Center rescues emaciated sea lions

Since the first of the year, starving and dehydrated sea lions have been washing up on the Orange County coastline.

Officials say El Niño conditions are to blame.

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach is housing 25 pups — seven of them from Newport Beach, said Dr. Richard Evans, the center’s veterinarian.

Evans said most of the animals come into the center in the third stage of starvation, where the body begins to digest itself after it runs out of fat and breaks down muscles for energy.

The animals then lose the ability to fend off disease, and die.

At this point there’s not much you can do, Evans said.

Of the 25 brought into the shelter, 14 have died, he added.

“The problem is not so much the number, but that they’re all starving,” Evans said.

During non-El Niño times, nutrients come up from the cold ocean floor, which feeds the fish sea lions eat.

But El Niño conditions warm parts of the ocean, causing the sea lions’ prey to search for colder water.

The nursing mothers then leave their pups to find food, so that they both don’t die, Evans said.

“These animals know that for them to die causes the population to go down the toilet … so if they are starving they’ll leave the baby and go back to sea and get more fish,” Evans said.

The mother’s will reproduce the next year, he added.

With the growing rate of sea lions, 6% to 10% annually, the higher number of deaths during El Niño times does not endanger the species, experts say.

Evans said that El Niño occurs every year in the Pacific Ocean, but where and to what degree varies.

“This is not the worst,” he said.

The center doesn’t have the staff to check the beaches for sea lions, and therefore relies on the public to report the beached mammals.

As soon as the pups are strong enough, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center will release them back into the wild. The center does not give animals to zoos, animal parks or other types of exhibits.

“It is illegal and immoral to keep them in captivity,” Evans said.