Another Tough Year For Fur Seals In Bay Area

BAY AREA, CA – Scientists are investigating a record number of strandings this year of Guadalupe fur seals, officials with Marin Headlands-based The Marine Mammal Center said.

Thus far scientists have responded to 32 strandings, which is the same as last year. That comparison is not alarming except that in the center's 40-year history prior to 2015, scientists at the center had rescued
only as many as five fur seals in a year.

The high number of strandings in 2015 led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare an Unusual Mortality Event, which has led to more funding for research into why the fur seals are stranding and what can be done to help them.

Guadalupe fur seals are listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Only about 15,000 are living since they were hunted to near extinction in the 1800s, officials with The Marine Mammal Center said.

Guadalupe fur seals rarely come ashore but spend most of their time offshore. Their primary breeding ground is Guadalupe Island, about 150 miles off the coast of the Mexican state of Baja California.

"Oceanographers say that unusually warm waters over the last few years affected food availability in the waters near Guadalupe Island and much of the North Pacific," Marine Mammal Center officials said. "As prey populations move away to cooler waters, mother fur seals have a harder time finding the food they need to nourish themselves and their pups."

To learn more about the center and its mission, follow this link.

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--Bay City News/Photo courtesy of The Marine Mammal Center