A record number of northern fur seal pups have been found stranded on Northern California beaches and showing signs of malnutrition.
The newly weaned seal pups are emaciated and weigh little more than the typical birth weight for their species, as assessed by experts.
"They're adorable, but on the other hand they're these little bags of skin and bones," says Jeoff Boehm, executive director of the Marine Mammal Center near Sausalito, Calif.
The center has reported taking in 85 young northern fur seals, which normally live in Pacific Ocean waters and on islands, but rarely seen on mainland beaches.
"To have these guys up on our shores is the first sign they're not well," says Boehm.
The previous record for stranded pups was 31 in 2006, the center says.
Experts say the pups, likely between 4 and 5 months old, were probably born on the Channel Islands in Southern California or the Farallon Islands around 30 miles east of San Francisco.
Experts say the undernourishment of the seals, also being seen in the region's sea lions, is the result of an unexpected band of warm water off the California coast.
The atypical warmer water is preventing colder water rich in nutrients from rising to the surface, water that would normally carry a bounty of fish into the seal habitat.
The scarcity of that food source means seal mothers must leave their pups alone for longer stretches while they search for food; the result is that both the mothers and their pups are underfed, Boehm explains.
The El Niño weather pattern predicted for this winter in the equatorial Pacific waters could make the situation even worse, he says.
"All the playbooks seem to be changing," he says.
The stranded seals are just the latest in the series of events alarming conservationists.
An "unusual mortality event" has been affecting California sea lions for almost a year, with sea lions – mostly pups – being found malnourished on the region's beaches.
The Marine Mammal Center has taken in 1,344 sea lions since December of last year; by the end of this year, the number may surpass the record 1,356 taken in during 2009, Boehm says.
