Kids & Family

Watch: Sea Lion Named After Jon Coutchie Released Back Into Wild

An adult sea lion that was injured and recently rescued from a buoy off Newport Beach and rehabilitated by the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Canyon was released back into the ocean on Monday.

The sea lion had fishing line wrapped tightly around its neck, and had badly infected wounds when rescuers got to it last week just outside of Newport Harbor.

The PMMC named the sea lion Officer Jon, after Jon Coutchie, the Laguna Beach policeman who was killed in a Sept. 21 traffic accident on Coast Hwy.

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Read about the sea lion's rescue in our story,

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