Protective measures

摘要

It's a drizzly late morning in the San Francisco Bay Area's Headlands, and before I can see any patients at the Marine Mammal Center (MMC), located on a plateau above some truant surfers, I hear them barking. This loud activity, directed at volunteers preparing a feeding, fortunately doesn't indicate the severe conditions that landed the 30-odd California, harbor, and elephant seals here—shark bites, gunshot wounds, and untenable toxins in their liquid habitat, to cite a few common threats.