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Starving sea lion pups stranding on California beaches

From left, Kirsten Sedlick, Daniel Connor, Ashley Cook and Brennan Slavik tube-feed the rescued sea lion pups at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Monday, March 2, 2015, in Laguna Beach, Calif. Since January, more than 1,100 starving and sickly sea lion pups have washed up along California’s coast. Rescue centers have taken in about 800 but are stretched thin by the demand. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
From left, Kirsten Sedlick, Daniel Connor, Ashley Cook and Brennan Slavik tube-feed the rescued sea lion pups at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Monday, March 2, 2015, in Laguna Beach, Calif. Since January, more than 1,100 starving and sickly sea lion pups have washed up along California’s coast. Rescue centers have taken in about 800 but are stretched thin by the demand. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) From left, Kirsten Sedlick, Daniel Connor, Ashley Cook and Brennan Slavik tube-feed the rescued sea lion pups at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Monday, March 2, 2015, in Laguna Beach, Calif. Since January, more than 1,100 starving and sickly sea lion pups have washed up along California’s coast. Rescue centers have taken in about 800 but are stretched thin by the demand. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

By Associated Press 5 min read

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (AP) – The starving sea lion pup was so tiny that it looked like a rock at the base of the seaside cliff until it struggled to raise its head as humans approached.

It bleated weakly as volunteer Brennan Slavik eased it into a crate for transport to a rescue center, where it peered from a child’s playpen with woeful eyes made enormous by an emaciated frame.

At almost a year, the pup weighed just 23 pounds – a third of what it should – and staff quietly took it to a private room, euthanized it and moved on.

It’s a scenario playing out daily in California this year as rescue centers struggle to keep up with hundreds of sick and starving sea lion pups washing up along the coast. More than 1,100 pups have been rescued since January from beaches, but also from inside public restrooms, behind buildings and along railroad tracks.

It’s not unusual to have some sea lions wash up each spring as the pups leave their mothers, but so far, the number of stranded babies is five times greater than in 2013, the worst season in recent memory.