Meanwhile fishermen are shooting sea lions on the Oregon coast!
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/agents-probe-possible-sea-lion-shootings/
10,000 Dead Sea Lions Wash Up In California, Officials Announce “Crisis”
10,000 baby sea lions have washed up dead on a California island, with experts calling the unexplained deaths a “crisis” and “[Pups] are washing ashore at a rate so alarming, rescuers said Thursday, this year is the worst yet”. Enenews.com reports
Michele Hunter, the center’s director of animal care, said, “It’s very difficult to see so much death.” Sacramento Bee, Mar 7, 2015: Tens of thousands of pups birthed last summer are believed to be dying on the islands… some [are] desperately trying to climb onto small boats or kayaks… Scientists noted a worrisome anomaly in 2013, when 1,171 famished pups were stranded…
Marine Mammal Center, Mar 5, 2015: It’s clear these sea lions are trying to tell us something. Their very presence here in such great numbers at this time of year is sounding an alarm up and down the coast… it signals something complex happening in our ocean… sea lions are very sensitive to their environment… alerting us to major changes in the ocean… The scene on the Channel Islands this year is grave, worse even than what researchers saw in 2012, before the Unusual Mortality Event in 2013… “What’s scary is that we don’t know when this will end,” says Dr. Shawn Johnson, Director of Veterinary Science at The Marine Mammal Center.
“This could be the new normal—a changed environment that we’re dealing with now.” LA Daily News, Mar 13, 2015: “By the end of January, we had as many as we did in (all of) 2013,” [Marine Mammal Care Center’s David Bard] said… “We’ve never seen anything like this with back-to-back events that are affecting the same part of the population,” Melin said. Dr. Melin: “Based on what we are seeing… we should be bracing for a lot more animals” CBS Los Angeles, Mar 9, 2015: [California Wildlife Center’s Jeff Hall] says the event has escalated into a crisis. “I would personally consider this a crisis,” Hall said… The epidemic has prompted a number of volunteers to step forward, including… television personality Kat Von D [who said] “I think there’s a lack of awareness of what’s going on in the environment.”
– See more at: http://yournewswire.com/10000-dead-sea-lions-wash-up-in-california-officials-announce-crisis/#sthash.xyJ5ugxq.dpuf
Exposing the Big Game 
Yet, in La Jolla, CA at the La Jolla Cove, local residents and business owners are doing everything possible to harass a small colony of sea lions off the Cove bluffs because they are being blamed for a foul odor that arises from time to time and wafts toward the business district. The City of San Diego installed a gate in the fencing at the bluffs that now allows the public free and unbridled access to the animals, in obvious violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Federal agents refuse to take any action because the local issue is too small for them to bother with or spend money on, according to a NOAA official who spoke at a town council meeting last night. Tourists surround the animals and relentlessly follow them, poke them, and try to get selfies with the animals that do not get a moment’s peace. Congressional representatives have not helped with NOAA enforcement issues. Two children have been bitten and it is only a matter of time before there is a more serious injury, yet city officials do nothing. Child Protective Services says it is not in their purview. I met with the Mayor’s aide to discuss the risks and he will not respond to my follow-up email or letter. So while thousands of sea lions are dying, we have a community that wants to drive off a few that are thriving. One prominent anti-pinniped activist suggested at the town council meeting that residents should take rocks and sling shots to the Cove. Go figure!
Unbelievable. Are they all competing for the most loathsome human award?
Wow. That would be a hard contest to judge!
I can’t understand what we are doing to this planet. There is video floating around of two women harassing seals or sea lions in this area too. I hate when people behave this way. I’m glad I wasn’t there, because I would have called the police on them, and also *cough* read them the riot act:
http://www.cbs8.com/story/21224644/police-increase-patrols-after-camera-catches-women-harassing-seals