Sea lion captured after wandering onto streets in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Marine Mammal Center has safely captured a male sea lion pup that wandered onto the streets of San Francisco.

A tourist spotted the sea lion sitting under an SUV on Divisadero Street and Marina Boulevard around 6:30 Thursday morning.

"Luckily the San Francisco Police Department had stopped traffic around him and was protecting him until we got there," said Shawn Johnson, Marine Mammal Center.

Crews were able to safely capture the sea lion just before 7 a.m. Workers then realized he is a repeat offender.

He was rescued in Santa Barbara County in February and brought up here for rehabilitation. He was here at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito for nearly two months.

'Rubbish' the sea lion has lost about 20 pound since the last time he was at the Marine Mammal Center. He's part of a growing problem, crews have already rescued more marine animals in the past four months then they did in all of last year.

"The elevated ocean temperatures have caused the all the fish to migrate farther away from them," said Johnson.

Rubbish seems pretty happy at the Marine Mammal Center and the researchers hope he will have a successful life.

"It is pretty heart wrenching to know that you put all this effort into rehabilitating them and giving them a chance out in the wild," said Johnson.

Officials with the Marine Mammal Center said they will need donations to help with all the additional rescues.