The Humboldt Bay Critter Crawl is a non-competitive open water swim to benefit local charities caring for wild and domestic animals in Humboldt and Del Norte counties. This is a current assisted 4.5-mile swim from the opening of the bay along the Eureka city front to the Woodley Island Marina.
The swim will be held this year on Sunday, July 13th 2014 to benefit the North Coast Marine Mammal Center in Crescent City.
As open water swimmers who love our stretch of ocean, local bay and lagoons, it seems particularly appropriate to dedicate this, our inaugural swim, to helping support the natural denizens of these waters.
The North Coast Marine Mammal Center is a private non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine mammals along the northern most coast of California. Each year the NMMC responds to hundreds of calls about distressed marine mammals, transporting sick and injured animals to their volunteer run facility in Crescent City. The cost of feeding seals and sea lions ranges from $7-15 per animal, per day, in addition to housing, medical care, and transport, among other expenses.
This year the NMMC has taken in record numbers of injured, starving and dehydrated Northern Elephant Seals, severely depleting an already strained budget while previously available operational grants and other resources have dwindled. All donations made to sponsor our swim will directly benefit the NMMC at a time when additional funds are desperately needed.
All this is due to the hard work of Seal Saver Sarah Green and her team. Our sincere thanks Sarah for all your hard work in envisioning this terrific event and working so hard to get it rolling!!
Read about the Critter Crawl in the following Times-Standard newspaper article:
