Marine Mammal Center deals with mass sea lion stranding

A lack of food in the ocean is causing a large number of juvenile sea lions to come ashore, unable to return to the water because they are malnourished, say officials at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands.

In Marin, the young sea lions - usually about a year old - have turned up at Angel Island, Rodeo Beach, Dillon Beach, Stinson Beach and in Sausalito on Wednesday.

"They just keep coming," said center spokesman Jim Oswald. "They can't find food and they become too weak to swim so they come on shore. Then they are too weak to go back into the water."

Since Jan. 1, there have been 313 reported strandings from the Mendocino to San Luis Obispo coasts; there were 485 in all of 2008.

Scientists are still trying to determine where the squid, anchovies and herring - staples of the sea lions' diet - have gone and why. There were a large number of sea lion pups born on the West Coast last year, Oswald said.

"That may have some effect, but there still should be enough food for all of them," Oswald said.



Full article here: Marin Independent Journal

Jumbo Squid Attack the West Coast

"A type of squid native to the Pacific coast of Mexico is attacking dolphins and tuna as the species expands into new waters as far north as Alaska. Now for the first time marine biologists can watch these battles from a boat above, monitoring the squids' movements with acoustic technology similar to the equipment used by fisherman to follow school of fish.

Echo-locating sensors developed at Oregon State University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California have revealed large numbers of Humboldt squid just off Mexico's Pacific coast, in an area where the squid are commercially fished. This tracking system could soon shed some light on whether the squid population's spread out of Mexican waters and up the coastline is due to global warming -- and whether it poses a potential threat to U.S. fisheries and ecosystems."



Jumbo Squid Attack the West Coast