Searching for answers on sea lion deaths

Spotting a sea lion playing in the California surf near the beach usually leaves beachgoers filled with excitement and joy. This year, it’s not so simple. Sea lions are washing up on the beaches, hypothermic, starving, and dying in record numbers according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

TechKnow speaks with various scientists and rescue centers along the Southern California coast about why these strandings and deaths are happening, and what can be done to solve the problem.

Toby Garfield is NOAA’s Director of Environmental Research Division at the Southwest Fishery Science Center. He is noticing a pattern in the last two years. He says, “the waters in the North East Pacific have warmed up way beyond what we are used to…It’s much higher than we’ve ever seen.”

Ocean warming is disrupting the food supply from the bottom up as more sentient beings like sea lions are feeling the pinch. Upwelling winds can’t draw the cold nutrient rich water up to the surface because of warmer oceans, and as a result the winds are now drawing up warm water that is already nutrient depleted. That cuts down on the productivity of the ocean according to Garfield.

“A lot of these fish are moving northward to get away from these warmer waters, and the sea lions adult males are moving northward to chase prey whereas the nursery grounds are here in Southern California so the mothers and the young don’t have that ability so they are not getting the same food,” said Garfield.

Animal rescue centers along the coast are noticing the phenomenon of sickly starved, and hypothermic sea lion pups. Peter Wallerstein, Director of the Marine Animal Rescue in Los County, took TechKnow on a rescue ride along where Dr. Shini Somara watched a baby sea lion almost crawl onto Los Angeles' 90 freeway before getting rescued. Wallerstein said that in his thirty years rescuing sea lions this is his busiest year ever. On the day TechKnow tagged along, Wallerstein had reached his quota for animal pickups before noon that day.

“We are like a paramedic with nowhere to put the patient, said Wallerstein. “Our hands are tied.”

Wallerstein is only allowed to place three sea lions a day in a rescue center because of the deluge of cases. Like many California rescuers, he is seeing the creatures wash up in strange places.

“They’ll cross the Pacific Coast Highway and get into somebody’s yard and land on their lounge chair during the day and sleep on the lounge chair,” said Wallerstein. “We’ve got them across Redondo beach, in people’s yards, and the side street next to a bar. I’ve got them swimming up in LA Harbor and ending up at the Verizon store sitting at the door at 3am so we get them all over the place.”

As scientists continue to investigate exactly what is causing the uptick in deaths for these creatures, some researchers are looking into satellite tagging as a way to see if rescued pups are still unable to feed themselves once they are returned to the wild.

Keith Matassa is a marine biologist and the Executive Director of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California. On this week’s TechKnow, Dr. Somara witnesses Matassa and his team tagging two healthy sea lion pups. Matassa says that the tags tell the rescue centers if the animals are going back into the wild and becoming productive members of nature.

“One of the problems that we are seeing…is that we are getting a whole bunch of animals re-stranded (from rehab centers in California),” said Matassa. “Normally that is about one per year, but this year we are up to 18 or 19 animals…, and they are coming in at half the weight we are released at so we are really worried.”

There is no single answer for why these sea lion pups are dying at such a rapid pace and why rescued pups are returning in larger numbers.  Matassa is looking for a pattern in satellite transmissions from the newly released pups while NOAA’s Garfield continues to collect data on the ocean and food supply.

“I think this is a really fascinating time to be a scientist because we are really walking into the unknown here…,” said Garfield. “I think if we really understand what is happening with this instance, it will help with a lot going forward and in helping understand why climate change might occur….The data suggests that we need to start paying attention to what’s going on and be serious about the environment.”