The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, filled to capacity
As word comes in that sea lions are starving to death on the coast, we are forced to reconsider the impact that fishing is having upon the entire ecosystem. It seems that both sea birds and marine mammals, and in particular sea lions, are the canaries in our coal mine once again. They are dying in droves, unable to find food. Fingers have been pointing everywhere except at the one very obvious culprit: The fishing industry.
Mass Starvation
The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California, reports that thousands of calls from concerned citizens are pouring in to their facility from all over the coast, reporting stranded and starving young sea lions. Rescuers are taking in hundreds of the animals, but they simply cannot keep up. Staff at the center say they’ve never seen so many strandings before. The same story is playing out all down the coast. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center down in Laguna Beach, hundreds of miles to the South, tells the same, sad story. There, too, hundreds of sea lions are starving. It’s not only the sea lions, though. Sea birds are also being found weakened and dead, apparently unable to find food. Earlier this spring, 500 cormorants were found starving on a California beach, and from California to Cascadia, we have been watching endangered murrelets weakening and dying due to an erosion of their natural food supply since at least 2006.