Page 8 February 25, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Peter Wallerstein from front page
says Wallerstein. He bought a boat and some
knives and told everyone that he was going to
go free whales getting caught in fishing nets.
His first call was to Palos Verdes. A whale
and her baby were entangled in a net just off
shore, only able to come up for a very short
breath and then dragged back down to the
bottom of the ocean. They were drowning.
They cut the mother free first, and she went
down and bolstered her baby up to the surface
about a dozen times for air as they tried to
cut it free. After successfully freeing the pair,
Wallerstein decided to focus his efforts on his
local beaches.
At the time, the government did not agree
with Wallerstein’s approach. They had a different
method of dealing with stranded or trapped
animals, which wasn’t always safest for the
animals or the environment. Wallerstein kept
rescuing, day after day, year after year, until
he garnered such respect that government officials
went from adversaries to collaborators.
In 1985, Wallerstein founded his organization,
Marine Animal Rescue (formerly called Whale
Rescue Team). For about twenty-five years,
Peter alone established a twenty-four-hour
hotline and responded to calls at all times of
day, rescuing two hundred pound animals all
by himself. He devised and created machinery
and systems to pick up and transport large
animals in under fifteen minutes.
When he gets a call from someone who sees
an animal on the beach, Wallerstein responds
immediately. He approaches the animal with a
hoop net and loops it around the animal’s head.
“That’s the hardest part,” he says, explaining
that a sea lion has a bite that is ten times harder
than a pit bull. From there, he gets them onto
a net, which is tied through a cage to a winch
on his truck. The winch pulls the net into the
cage, where he is able to close the doors and
safely transport the animal to a rehabilitation
center for later release.
Since the start of his local work, Peter has
rescued over six thousand five hundred sea
animals off the coast of L.A. County, from
A pup found on El Segundo Beach, a relatively common occurrence in LA County.
A 400 lb sea lion was rescued on the beach of El Segundo.
Sports from page 3
The girls’ team is a young but experienced
team without any seniors on its roster. The
Eagles lost three of their top runners to graduation
and will rely on juniors Ami Jacobson,
Tyler Matlosz and Erin Rifkin to lead the
team this season. Look for big things from
freshman Vinyet Lapuente and track standout
Alicia Alvarez in her first cross country season.
Jacobson and Matlosz were in the first bunch
of lead runners through the first 1600 meters,
while Rifkin was close behind. Two West Torrance
runners stretched out the cluster with Lily
Ball in the lead and her teammate Nadia Goiset
ten yards behind. Ball and Goiset would finish
in the top two spots while Jacobson paced the
Eagles in third place and Matlosz and Rifkin
finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
The athletes seemed enthusiastic to embrace
real competition on a picture-perfect Saturday
morning. Will Garrell, who helped lead the
Eagles return, said his teammates were eager
to face competition instead of running against
each other like they had been doing leading
up to the first meet. “We all just want to get
better and compete,” he said.
Garrell says the team had short notice to
be ready for the first meet when restrictions
on cross country meets were lifted. “We were
prepared, and all we want to do is work harder
and get better each week,” Garrell said. Garrell,
a senior, is planning to take his running
attributes to DePaul University in Chicago in
the fall. He says he’s planning on a business
major with an emphasis in culinary arts. His
goal one day is to open a restaurant.
The Eagles travel to Torrance on Saturday
to take on the Tartars. Next Saturday, they’ll
travel to North Torrance and then host Lawndale
on March 13 and South Torrance on March
20; races are scheduled for 9 am starts. If you
plan on supporting the Eagles in person, please
practice social distancing and wear a mask. •
whales to sea lions to turtles to fur seals. In
El Segundo, he says he often sees starved pups
and occasionally beached animals looking to get
out of the water. Although some of his missions
are called due to natural circumstances, others
are created by human intervention.
Gill nets were banned in California waters
in the nineties, though Wallerstein explains that
there is still no regulation in federal waters and
Mexico, so he still sees animals caught in nets
during their migrations. Other times, he sees
issues less careless and more grim.
Fishermen sometimes shoot sea lions from
their boats or create what are called “seal bombs,”
which are explosives they put in fish and feed
to seals, and then detonate. Wallerstein’s goal is
to stop these practices, reduce our impact on our
oceans, and save as many animals as possible.
“We do three to five hundred rescues a year,”
says Wallerstein, going on to say that he has
no plans to stop. Activities outside of animal
rescue are hard to squeeze into his schedule,
as his work is a round-the-clock operation.
His focus centers on his work, which he says
doesn’t feel like work.
“My job is my private life, too,” he says.
In addition to his life-saving marine efforts,
Peter has also been an ethical vegan for fortyfive
years.
“I don’t believe in the torture of animals
in factory farms and places like that. It’s just
my way of dealing with it,” he says. Peter
Wallerstein has dedicated his life to ending the
suffering of animals for human consumption.
His life’s work is shown in the thousands of
animals he has saved, practices he’s made
better, and boundless knowledge he’s gained
from his experience.
Don’t approach any animal on the beach, he
warns. Without proper training and equipment,
many of these animals can do great damage
to humans. Wallerstein and his team respond
quickly to calls and determine what needs to
be done.
So what if you see animal abuse or an animal
on the beach? Call Peter Wallerstein. •
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