Pink Candles at Ridgemont High: The Marine Mammal Center

Monday, July 04, 2011

The Marine Mammal Center

Well, here we are! TC was so excited. She is really into animals whether they are land or marine mammals. We figured we'd use this trip to foster her interests and hopefully she would enjoy this little excursion...

The MMC, which was built in 2009, is a multimillion dollar state of the art facility. It had various informational placards along with rooms where you could view a working lab, a necropsy room (closed during our visit), exhibits, and a hands-on classroom...

The classroom had various pelts of sea animals that died of natural causes, like this sea otter. There was a sea lion pelt complete with whiskers attached. The whiskers were quite thick and sharp. They felt like thick quills.

There were bones and skulls, sea mammal pelts, educational materials, a mock operating table with a sea lion and seal. The video that was on was the guy from "Dirty Jobs" from the episode where he visited and worked at the MMC.

This exhibit displayed examples of items found in the oceans that harm and kill sea life.

On the top level of the facility you can look down at the twenty hospital pens where the workers help nurse the animals back to health. There are signs telling guests to keep quiet because the animals were sensitive to noise...

The seal by the corner had a tracking device on it's head...One of the docents chatted with us for a bit and TC had the opportunity to ask her questions about the facility and the animals...

Workers were busy hosing and mopping the walkways. It smelled like bleach. We also watched one of the workers trying to encourage on the seals to eat some fish by dangling it and wiggling it. Another pen held a sea lion which the docent said was not doing so well because it was very "lethargic". The poor thing was just laying in a corner out of the water.

One of the labs had this folder full of "recipes" for their patients...Ooh, appetizing!

That recipe above reminds me of Dan Akroyd's classic bit on SNL where he grinds up a bass in a blender and drinks it. "Now that's good bass!"!

The MMC is located on the hill above. That's the parking lot below. Rodeo Lagoon is the body of water in the foreground. If it was a clear day, you'd see San Francisco in the distance.The rock formation is called Bird Island which is near Rodeo Beach by the Pacific Ocean.

We took a break for lunch. Even though there was a picnic area, it was kind of cold and windy to eat outside so we ate in the car. Here's the Acme bread we got from Andronico's. Acme is a local company from Berkeley.