recent article sea lion decline and related fish migrations

[TWinger]

The lack of Stripers may be related. Who really knows.......

Sea lion decline points to tough year
By MEGHA SATYANARAYANA / MediaNews Group
Created: 01/05/2010 02:30:47 AM PST


Tourists watch sea lions on boat docks at Pier 39 in San Francisco last month. But now, almost all of the sea lions are gone. (Ben Margot/Associated Press file photograph) The recent exodus of a large California sea lion colony at Pier 39 in San Francisco was visually stunning, said local marine biologists, but it's normal, and likely happening in Santa Cruz as well.

"This time of year, this is exactly what's going to happen," said Pat Morris, research coordinator at Ano Nuevo State Park. The males may be heading elsewhere, she said, in the endless pursuit of the small fish they eat.


It has been a strange year for the large marine animals along the California coast, even with near normal water and weather patterns, Morris said.


Nancy Black, a marine biologist who leads whale watching tours from Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, says she's seeing fewer sea lions now, maybe 40 or 50 vs. the normal 300 or 400. The southern migration of gray whales was later this year, she said, probably because warming temperatures delayed the ice formation that typically sends the animals on their way.


"They're staying up there longer," Black said. "It was very noticeable this year." In contrast, there are more Risso's dolphins feasting on an abundance of Humboldt squid, which could be feeding on the fish the sea lions like, sending them off in search of more bountiful waters.


"In the sea, everything's all interrelated," she said. "Things like that happen every few years." It's been a bad year for sea lions and Brandt's cormorant, both of which frequent Ano Nuevo Island, Morris said. In spite of a normal birth rate for sea lions, some 75
percent of the sea lion pups born on the Channel Islands starved, abandoned by their mothers. Morris said a plausible explanation is that food was too deep to reach, too far north or too far off the coast. Mothers wouldn't be able to feed themselves and get back with enough food for their pups.

At Seal Rock at Lighthouse Point this summer, surfers passed within feet of some 70 yearlings too weak to scuttle off or respond. The Marine Mammal Center, based in Sausalito, was overwhelmed with starving yearlings.


"Mom took care of them until they were nine months old, but once they were on their own, they couldn't make it," Morris said.


The cormorants laid fewer eggs and abandoned their chicks in June and July. Only 10 percent to 20 percent of the normal number of cormorant chicks reached independence this year at Ano Nuevo and failed entirely in San Francisco, Morris said.


She doesn't have exact numbers, but believes western gull numbers dipped this year. And a bird called the rhinoceros auklet was forced to diversify its food gathering from a single type of fish, carrying multiple fish species in their beak to their hungry young.


Yet krill eaters, such as baleen whales, did well, which is strange, as normally if fish eaters fail, so do krill eaters. It was like an El Niño year in some ways, Morris said, where water is warmer and there is less food for larger animals such as whales, birds and sea lions.


"It was a devastating year for some species," said Guy Oliver, a UC Santa Cruz research biologist.


But there was no El Nino, and this has some researchers worried, as the weather phenomenon is scheduled to appear in 2010. Morris said sea lions are well-studied because they are a stably populated marine mammal species, but 2010 could be the third consecutive year the animals have had trouble having babies.

[John Perry]

Shucks!

[Steve J]

Bring on El Nino

[Robert F]

Now what needs to happen is the "rescue" crews need to leave them die. There is not enough food. They are not like dogs where you are supposed to go to the grocery store and get a bag of food. They are wild animals that need to adjust their own population based on natural resources.

[blkdog812]

its called over population. let nature take its course. maybe the salmon and steelhead will finally have a chance to recover

[gsc686s]

Salmon and Steelhead will never recover, intoducing stipers into the bay / delta has done more to hurt the salmon and steelhead population than the sealions.

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

How could girls taking their clothes off have anything to do with salmon..

mac

[drrakruz]

Maybe we should follow their lead...Get the hell out of this over-taxed state and send a strong message to the Govenator!

[Levy]

Maybe we should follow their lead...Get the hell out of this over-taxed state and send a strong message to the Govenator!

Yes please leave!!!

[gsc686s]

How could girls taking their clothes off have anything to do with salmon..

mac

Thats stipers with (1) "P" as in Linesiders, but I bet Stippers like salmon too!

[bantam1]

They all live in So-Cal now. They migrated down here and live in Newport Bay sinking rich people's boats at will

This is from 2006 and not much has changed since then.

http://www.newportmooringassociation.or ... s.htm[url]