Starving sea lions washing up in huge numbers

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 8:49 AM - It's not how you want to see a sea lion pup.

More than 1,450 young sea lions have struggled ashore in California in recent weeks, ill, starving and exhausted. That's around five times the number that rescuers cared for in 2013, the last time a major event like this happened.

Worse, many are without their mothers, and the Washington Post says this is the third year running that they've washed up in such large numbers, and they're doing so sooner, as early as December this season.

"These animals are coming in really desperate. They're at the end of life. They're in a crisis ... and not all animals are going to make it," Keith A. Matassa, the executive director of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, told the Associated Press.

In this case, it may due to climate change, specifically El Nino. Usually the weather phenomenon's warming effect on Pacific waters leads to changes in weather patterns, but the warmer water may also be affecting the sea lions' food supply.

When food is scarce, sea lion mothers are likelier to spend time hunting for food away from their young. Many cubs are forced wean themselves early and embark on their own journeys too young to fend for themselves effectively.

"They’re leaving with a very low tank of gas and when they get over here, they’re showing up on the beach basically ... starving to death," Justin Viezbicke, a coordinator at the California Stranding Network, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Associated Press.

SOURCE: Associated Press/CBC | Washington Post | NOAA

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