Dead seal in Malibu mysteriously hauled away, officials say

The dead seal stinking up Malibu has been hauled away, apparently by a private citizen in a rubber boat, officials said Thursday.

Andrew Hughan of state Department of Fish and Wildlife said the seal was carted away from the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Corral Canyon Road sometime Thursday afternoon.

California Department of Transportation spokesman Patrick Chandler said a maintenance employee was told that “someone pulled up in a boat and took off with it.”

The dead seal rotted for days as officials tried to figure out exactly what to do with it. Unfortunately for those in the general vicinity of the deteriorating carcass, the seal created a jurisdictional problem.

Caltrans spokeswoman Lauren Wonder said the agency was told Tuesday that a dead seal had been dragged into a storm drain in Malibu. Wonder said the agency was informed Wednesday that is was illegal to remove a dead animal and that they needed to contact the California Academy of Sciences Department of Ornithology & Mammalogy.

Chandler added that Caltrans had planned to “wait and see” what action other agencies took.

Multiple phone calls to the academy to check the status of its work were not returned.

Malibu spokeswoman Sandi Turner said the L.A. County Department of Beaches and Harbors also had been notified about the rotting carcass. She said Caltrans and the Department of Fish and Wildlife were working on the situation.

But Hughan said his agency did not have “a warden or a biologist that’s anywhere nearby.” He later called to tell The Times that the carcass had been hauled away.

This was at least the second time in seven months that a decomposing sea mammal has been left in Malibu for days because of inaction by government agencies.

In December, a dead 40-foot fin whale remained on the beach for days before its rotting carcass was quietly pulled out to sea by a private tugboat hired by Malibu residents.

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