Several dead Sea Lions and birds at Moss

Berta and I stopped at Moss Landing to check it out on our way home from Monterey. We went out to the jetty and saw several dead Sea Lions and lots of dead birds too. While we were there the mammal Rescue group arrived and netted a fairly large one that was not looking to good. We were told they are dieing from starvation. Not enough food due to the water conditions this year I guess. There were a couple huge rafts of them in the harbor entrance too. Anyone have more info on this?

There was a quick story on the rise in seal lion starvation on the news a week or so ago. Rescues have seen 5 times the normal number of stranded pups and undernourished adults this winter. Some rescues are getting 1500 calls a month about seals in need of help.

The lack of storms and strong NW winds have helped deaden the normal cold water upwelling we usually see off the coast. Until this last week, temps were running 4-8 degrees warmer than normal off the coast. Warmer water means less food at the bottom of the food chain causing starvation in higher level predators like sea lions.

Hopefully these cold fronts do something to get the upwelling going again.

Several years back, didn't we have a bad salmon return rate for a season and the blame was the lack of upwelling also?

4 - 8 degrees warmer is huge and wonder if we'll see some southern fish like Bonito show up again.

Interesting article related to the food chain:  http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/feds-likely-to-shut-down-sardine-fishing-on-west-coast-2/

In a some what related story.....

"California sea lions, many of them pups, have been washing ashore stranded and hungry in record numbers in recent months."

http://news.yahoo.com/hungry-sea-lion-pulls-man-holding-fish-off-042847200.html

It was 48 at Gualala this weekend.  Hopefully it's not too late.

Maybe we should all buy a bag of bait and go feed them? Nature's a biotch and cruel.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/california-sea-lions-are-starving-rescue-need-help-180954833/?no-ist

If there is not enough food for the sea lions then I think rescuing them and then returning them to the ocean to starve again is cruel.  Nature will create a balance based on resources, that`s  why there are no more dinosaurs, mastadons, etc.

I volunteer with marine mammals in Monterey I do rescues and animal care every Friday, just wanted to say  chattich is right on point! along with numerous other reasons for the CSLs (California seal lions) beaching them selves like illness. the ones i saw in moss that were deceased  were rather large probably yearling to sub-adult most likely. plus they were all really fat when the beached themselves so i do not think they were malnourished, just my hypothesis.

When I did my harbor survey run two weekends ago, the water temp @ 1' below the surface ranged from 59.56° at around 8am to 60.40° by 1pm.  Harbor was warm for sure.  LOTS of sealions in the harbor in rafts.  Came across a few dead ones in the harbor along with a few dead sea birds too so it isn't isolated to one area.  I have to agree ... they do look fat.  Possible that the meals they do eat aren't high in some form of protein or vitamin that they need.

Are they fat or bloated?

Not to be insensitive, but little starving kids sometimes look "fat" too.

They tend to bloat after death in the water sometimes really ballooning up.

Are they fat or bloated?

Not to be insensitive, but little starving kids sometimes look "fat" too.

The live ones I could see looked of healthy size but of course, they were still living.  The one(s) I saw dead were bloated a bit.

Let Darwinism work.  Rehabbing sea lion pups, then putting them back into an out of balance environment (it's not like sea lions are endangered) seems counter productive to me.