• U.S.

Fur Seal Pups Mysteriously Washing Up on California Shores

3 minute read

A Guadalupe fur seal pup, wasted away to nearly fur and bones, washed up on the shore’s of California’s Humboldt County in April. He was spotted and whisked to the Bay Area’s Marine Mammal Center, soon to be named Ian and become the first juvenile of his species to ever wear a satellite tag. But his odds of seeing the ocean again after doctors tried to rehabilitate him, like dozens of other fur seal pups mysteriously turning up on California shores, were grim.

The appearance of these pups, many of whom are already dead by the time they wash to shore, has led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare what is known as a UME—an unusual mortality event. So far in 2015, roughly 80 of them have been found stranded, a rate eight times higher than normal. Especially alarming for marine biologists is that, unlike sea lion pups that are experiencing their own bizarre strandings, the Guadalupe fur seals are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, with some 15,000 estimated to exist in the world.

“This is an alarm bell ringing,” says the Marine Mammal Center’s Jeff Boehm, whose team of doctors and intrepid volunteers have successfully rehabilitated 11 Guadalupe fur seal pups out of the 33 who have arrived at their door. (The other five of 38 who have been found alive went to Sea World for care.) When the pups arrived, they’re often starved nearly to death, some with organs and critical systems on the verge of shutting down. “Once we see them on the beach, they’re critically ill,” Boehm says, often proving their efforts to be “too little, too late.”

Photos: Inside a Hospital for California's Stranded Seals and Sea Lions

Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
A California sea lion sits on the edge of a pool at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014.Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
California sea lions swim and sit out in the sun while visitors look on at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
Harbor seal pups wear plastic identification tags that help caregivers tell them apart at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
Herring breakfasts are organized and labeled for each seal and sea lion at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
A harbor seal pup wears a plastic "hat tag," used to identify individual animals at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
A malnourished elephant seal pup looks outside a pen at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
Volunteers tube-feed a malnourished harbor seal pup at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
A volunteer restrains an elephant seal pup while the animal is fed through a tube at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
A shaved patch on the back of a harbor seal shows where blood was drawn during an admit exam at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
Seals and sea lions released back into their natural habitat are added to annual graduation posters at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif., May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
Researchers perform a necropsy on a California sea lion that died of malnutrition at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014.Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
Dr. Shawn Johnson, Director of Veterinary Science, listens to the lungs of a young sea lion under anesthesia at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
A California sea lion pup undergoes surgery for a lymph node abscess at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
Students on a field trip learn what to do if they find a stranded seal on the beach at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
Siobhan Rickert, 18, has been a volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center for four years She is one of a dedicated network of 1,100 volunteers who help run the facility in Marin County, Calif., May 9, 2014.Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
An elephant seal pup lies in an enclosure at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County, Calif. on May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME
Sick Baby Seals Marine Mammal Center
The Marine Mammal Center sits where the U.S. military once had a missile site outside San Francisco, in the Marin Headlands, Calif., May 9, 2014. Corey Arnold for TIME

Like an animal emergency, the UME declaration allows NOAA to dedicate more resources to trying to figure out why this is happening. Officials and experts like Boehm have theorized that, due to weather conditions that have made the Pacific waters unusually warm, mother seals and sea lions have been forced to forage much farther than normal to find food for themselves and their young. Some pups are left for such long stretches that they appear to be risking their safety, venturing into the open ocean before they have the strength or nourishment they need to survive.

“They may be prematurely weaned or abandoned,” Boehm says, “finding themselves in water without physical reserves or behavioral maturity.” He and other experts are watching the development of an El Nino without knowing what it will mean for the marine life off California’s coast.

Though he weighed less than 40 lbs. when he arrived at the Marine Mammal Center, Ian proved to be a survivor. The team fed him “fish mash” through a tube before teaching him to eat whole fish and caretakers said he proved “feisty” throughout his stay, exhibiting the temperament of a normal Guadalupe fur seal. In a few months, Ian weighed 90 lbs. and the Center took him to Point Reyes National Seashore, where they happily ushered the seal back into the wild.

Even though the 40-year-old marine animal hospital has had a record-breaking number of “patients” this year, Boehm says the successes help keep them ready for whatever the weather brings. “Every species warrants our attention,” he says, noting that threatened species like the Guadalupe fur seals and Hawaiian monk seals they’re working to rescue at a new mammal hospital all demand significant resources.

Could they go extinct? “Not on our watch,” he says.

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