More than a dozen California sea lions have washed up along the coast of Washington State in the last three month , prompting an official investigation into find the responsible culprit .
IFLScience mouth withSeal Sitters , a voluntary organization that responds to report of dead or strand nautical mammals , who say that the number of idle sea lions totaled 16 as of November 27 . Of those necropsied , nine are confirmed to have been frivol away dead .
All of the animal are believe to have died by acute trauma , including human interaction ( such as a shot or boat strike ) or a killer whale or shark blast . Most recently , a sea lion find last Sunday and another carcase found on Thanksgiving Day were support to be shoot with a gun , while an X - shaft of a ocean lion found lodged against a dockage register five shotgun pellets of two different quality lodged into the animal ’s skull .
Shootings in general increase with salmon runs occurring during the Fall spawning season , describe theSeattle Times , when both commercial and recreational anglers and maritime mammals contend for catching , although the next few months are anticipate to see even higher number .
An analysis looking back at 10 years of NOAA National Marine Mammal Stranding data “ indicates that the current confirmed number of pellet sea lions is six time higher than the yearly average for month September to November , ” wrote Seal Sitters , adding that this only reflects the number of found and account animate being . That act is expected to increase because the “ high time of year for shot ocean lions [ December , January , and February ) is still to come , coincident with fish runs ” when angler and nautical mammal alike vie for catch salmon .
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Marine Mammal Stranding web is working in collaboration with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Mammal to answer to the incident , which are in violation of federal law .
Killing a sea lion is in violation of theMarine Mammal Protection Actwith crimes resulting in fines totaling more than $ 28,000 accompanied by up to one - year imprisonment . Anyone with information about a assault is encourage to call 1 - 800 - 853 - 1964 .
