Elephant seal determined to cross California freeway sedated

Dave Zahniser, rescue manager with the Marin Headlands-based mammal center, said at this time of year the animal would most likely be at a rookery, or breeding colony out surrounded by open water. Rescue crews with the Marine Mammal Center, however, wanted to relocate the animal to a breeding colony at Chimney Rock. The seal, which shut down a stretch of Highway 37 yesterday and allegedly attacked at least one auto, is once again this morning trying to cross the highway and causing headaches for the California Highway Patrol in the process. “She is just 900 pounds of not wanting to move”, Barclay said.

Rulli said because of the possibility of pregnancy, wildlife officials are taking extra precautions with the seal and being “extra gentle”.

Wildlife officials monitored her overnight while she slept, and returned Tuesday morning to find her back in the water, swimming around.

The whiskered beast that blocked Highway 37 traffic Monday seemed determined to hang out in the marsh at Tolay Creek near Sonoma Raceway and Sears Point, refusing to return to the bay.

A wayward sea mammal believed to be an elephant seal that wandered onto Highway 37 Monday afternoon was safely lured into a nearby swamp, authorities said.

The mammal center and the San Pablo Bay National Marine Sanctuary dispatched rescue teams. Around 10 a.m., the two used a kayak and boards to push Tolay back toward the bay. Those trying to help the seal back in the water left the area Monday evening after she got back in the water and the tide got lower.

Barclay says the animal is causing quite the traffic disaster in the area- not because she’s in the roadway (she’s to the side now), but because drivers keep slowing to take photos and cell phone videos. “She pretty much does what she wants”, Barbie Halaska, a research assistant at the mammal centre, was quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle as saying.