February 12, 2015
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Starving sea lion pups have been washing ashore along the California coast for the past three winters and experts have very few clues as to why this is happening.
“They’re extremely emaciated, basically starving to death,” Shawn Johnson of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California told National Geographic.
Since the start of the year, almost 500 pups have been admitted to the state’s rehabilitation centers, with the Sausalito facility handling 171 cases so far. Last year, it took until April for the center to hit the 100-case mark.
Officials said they are particularly concerned because they’ve yet to hit the peak stranding season, which is traditionally a few months away.
“We’re all kind of holding our breath,” said Justin Viezbicke, stranding network coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Canaries of the sea
Sea lions are sort of the “canaries in the coal mine” for ocean health and an unhealthy population usually means that something has gone wrong. Unfortunately, scientists aren’t sure exactly what that might be.
Scientists have mentioned that the stranding pattern was similar to that of significant El Niño years, when warm waters replace the cool, nutrient-rich waters that typically fuel the area’s production. However, these aren’t El Niño years.
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