By — Melody Hanatani M
Conducting interviews and photo sessions with the ever so elusive Peter Wallerstein is no easy task. An hour before a 9 a.m. scheduled interview with the Daily Press, this longtime animal lover had to cancel as he was called to an impromptu press conference at the Bird Center in San Pedro.
Wallerstein’s presence was requested to present footage of a rescue he conducted the day before on Santa Monica Beach of a pregnant sea lion suffering from domoic acid.
Caused by an algae bloom, domoic acid accumulates in fish at a high level and is eventually passed on to its predators, including sea lions. As a result of consuming the infected fish, sea lions often experience seizures as legions appear on their brain.
The victim lying on Santa Monica Beach on Tuesday was suffering similar neurological effects from the domoic acid.
Following the press conference, Wallerstein zooms back to his headquarters in an RV park on Dockweiler Beach, in time for a noon interview, but his ear close to a cell phone, which could ring at any time with another sea animal rescue call.
Averaging six to eight calls a day, such is the life for the founder of the Whale Rescue Team, which has saved thousands of marine mammals up and down the Santa Monica Bay over the past 22 years.
Born and raised in Norwalk, Conn., Wallerstein left his home immediately after high school, spending years soul searching as he traveled the world, living in a small log cabin in an isolated area of the mountains of New Hampshire, creating his own habitat in the islands of the West Indies and the Caribbean before packing his bags and heading out to California.
“I wanted to lead a meaningful life,” said Wallerstein, 55, of Playa del Rey. “I didn’t want to just settle for a job I would be bored with after 20 to 30 years and feel like I missed out on something in my life.”
If it’s one thing Wallerstein was certain, it was his love for nature,animals and respect for all life.He became an ethical vegetarian 30 years ago,which led to becoming a vegan 25 years ago.
One of his first friends in California would steer Wallerstein toward an area that would come to consume his life for the next two decades — marine life protection. It was the late 1970s and Wallerstein had just met Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an organization advocating for marine life protection and conservation and demanding the shut down of illegal whaling.
Wallerstein was offered the position of the pacific director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and spent the next few years at sea, confronting illegal whaling ships they would come across.
After a campaign in the Bering Sea, Wallerstein was at home watching a news program about whales drowning in fishing nets. Watching the newscast, Wallerstein automatically assumed the whales were dying in the Bering Sea.
“I was shocked that it was in our own neighborhood in Point Dume and Palos Verdes,” Wallerstein said.“There was-n’t a coordinated effort to go out and save them.”
From the newscast, the Whale Rescue Team was born.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 31, 2007. Read the original PDF.