When Kelly Long and her husband bought a 60-foot cabin cruiser last summer, they dreamed of sunny afternoons at sea, relaxing with family and friends. Only later did she realize that the yacht could also help homesick sea lions.
Long — who docks her boat, the FantaSea, at the Bayside Marina in Newport Harbor — regularly volunteers at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. The Laguna Beach-based nonprofit rescues and rehabilitates a variety of marine mammals, including harbor seals, sea lions, elephant seals and even some sea turtles.
Several times a year, center volunteers and staff return rescued and rehabilitated marine mammals to the ocean. With no boat of its own, the center relies on private owners.
Long’s typical volunteer work at the center includes feeding the animals, caring for injuries, administering medication and cleaning cages. “Every day brings a new adventure,” she says. “We see animals that have been tangled in fishing lines, have diseases or have been bitten by sharks.”
A real estate agent, former dance teacher and mother of three, Long was thrilled to offer the use of FantaSea a few months after she began working for the marine mammal center. “I’ve always loved caring for animals,” she says. “At one point, I thought I might be a veterinarian.”
In the past year, she has also thrice escorted caged sea lions up to 8 miles out to sea, a task she calls “our little reward, after all the hours we put in: just those few minutes of seeing them so healthy and happy.”
The releases set sail at dawn, when Newport Harbor is least crowded and the center’s workers can safely load the animals onto the boats.
“Sometimes, the sea lions swim off without a look back; but sometimes they circle the boat as if they’re playing,” Long says. “Once I saw two of them touch noses before they swam off together.”
Bayside Marina, where Long docks FantaSea, is one of four Newport Beach facilities owned and managed by Irvine Company’s CRC Marinas. The marinas — which also include Bayshore, Villa Cove and Balboa, with its newly completed $9 million public pier — are best-in-class launchpads for ocean recreation of all types, from paddleboards and kayaks to sailboats and motorized yachts.
Long says she and her husband picked the Bayside location because it’s close to their home, has easy parking and is near the mouth of the harbor. “It’s a bonus that we can watch the Newport Beach Boat Parade from our slip,” she says.
For the mammal center, the marina’s well-maintained facilities — with ramps that can accommodate large boats and large animals — are essential to its work.
This past year, the center’s ER has been very busy, with roughly 400 sea lions and dolphins treated at the center’s ER following a toxic algae bloom, according to Dr. Alissa Deming, vice president of conservation medicine and science. Facing increased demand, Deming issued a call for more boats and was delighted with the response. The center can now rely on a fleet of 10 private boats, including FantaSea. Several of them dock at CRC Marinas harbors, including three boats from the Balboa Yacht Club.
“Volunteers are the silver lining to the problems faced by our animals,” says Deming, adding that without the center’s 230 volunteers, the 12 staff members couldn’t do their jobs. “They remind us that there are good people in the world who are willing to donate their time. And Kelly has been an absolute gem. She really represents the community we depend on.”
