California Baby Seals Suffered 100% Death Rate For Past Year

California Baby Seals Suffered 100% Death Rate For Past Year

Another species of animal on the Pacific coast is facing disaster, thanks in no small part to changing, catastrophic conditions in the region.

According to Bay Net, a volunteer naturalist group that keeps an eye on marine life, California baby seals have seen a death rate of 100% within the past year. That means that out of 13 seal pups birthed this reproductive season, not a single one was able to survive.

The group attributes the tragic wave of seal deaths to a shortage of food in the waters off the coast of California and the larger Pacific Ocean. Many full-grown seals are underweight and malnourished, making them especially vulnerable to illness and disease.

This spreading sickness has the side effect of making it excruciatingly difficult for sea lion mothers to feed or even give birth to pups, with them not producing enough milk for their offspring.

For more information about this tragedy of nature, turn to the next page:

It’s not just Bay Net claiming that the seals of California are dying: The Harbor Seals of Pacific Grove group has documented numerous seal deaths, birth defects and other assorted hardships. The group has gone out of it’s way to track this saddening series of events with a timeline on Facebook:

“Jan 25: The first live birth hit Hopkins beach… [The mom] was not nursing it… The pup is very premature and does not appear fully developed…

 

Jan 26: The premature pup from last night was gone. It had been washed away but there was a second premature birth… [The mom] clearly did not have any milk… what concerns us is the overall look of the seals. So many of the seals appear thin

 

Jan 30: I am sorry to report that our 3rd premature pup was born… This was by far the smallest pup I have ever observed. It did not last longer then [sic] about 5 minutes.

 

Jan 31: [W]e had our 4th premature pup born at Hopkins Beach… [it] died very quickly…

 

Feb 3: We continue to see very thin adult seals

 

Feb 19: Our 5th premature pup was on the Hopkins beach tonight [and] will not survive…

 

Feb 23: Two more premature pups were born… I will spare you the photos… no moms were able to care for them… Saturday, a very young emaciated sea lion pup was discovered at Lovers Point. Washed ashore on the beach were a lot of red crab… if this trend continues in our oceans, many, many more animals will perish…”

Source: Energy News



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