Starving, Emaciated Sea Lion Pups Washing Up All Along California Beaches [View All]

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Starved and emaciated, sea lion pups are beaching themselves along the Pacific Coast. A strong El Nino tropical weather pattern is to blame. Unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the western Pacific are moving east, forcing the sea lions' natural food sources — squid, hake, herring and anchovies — to seek out cooler waters.

Adult sea lions have enough fat stored up to survive the resulting food shortage, but their pups aren't so well-equipped. Richard Evans, medical director of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, Calif., tells NPR's Guy Raz that by the time the animals get to his team, they're in the third stage of starvation. "We stage starvation in humans and animals: one, two, three. Three is when you've gone so bad that you start digesting your muscle as a source of protein."

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center rescues and nurses starving sea lions back to health, and then releases them back into the sea. Scientists at the center started seeing an increase in starving sea lion pups last spring.

The center sees sick animals all the time, but not usually this severe. The pups began coming in so sick that it took much longer to nurse them back to health — up to six months instead of the usual two or three.

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