In California, starving sea lions have been washing ashore this year in an unprecedented numbers—over 1,450 and counting. According to animal rescuers, there were 1,100 last month alone. This is five times the expected number of sea lion rescues and
rescuers are having a hard time keeping up.
Many are sick with pneumonia, their throaty barks muted to rasping coughs. Parasites have swarmed their digestive systems. Some are so tired that they cannot scamper away when rescuers approach them with nets and towels and heft them into large pet carriers.
What's causing this?
Experts suspect that unusually warm waters are driving fish and other food away from the coastal islands where sea lions breed and wean their young. As the mothers spend time away from the islands hunting for food, hundreds of starving pups are swimming away from home and flopping ashore from San Diego to San Francisco.
Many of the pups are leaving the Channel Islands, an eight-island chain off the Southern California coast, in a desperate search for food. But they are too young to travel far, dive deep or truly hunt on their own, scientists said.
Last year, ocean warming rose so significantly the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
had to rescale its ocean heat chart.
It's not just sea lions. This year we've seen a disturbing trend in mass seabird deaths on the west coast as well—in January, the tally was an estimated 50,000-100,000. The death of the seabirds has also been attributed to warming ocean waters.
Sydeman predicts that this spring or summer the dying might spread to the salmon and forage fish that eat those same plankton species and then perhaps to the murres or other birds that, in turn, eat those fish.
"I think there's a strong possibility of it escalating to affect other species in the near future," he said.
Rescuing these sea lions often takes weeks of care,
according to the Marine Mammal Center.
Any animal brought into our hospital is carefully assessed during an admit exam and put on a treatment plan of regular feedings and medication as needed. A starving sea lion pup arriving today will likely stay at our hospital recovering for the next four to six weeks.
Once these pups are treated for any secondary illnesses they may have and are able to put on a healthy amount of weight, they are returned to the wild. Many of these young sea lions are being released at Point Reyes National Seashore, a location that gives them the best chance at finding suitable food sources.
Watch a sea lion getting re-released into the ocean after a rescue, courtesy of Marine Mammal Care Center In San Pedro, California: