The Watchers - April 7, 2013 - by NIX
The mass stranding of sea lions at Californian shores doesn’t seem stopping anytime soon and condition has deteriorated even more. The stranding(s) spiked in January and have intensified in recent weeks, the numbers have already surpassed total number of an average year. By March 13th, there were 517 pups admitted to marine mammal rehabilitation centers and by April 4, the number has risen to 1100Wired. Authorities still don’t know what is the exact cause of the stranding. NOAA’s marine mammal stranding coordinator for the state of California, Sarah Wilkin said,
“We’re still getting strandings of animals at kind of equal rates to what they had been. We don’t know how long the event is going to go on.”
According to the National Marine Mammal Foundation it is a crisis of epic proportions (CBS8) and announced a challenge grant to help pay for sea lion’s care. Last week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has declared an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) for California sea lions in California from January 2013 through the present. NOAA reports live sea lion strandings are nearly three times higher than the historical average.
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