So far in 2010 there has been a huge number of prematurely born California sea lions. Many of the pups born last year are also dying.
"The only thing we've come up with is disrupted food chain. Basically the El Nino season has disrupted the food chain so the fish are not close to shore where either the small pups or the moms are finding it well," said Sue Andrews with the Marine Mammal Center.
Andrews is with the Marine Mammal Center, which rescues injured or sick sea lions. "We are easily seeing twice the number of stranding as a quote on quote normal year would see so it's very unusual," said Andrews.
Luckily, Andrews thinks the tied is turning and the sea lions are almost out of the danger zone, "Now we've got La Nina. There's a lot of food back and the animals who survived the last year have a good chance."
This is not the first time researchers have seen a large number of aborted and malnourished pups.
