Ocean Sentry
Sea Lions that live off the coast of California have been starving and dying by the hundreds, because of commercial overfishing. The California Dept of Fish and Wildlife should be overseeing the welfare of the seals for the seals” sake as well as from a general ecological standpoint.
This summer in July, there has been a major starvation event with the sea lions that live along the coast in California. Residents have reported to the Marine Mammal Center and other government agencies that they were finding dying and dead sea lions at the beaches, dead from dehydration and starvation. One sea lion named Fruitvale, was found on a highway, lost and starving. The police picked him up and brought him to the Marine Mammal Center where he was fed and regained his health, and they released him back to the ocean. News people have been contacting the Marine Mammal Center frequently to try to find out what is going on, why is this happening.
The news articles also sum up by talking vaguely about El Nino, even though the El Nino has not arrived and so logically would not be responsible for these seals’ deaths. To place the blame on something like El Nino, that scientists know more about than the average citizen, lulls the reader into thinking that this is somehow part of a natural occurrence, and out of the hands of humans to fix or intervene with…
There were simply not enough fish close to the shore for the sea lions to feed on…. Read Full Article by Ann Frances
