VACAVILLE (KRON) — A sea lion made an appearance in the most unlikely city in the Bay Area on Tuesday.
A video sent to KRON4 shows the sea lion trapped in a Vacaville canal.
The Marine Mammal Center has sent a team to rescue the sea lion.
The sea lion is now inside a drainage pipe, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Center said late Tuesday afternoon.
The Vacaville Fire Department is trying to flush the sub-adult sea lion out of the pipe with water from the canal, Marine Mammal Center spokesman Giancarlo Rulli said.
“They are encouraging it to get back in the open in the canal. Safety is our main concern,” Rulli said.
The Vacaville Public Works Department said the pipe is 12 miles long, Rulli said.
The cement canal is on the border of an agricultural area and small community off of Leisure Town Road. A veterinarian believes the sea lion is a sub-adult or adult based on media video and photos, Marine Mammal Center officials said.
The pipe is in the area where the sea lion was first seen, Rulli said.
The sea lion might have been swimming up the Sacramento River and made a wrong turn into a series of ditches and waterways, he said.
“The location is a rare occurrence. We don’t see sea lions in this area,” he said.
Rescuers have options to capture the sea lion with a net or sedate it with a dart, Rulli said.
Sea lions are prolific swimmers and often travel up the Delta, according to Rulli.