Sea lion with gunshot wounds rescued from Spanish Banks

A California sea lion with gunshot wounds to its headhas been rescued from a beach on Vancouver's Spanish Banks.

The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Centre recovered the animal an adult male on Friday afternoon after obtaining permission from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Dr. Martin Haulena, head veterinarian and director of the centre, said the animal was emaciated, lethargic and not responsive to the activity around him on the popular beach when he was found.

"It is obvious to us, from observing over those two days, his vision was quite impaired," he said.

"During the course of our exam, we did find on the X-ray that he'd been shot in the head with two fairly low calibre bullets."

Haulenasaid the animal's impaired visionwas likely the reason hewas stranded and unable to forage for food.

His impaired visionwould also make it challenging to release the animal back into the wild, he added.

"Right now, we're in the acute care phase, so it's a matter of stabilizing him," he said.

"He's definitely more comfortable than he was, but he's still showing some signs of pain."

California sea lions breed off the coast of south-central California and northern Mexico.

After the breeding season, adult males usually make a trek northwards swimming off the coastal waters of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and even southern Alaska.

While a spokesperson from Fisheries and Oceans Canada was unavailable Friday tocomment on how often seal lions are shot off ofB.C.'s West Coast and whether they are investigating this particular incident, Haulena said such incidents are "more common than we think."

"California sea lions aren't here all year round and sometimes when we do have animals that are sick and injured, we just have very poor access to them," he said.

"But down in California where a lot more animals are evaluated and investigated, a gunshot wound can be a very significant cause of stranding and a leading cause of human interaction and injury with sea lions."

Haulena says this is only the second adult California sea lionbrought into the facility in the 12years he's worked here.