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.
Sea Lion Pups Dying at an Alarming Rate
It's a hard knock life.
