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Dear Volunteers,<br> As reported in today's Sunday SB News-Press, Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort recently had an unexpected visit by a free-loading tourist from afar: from San Miguel Island, to be exact. It appears, a couple weeks ago, some paying customers visiting the resort's gift shop, wanted to know the price of the cute little seal just outside the gift shop window. However, it wasn't for sale. It was a Northern Fur Seal pup that had swam some 45 nautical miles from a rookery on SMI and CROSSED CABRILLO BOULEVARD, to rest on the resorts grass outside the gift shop window!<br> Peter Howorth reports that the seal pup is now doing well at the Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center. It is about 4 months old now, and must have barely been weaned when it requested lodging, in quite a dehydrated state.<br> Peter reports he or she came from one of two rookeries on the island. This year 1000 pups were counted at the Castle Rock rookery, up from 700 last year. Nearly three quarters of their population bear pups and breed in the Pribilof Islands of the Bering Sea, and only a small fraction of their overall population exist on our SMI. According to Peter, newly weaned pups often spend up to 22 months at sea before returning to their original rookery. Guess this fella or gal had different ideas. But, I do know there are quite a few life-like seal pups by the gift shop window! Paul Petrich<br><br /><hr />Store, manage and share up to 5GB with Windows Live SkyDrive. <a href='http://skydrive.live.com/welcome.aspx?provision=1?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_skydrive_102008' target='_new'>Start uploading now</a></body>
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