naturally sociable animals. If there is aggression, we’ll find a different way to interact.”

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Once the pups are introduced, they will go into a large area with a pool, a playground environment with slides and other enrichment toys to help them progress. Mostly, he said, the key is to keep hands-off and let them develop their sea lion personalities.

The rescue teams are optimistic about the pups’ planned release back to the Channel Islands – with satellite tags attached.

SeaWorld released three young pups in May – with help from Palmer at MMCLA – and according to data from their satellite tags, Schuiteman said they’re doing well. The two girls have stayed together and traveled to San Francisco Bay and back; the boy has foraged out on his own a bit, hunting for territory and exploring.

“We followed LA’s lead on that,” he said. “They showed you can have success.”

Deming added that the timing to improve new pup rehab is critical because the number of toxic blooms appears to be increasing.

“We want to know their success,” she said. “That will be critical in helping manage future blooms and we’ll know if it’s the right decision. If they were euthanized right when they were born, we would never know.”

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