Marine Mammals Dying in Record Number – 05/17/2014

Marine mammals mysteriously dying in record number… – The WatchersSpace

Posted by The Watcher on May 17, 2014

More sick and dying animals are washing up on the coast of California, with new
reports indicating record numbers of young sea lions, seals, and other marine
mammals being admitted to care shelters for rehabilitation. The Orange County
Register reports that the only facility in the county licensed to care for
marine mammals is now at capacity, and that other facilities all along the
coastline are being similarly inundated.

The normally pudgy and active creatures are increasingly turning up emaciated
and dehydrated, a mysterious phenomenon that the Sausalito-based Marine Mammal
Center (MMC) has monitored across a 600-mile area of coastline that stretches
from Mendocino to San Luis Obispo. After washing ashore, many of these sick
marine mammals are too week to even get back in the water, let alone survive on
their own.

“We thought it was going to be a nice calm year; in the last month it’s just
spiked,” stated Melissa Sciacca, the director of development at the Pacific
Marine Mammal Center (PMMC) in Laguna Beach. Hundreds of ailed sea lions turned
up last year as well, but the early part of this year was mostly quiet, that is
until recently. “The rescues just keep coming in at a steady pace.”

Sharp uptick in injured sea animals following Fukushima

According to reports, this is only the third time ever that the PMMC has been at
capacity with sick animals, the first time having occurred in 2009 and the
second time last year. Like in years past, the animals being rescued today
exhibit the same strange symptoms, almost as if something attacked or infected
their bodies, preventing them from developing normally.

“Once we get them nourished, they do fine out there,” added PMMC executive
director Keith Matassa, as quoted by the OC Register. In his assessment, the sea
lions’ mothers may not be producing enough milk, or they themselves may be
getting exposed to toxins or some other damaging factor. “It’s all circling
around food issues.”

Dr. Shawn Johnson, director of the MMC’s veterinary sciences department, seems
to agree. He told SFGate.com that most of the sick marine mammals being admitted
to the center appear to be starving to death, either from a dearth of available
food or from an inability to capture and consume it. Either way, the animals are
suffering and nobody seems to know why.

“The ones we are seeing are basically starving to death,” he told SFGate.com.

“It’s definitely a mystery. We’re hoping it’s not the new norm.”

Sick, dying animals turning up all across Pacific Coast

Similar events are occurring elsewhere along the Pacific Coast, including in
Alaska where dozens of sea lions, whales and other creatures recently turned up
dead. Researchers there believe that radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear disaster may be responsible, especially since many of the dead creatures
are exhibiting signs of radiation poisoning, including unusual baldness and skin
sores.

A 2011 symposium on Fukushima radiation and its effects on marine life
essentially predicted these outcomes, having modeled how radiation accumulation
on sea ice might harm sea lions, for instance. It explained how radiation
exposure in these areas represents an ongoing immunotoxic threat to these
innocent creatures, not to mention the damage it can inflict on the thyroid
gland and skin.

“Marine transported Fukushima radionuclides… may represent a new stressor to
the ecosystem,” reads a poster for the meeting.

Sources for this article include:
http://www.ocregister.com
http://www.sfgate.com
http://articles.coastlinepilot.com
http://enenews.com
[PDF] http://www.north-slope.org
http://science.naturalnews.com
Republished with permission from Natural News
Written by Jonathan Benson