The Seals: Public Broadcasting=my cable-less animal planet

A lot of my life revolves around television. It really should NOT be so, I know, I know...but TV just gets me so enraptured (right usage?) that I get seduced into it. Especially these days when I'm tired after a full day's work and I just want to eat food and sit. A lot. On the other hand...I'd like to think that I'm not watching trash--all the time.

I actually quite like public broadcasting (with their catching tunes like "PBS: support from from viewers like you.") Or in my case, channels 6 and 7 on my 13 channel cable-less tv. They've got this show called Animal Emergency that essentially acts like my Discovery Channel or Animal Planet and once I start...I'm hooked!

Today I watched an episode based on The Marine Mammal Center right here in the Bay Area! I've heard of the place before and knew their main goal was wildlife rehabilitation...with a special interest in seals and sealions of the like since we've got a few of those near SF (PIER 39 dock anyone??) Also, I find that seals are one of the funniest creatures ever--they're agile in the water, but so plump and "rollie" when on land that it's almost impossible to take them seriously!!

The episode was so fascinating! People from all over the California coast go to them to drop off orphaned babies, and different research and zoo facilities work together to help save the lives of animals caught in fish lining or got hit by a motor boat.

There was this one harper seal that showed abnormal behaviors, but no one knew why. So they enlisted the help of a clinic for HUMANS (who offered it at $0-so nice!) and got the seal a CT/MRI scan....what the heck??? How cool. As cool as it was...the reports all came back relatively normal, so they still didn't find the cause, but the seal got better on its own after a few weeks!!

It's a shame and wild life rehabilitation doesn't get more press and academic notice. We're so worried for ourselves and we sometimes forget we're part of the circle. The episode talked about a seal pandemic where after consuming a certain type of algae, the seals would effectively get brain damage and get seizures and die slowly....and if people ate this algae, a similar event could happen to us, too!!

So it seems pretty important to keep tabs on the little guys...because if you think about it...we're all kind of "little guys" in a way.