This past weekend I was able to spend some time with my mother and sister attempting to plan out our future family vacation after my twin brother graduates from college. We went from going to Fiesta Texas in San Antonio to visiting the Carlsbad Caverns and finally ended with a goal to go to South Padre Island. I was very excited because the last time I saw the ocean off a Texas Coast was when I was super little. We made plans to go scuba diving and spear fishing on our trip. So as to continue with the ocean excitement with planning the family vacation, I decided to try and find and environmental issue concerning the ocean. I went to the National Geographic website, clicked on the habitat tab under the Environment label and the article that caught my attention the most had a picture of 3 baby sea lions with the word "Mystery" in the title article. As I am a fan of mystery novels and problem solving, my curiosity was peaked as I clicked on the article and began to read about the mystery surrounding the starving sea lion pups.
Off the coast of Sausalito, California, for the third year in a row, there are sea lion pups washing up on the shore, very emaciated and starving. The arrival of these sea lion pups began occurring three years ago but has since worsened the quantity of sea lion pups washing up barely alive or dead. Scientists look at this event and the increasing severity of it and are worried about the ocean’s health. Scientists feared that there could possibly be a new disease or environmental toxin, but ruled those possibilities out as no other forms of sea life seem to be effected. Scientists believe that one of three options could possibly the reason why the sea lion cubs are washing ashore. The first option is that the population of fish that the mother sea lions feed on to then feed the pups is diminishing which results in the mother having to go further out into the sea to find them. As a result, the pups waiting for the mother to return starve to death or leave the sanctity of their home to look for food for themselves. The second option is that the population of sea lions has grown too large, resulting in a battle of the fittest among sea lions. The third option is a result of massive, persistent patch of warm ocean water that has begun to mess with the ecosystems. Scientists are continuing to look into the cause of the but have yet to pin point the exact cause of the mysterious ecosystem disturbance.
As I read this article, I was thinking in my mind what they could possibly do to find a solution but all the issues I thought it could be were mentioned and upon further study require further investigation. Only time will tell what exactly is causing the sea lion pups to come to shore but until then, I am glad that they have marine care centers to help nurse the pup back to health as they teach it how to fish before returning it to the wild.
Article Link:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150211-sea-lions-pups-stranding-starving-california/
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