Well, that's always kind of dodgy in San Francisco.
I'll just let Egon tell it.
Posted on 04/30/2015 9:34:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A stranded sea lion pup nicknamed “Rubbish” was walking along a San Francisco sidewalk Thursday morning in what marine mammal rescuers fear could be the “new normal” of a warming Pacific Ocean.
The pup was seen waddling about in the Marina District along Divisadero Street before someone spotted the unusual sight and called it in about 7 a.m., according to Laura Sherr, a spokeswoman for the center. Sherr said the male pup was captured by net, put into a doggie-style crate and was whisked off for follow-up care at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito.
Rubbish is one of 1,800 or more California sea lion pups that have been stranded along the coast of California in the first four months of 2015 year because of a drastically warming ocean and a dwindling food supply, according to a March study released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “In the first four months of 2015, we have rescued more animals than we rescued during the entirety of 2014,” said Dr. Shawn Johnson, the center’s chief veterinarian. “What’s scary is that we don’t know when this will end. This could be the new normal—a changed environment that we’re dealing with now.”
Johnson also immediately recognized Rubbish: The sea lion had previously been rescued by the Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center in February and brought to The Marine Mammal Center for care.
At the time, Rubbish was eight months old and weighed 30 pounds when he was rescued. He was treated for pneumonia and malnutrition and was released March 23 at Point Reyes National Seashore.
Johnson and his colleagues are concerned that if warmer waters along the coast persist, the sea lion “crisis” will continue. He urged the world’s leaders to address the three primary stressors to our ocean environment: overfishing, pollution and global warming.
“We know everything is connected —a change in the winds is leading to thousands of sea lions stranding on the beach,” Johnson said. “It’s all the more reason we should be paying close attention to the fate the sea lions, a top predator in the ocean.”
The Marine Mammal Center is the world’s largest rehabilitation facility for marine mammals. As of Monday, the center has responded to 927 California sea lions and currently has 122 sea lions in its care. The center says it has successfully released 159 healthy California sea lions back to the wild since Jan. 1.
It’s SF. What makes you think that a “doggie-style crate” has anything to do with canines?
If it goes to chinatown it is certainly not safe at all.
More seriously
California Sea Lions have always been present in San Francisco Bay.[citation needed] They started to haul out on docks of Pier 39 in September 1989. Before that they mostly used Seal Rock for that purpose. Ever since September 1989 the number of sea lions on Seal Rock has been steadily decreasing, while their number on Pier 39 has generally increased. Some people speculate that sea lions moved to docks because of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but the earthquake occurred months after the first sea lions had arrived at Pier 39. It is likely that the sea lions feel safer inside the Bay.[2]
The sea lions at Pier 39 have become a tourist attraction in their own right Although the reason for their migration to the pier is unclear, the refurbishing of the docks in September 1989 required the removal of all boats from that area, leaving large open spaces for the sea lions to move into. Once the project was completed, boat owners returned, but did their best to navigate around the sea lions; no efforts were made to encourage the new guests to leave. By the end of that year, less than a dozen sea lions frequented the docks at Pier 39.[2] By January 1990, their numbers had increased to 150 animals.
Owners of the 11 boats docked there began to complain about having to avoid the animals who can weigh up to half a ton, and odor and noise complaints began to pour in. Press releases caught national attention, and the sea lions began to attract tourists. Advice from The Marine Mammal Center was to abandon the docks to the animals, and to relocate the boats elsewhere.[2]
The only globull thing about this story is the bull the author pulled out of his A$$. But we already knew that.
I’d love to see some of these brain donors go to the north woods and determine why bears sometimes live in one place and sometimes another. Now being a certified redneck mountain hick by birth, I’m sure that my uneducated observations that animals go to where the food is probably carries no weight with such esteemed Einstein level intellects such as these. However since mu observation of fact doesn’t or didn’t take a 7 figure govt. grant, I think I see why they have yet to determine the source of this environmental catastrophic.
There should have been a trigger warning for this story.
Believe it or not, there were some parts of California that in the early 1800s were so infested with grizzly bears (e.g., Napa Valley) it was considered dangerous for humans to live there.
Bigfoot drove them all out. Another global warming crisis!
Seriously though I believe it. (your post, not the Bigfoot theory ;)
Nothing new. These animals get stranded all the time. It must have been 95 or 96. I was a firefighter in Soquel for CDF. For about 2 weeks straight Cannery Row of Monterey was covered with hundreds, if not thousands, of sea lions. This was before the global warming hysteria hit full steam. You just dealt with it because animals are going to do what animals do.
maybe it’s just the new normal of Sea LIon overpopulation and the prohibitions against culling them
What an utter crap story...
30 years ago, when I lived in Monterey, Sea lions wandering the streets near the Wharf was a daily occurrence.
It was because they learned that was where they could find big piles of fresh, tasty fish being sold. And no one would stop them from eating their fill of it.
Funniest posts in quite awhile
Shortest joke I know.
Baby Seal walks into a club.
The new San Francisco treat!
Ding ding.
They took him to the infirmary
Well, that's always kind of dodgy in San Francisco.
I'll just let Egon tell it.
Warming oceans....a sea lion pup...and we are to drastically change our lives immediately to save the whole world....whatever....I hate liberals and their goofy articles they write....one incident and it becomes a known trend & therefore it is the responsibility of every US citizen to stop global warming....but the US can’t get involved in anything else though...idiots....articles like this remind me why I chose a conservative mindset!
There is an “El Nino” condition developing in the eastern shores if the Pacific which is caused cyclically by a warm water mass flowing across the Pacific from west to east.
This warm water mass, as it nears the US’s western shores cause bait fishes to stay farther away from shore thereby creating some loss in the feeding opportunities for animals like seal lions.......
that’s the bad news.....the good news is the likelihood of an extra wet winter later this year ending California’s cyclical drought conditions.......
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