FOLLOWUP: Beach burial for sea lion

Thanks for the tip. Seattle Parks is digging on the shore south/east of Seacrest to bury the latest dead sea lion to wash up. (Here’s our report from Sunday.) This is one of seven recent sea lion deaths now under federal investigation, according to the Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network – which is who to call if you see a sea lion or other marine mammal on a local shore, alive or dead, 206-905-SEAL.

18 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: Beach burial for sea lion"

  • Eric1 November 21, 2018 (10:44 am)

    Ewww.  I hope that they had a real excavator out of frame. A “shallow grave” won’t be fun when the carcass starts to decompose. But I suppose that is better than dynamite. 

  • sandytoes November 21, 2018 (11:29 am)

    Eww for real. Wonder why Seacrest.

    • WSB November 21, 2018 (12:36 pm)

      Because that’s where it washed up. Moving a half-ton carcass is not always possible.

      • sandytoes November 21, 2018 (2:25 pm)

        I get that but people play there 

        • heartless November 21, 2018 (7:22 pm)

          So did a sea lion.I get the visceral worries, but honestly death is natural–out of the thousand most likely ways you’ll get sick, a decomposing sea lion corpse under your feets is not one of them.Also why is formatting my comments impossible nowadays?  Both editing and formatting (specifically paragraph breaks and font changes and style changes) seems impossible these days… 

  • E November 21, 2018 (2:10 pm)

    That’s not natural to bury  a sea lion just because it’s an eye sore, we should let nature take its course and not change everything,,  

    • WSB November 21, 2018 (2:22 pm)

      Leaving a large carcass to rot on a beach in a busy public park raises a variety of concerns. “Eyesore” is pretty much the least of them. Health and safety would be high on the list. – TR

  • Liz November 21, 2018 (3:10 pm)

    I live right across the street. I will let you know how this plays out 

  • waikikigirl November 21, 2018 (4:41 pm)

    I wonder why they couldn’t have drug it out and weighed it down so it would sink and then it would be food for the other creatures down below?

    • heartless November 21, 2018 (7:23 pm)

      Mafia style.  I like it.  

      • Rick November 22, 2018 (8:33 am)

        Yeah,like cement flipper slippers.

    • Cretan November 22, 2018 (11:15 am)

      More expensive 

  • Mike November 21, 2018 (5:01 pm)

    Why not sink it further out in Puget Sound?  That’s going to attract a lot of interesting creatures at night to dig it up if it’s not insanely deep, not to mention the typical tidal wash away of the beach every day.

    • heartless November 21, 2018 (8:32 pm)

      My guess is that sea creatures have died and washed ashore and decomposed and/or got eaten  for thousands upon thousands of years and so why change that now?  Frankly I’m pretty indifferent as to what happens to the dead, but that’s my guess as to why we’re (we as a people–I mean, you’re not offering to tow out and sink a sea lion corpse) not doing more to alter location of a dead animal.  

      • Mike November 23, 2018 (5:29 pm)

        Yes, thousands of years, which they were not being shot and left floating.  They’d die…and sink.  Ever wonder why you rarely see dead sea life washed on shore and yet millions die daily of natural causes?  This is not a natural cause of death.

  • Fisher November 21, 2018 (5:15 pm)

    If it’s anywhere below the tide line it could float unless it was punctured not to hold gas.

  • zephyr November 21, 2018 (6:20 pm)

    Liz, your comment made me laugh out loud.  Good luck. 

  • Karen White November 21, 2018 (7:05 pm)

    As a teenager I was present when a sea lion carcass was removed from the beach near Indianola, can’t adequately describe the overwhelming stench to this day.   Be ever so glad this one is buried!

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