Remembering Woody the Steller sea lion
In the small town of Seward Alaska, home to a mere 3,000 people or so, I made friends with a captive Steller sea lion. I’m sure of it.
The Alaska Sea Life Center was one of the few attractions there. It’s a nonprofit research institution that doubles as a public aquarium, while rescuing and rehabilitating wild animals — often beached whales, otters and seals. Every time we were there, Woody the Steller sea lion was the most important creature to visit, because I had to make sure he remembered me.
Steller’s aren’t the same as the sea lions in California that many are familiar with. California sea lions range from the tip of Baja to southeast Alaska, are smaller and are not depleted or endangered. Male Steller sea lions can be up to 2,500 pounds and 11 feet long, while females can reach 800 pounds and 9.5 feet long. That’s more than double the size of California sea lions.
The Steller’s living west of Cape Suckling are considered endangered, while those east of the cape used to be, but are no longer.
Woody was one of the bigger guys, at a whopping 2,400 pounds. I was really young the first time I met him. He swam by a few times before stopping to notice someone was there. We made eye contact and he hovered in front of the glass, watching me intently.
I grabbed my dad’s baseball cap from his head because I wanted to keep Woody’s attention. Placing the hat against the glass, I lightly dragged it to see if the creature actually could see me. I figured his eyes would follow the hat if that were the case. But Woody’s eyes didn’t just track the movement — he began to swim after it. Feeling giddy, we played a game of chase for a while, and I convinced my dad to put me on his shoulders so I could direct Woody to swim up higher than I could stand.
This was what I wanted to do every time I returned to the Sea Life Center. Woody always chased whatever I presented to him, sometimes even just my hand. I’m not sure if he did this with other people, but I like to think it was our thing.
This regal, curious sea lion was one of the original inhabitants of the Sea Life Center. He came from the Vancouver Aquarium with females Sugar and Kiska when they were all five years old in 1998, the year the center itself opened. Woody outlived Sugar and Kiska, and went on to father two pups in captivity: Ellie born in June 2013 and Forrest born in July 2014. Woody’s babies were the first Steller sea lion pups born in a North American aquarium since the 1980’s, according to the center.
I saw Woody the year he died…one last time. I was a senior in high school, dating my then boyfriend, now husband. I brought him to Woody’s aquarium so they could meet. It had been years since I’d last visited, and Woody was older, slower and less full of life. He wouldn’t chase me this time.
Woody died on Nov. 10, 2015 at 22-years-old.
