Jim Stauffer

James (Jim) Ware Stauffer (6 December 1945 – 21 October 2021) known in Laguna Beach as ‘the sea lion guy’, was a lifeguard and co-founder of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

He grew up in Balboa Island, Newport Beach. He graduated from San Diego State University, where he studied accounting, and subsequently worked at the accounting firm Ernst and Ernst, but left after a few years to become a lifeguard, later co-founding a private lifeguard company.

Stauffer rescued his first Pacific Harbor Seal pup from lungworms in 1971 and nurtured it back to health on a wet mattress in his apartment before returning it to the ocean. Later Stauffer installed kiddie pools in the backyard of his Costa Mesa home to help rescue seals and sea lions in need and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center's predecessor, Friends of the Sea Lion, was established.

The Department of Fish and Game issued the first permit of its kind in California allowing Stauffer to temporarily house seals and sea lions at his home.

By 1976, while also a Laguna Beach lifeguard captain the city of Laguna Beach named him the head of Animal Services. The Friends of the Sea Lion created membership cards and sold T-shirts to raise money.

The first big donation came from a woman whose dog got stuck on a cliff. Stauffer rappelled down the cliff at Three Arch Bay on a chilly night to rescue the 80-pound dog.

The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, wrote a $10,000 check after learning about the sea lion saving.

Stauffer and his wife Lynn had three children. He eventually became a residential property broker in Sonoma County.

He died on October 21, 2021. He was remembered by the Orange County Register as an individual who saved a harbor seal pup, "inspiring a sea animal rescue in Newport Beach that has since returned tens of thousands of animals back to the ocean."

In the years following his death, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center continues to respond to animal rescue operations such as sick sea lion care and beached whales.