It's a hard knock life.
Remember earlier this spring when all the tiny seal lion pups started popping up on the wharf? Well, get ready to rip that bemused smile right off your face – reports say the infant pups are dying at an alarming rate, washing up on beaches around the county, and animal rescue organizations are stepping in more than usual to try to save them. “The pups are usually so malnourished by the time we get to them, that their stomachs atrophy,” Shelbi Stoudt of the Marine Mammal Center in Moss Landing told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Experts are pointing to a bumper crop of pups coupled with possible El Niño-type weather patterns in the Pacific, which kill off bait fish and other sea lion fare. So far the Marine Mammal Center says they’ve rescued 200 sea lions this year as opposed to 78 last year. Stranded and abandoned pups have been spotted in irregularly high numbers around Lighthouse Point and the Municipal Wharf, and idiots – ahem – concerned citizens have been feeding them burritos and other non-seal-lion-appropriate foods. This is a bad idea, say experts, especially since approaching a pup with a 220-pound mom watching from the wings is a very dangerous idea.
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Amber Thu, Aug 06, 2009 - 12:33 pm
when we went there just this week on monday there was over 20 of them sick… there was some locals telling us that they are really sick and dying off we told them that they may be overpopulated.; We thought maybe it might have been sharks or something because they were also hurt but we looked at them closer I think they are overpopulated and thats why they are going thru this… I think maybe they need more zoos or something to take the babies in so they won’t get like this and don’t have to suffer.