A year of dying for marine life

On a spit of sand 12 miles north of Santa Cruz, a small, emaciated sea lion lay on its side. The only sign of life was the deep press of its flippers against its belly, relaxing for a few seconds, then squeezing again.

- SUSANNE RUST

MARINE Mammal Center workers contain an ailing sea lion in Davenport, Calif.

"That's a classic sign of lepto," said Giancarlo Rulli, a volunteer and spokesperson with the Marine Mammal Center, pointing to the young animal's wretched self-embrace. The corkscrew-shaped bacteria, leptospirosis, causes severe abdominal pain in sea lions by damaging their kidneys and inflaming their gastrointestinal tracts. “They hold their stomach just like that. Like a sick child with a bellyache,” he said.

Since the end of June, officials say nearly 400 animals have been reported stranded or sickened along the Central Coast beaches. More than two-thirds of them have died, Rulli said.

Hundreds more probably were washed away before anyone spotted them, or died at sea.

The historically large and long bacterial outbreak is adding to an already devastating death toll for the seals, sea lions, dolphins, otters and whales who live in and migrate through the state's coastal waters.

There are the poisonous algal blooms off the central and southern coasts. There are massive changes in food availability and distribution across the Pacific. And there are growing casualties from ship strikes, record numbers of entanglements in rope and line, and a new heat blob forming in the eastern Pacific.

This year may be remembered as one of the gravest for marine mammals on record. Or, more worryingly, a sign that our ocean environment is changing so drastically that in some places and seasons, it's becoming uninhabitable for the life it holds.

The network of volunteers who tend to stranded marine life is running ragged, said Rulli, answering dozens of rescue calls a day.

"It's been a brutal year. ... It's been hard on the animals.