Seal Down

An actual seal. LAFD's Battalion 6 units have been getting hit with a seemingly higher number of cliff rescues down there near San Pedro in the past few weeks. A number of hoist ops and land rescues as a result of people, falling, jumping and otherwise ending up at the bottom of those nasty cliffs down there in Peeedro.

So tonight, around 2200 hours, old Engine and Rescue 101 (probably settling in for a typical night of restful retirement house sleep) got sent on a person down at the base of the cliffs on Paseo del Mar. I'm sure visions of a long, complicated technical rescue were dancing in their heads as they pulled out of the station. But after a few minutes on scene they determined the patient was a long-deceased seal carcass and that was that.

photo: Paul Chinn/AP (this is an elephant seal, probably not the same species that Engine 101 found, but they didn't relay the type of seal to OCD!)