Wildlife

Starving Seal Pups Arriving at California Beaches

Unprecedented numbers of starving sea lion pups are swimming to shore in California, straining local animal care centres and puzzling marine biologists who have yet to determine what is ailing the sea mammals. According to marine biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more fledgling sea lions have beached themselves along the central and southern California coast in 2013 so far than in the previous five years combined.

The agency says 948 sea lion pups, many of them less than a year old, have come ashore this year between San Diego in the south and Santa Barbara in the north as of March 24. That compares to only 88 strandings in all of 2012.

The pups are being found along the beaches malnourished, severely dehydrated and without their mothers. They are being taken to local marine mammal rescue facilities, like SeaWorld in San Diego.

Some are being sent as far as Northern California as regional facilities become overwhelmed. But many of the emaciated pups do not survive.