Today is Layla’s 10th birthday. We’re honoring her as she would want, aiding an explosive marine mammal crisis. Our goal is for 1,000 people to donate $10 each. Seal lions right here from L.A. to San Diego, are dying in droves, likely fallout from the Pacific Palicades/L.A. wildfires now that all the ash and fire retardant has washed into the ocean thanks to the much needed rains, causing a small existing algae bloom, to absolutely explode. Folks are welcome to donate more than $10 but we really want to go for strength in numbers here as sharing this crisis is key.
Back in 2021, Layla released a sea lion to the wild with Pacific Marine Mammal Center. We crossed paths again recently, they educated me on the situation, and with her birthday coming up, I said this is a no brainer. Normally they have 5+ patients at their center, they now have close to 80+ and are completely overrun. My guess is they will treat more animals in 2025 than any year ever.
These funds will help procure some of the very same seizure medicines that Layla took as well as help house, feed, and rehabilitate those that survive which sadly, are the minority as this disease is lethal, called domoic acid poisoning, which affects the brains/hearts of these animals that Layla loved so much, the species that started it all for us. If you see a sea lion with it’s head arched and eyes to the sky, they are sick and having a seizure. This disease is a certain death sentence to these animals if not treated quickly, a sentence excacerbated greatly by humans. So if we’re the cause, we’re the solution but so many will die.
Back in 2016, when I decided that Layla would be forever immunized from the rat race, through a love of exploration, animals and the natural world, once I assembled my camera equipment with the help of Rob Duncan and Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo, the very first thing I did was go and film the sea lions, the bottom left picture from that day on the water with Waterhorse Charters. And on March 5th, of 2025, as we took that very same boat to bring Layla to her final resting place, it was this very same species of animal that escorted her to it, 4-5 miles directly due west of the same runway that Tom Cruise blasted down on his Kawasaki in both Top Guns. Pacific white sided dolphins were also escorting us there and they too are also susceptible to this disease. In a twist of irony, donating to the rehabilitation of these animals could very well save one of the very animals that saw Layla descend do the depths and welcome her in to her final resting place at the depths of the sea.
Layla’s life as a human has come to an end. And in typical Layla fashion, she has forced her way back into the conversation with more relevance than ever, much sooner than I had planned. The beauty of nature is that nothing goes to waste. The universe is, if put into simple terms, merely a super efficient recycling machine, nothing created, nor destroyed. And while Layla’s life has expired, her story is now finally beginning.
As time goes for Layla, just as a whale fall, the whale is consumed by microscopic bottom feeders, which then get consumed by its predator, something bigger, which that too becomes consumed and so on. Sooner than later, all of those beings as they become larger and larger beings, partake in the largest daily migration on earth, from the depths of the ocean to the surface to feed, and be consumed, all to shine and enlight our lives as bioluminesence, eventually coming onshore. By helping these sea lions, we may very well be helping, a future Layla.
Our goal is $10,000 and all can donate across any of the platforms we have. We’ll best allocate and distribute the funds. A tax deductible link will be provided for those that want the tax deduction, or for the donation of $10 or some increment of $10 to go directly to the center.
Also, when we hit $2,500, I will re-release the video of Layla releasing the sea lion from the Fall of 2021, Haggis, and when we hit $10,000, I will release a film I never before have, publicly. The day after Layla passed a song came into my head, and I knew I had heard it before, it was from this film and properly licensed. That film, has more relevance today and the few people I’ve shared it with said, “oh my gosh it is like you predicted the future.” It is simply astounding and something I put together over 6-years ago and submitted it to the San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition, Inc. in the long form category, something they allow only 2 of per year, but it was not selected and now I know why. The story, contained within and right under my own nose, was not complete.
On Layla’s 10th, let’s do something good, let’s do something, oh, so Layla. Her sea lions are dying left and right, and she’d want to help. Who are we to not step up and stand in her way? To be continued…