SACRAMENTO: A number of Guadalupe fur seals have been washing up on beaches across coastal California, many of which were already dead.
According to the Los Angeles Times, 80 fur seals have been found on beaches along the coast since January. 42 of them were already dead when found, and the ones that were alive were malnourished and emaciated.
Many of those who were washed ashore were pups the year before.
“They’re young animals, and they’re coming in starving to death,” said Justin Viezbicke of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA has recorded an average 12 seals per year washing up on beaches since 2014, but that number has skyrocketed in the past year. The organization recently classified the situation as an “unusual mortality event,” which NOAA has defined as a sudden yet significant die-off that requires immediate response.
Scientists suggest that the reason for the sudden die-off can be attributed to how climate change is affecting the waters the seals call home.
“We think that warm water conditions have really changed the range of quite a few of the forage fish species that the fur seals would be going after,” said Toby Garfield, who works as the director of environmental research at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California.
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