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Sea lion scourge: Rescuers respond as crisis heats up

by Kendra Hartmann
sdnews.com

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As more and more sea lion pups turn up in unexpected places — on roadways, in gardens, even lounging poolside on residential and hotel patios — animal rescuers and marine biologists are fervently searching for a clue to the deluge of malnourished pups that are stranding themselves in alarming numbers along the Southern California coast.

The pups, said Dave Koontz, SeaWorld’s director of communications, venture inland in search of food when they can’t find adequate sustenance in the ocean. Weak and exhausted, they lack the strength to get back to their natural habitat and have been found resting in most unusual places, including on a patio lounge chair at La Jolla’s Pantai Inn. Though it’s typical to see young sea lions stranding themselves after weaning — the pups turning up in recent months were likely born last summer — the number of ill and dying pups this year is astronomical, Koontz said.

“As a point of reference, we rescued 131 marine mammals (including sea lions and other marine mammals) in 2012, which is an average year,” he said. “This year alone, we’ve rescued more than 350, and of that, about 330 have been sea lions. It’s been an extremely unusual year.”

In March, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) declared an unusual mortality event, or UME, spanning the coast from the Mexican border up to Santa Barbara. Since January, more than 1,100 sea lion pups have been stranded statewide, and the UME will allow the NMFS to determine the cause, or rather the cause behind the cause.

“We know what’s going on — the pups’ food source is not available — but what they’ll try to determine is why,” Koontz said.

(Read more: San Diego Community News Group - Sea lion scourge Rescuers respond as crisis heats up)