Drivers on Interstate 880 in the San Francisco Bay area were startled to find a baby sea lion waddling on the motorway just before the morning rush hour — but the year-old pup is only one of hundreds rescued along the Californian coast this summer.
In the first six months of this year, 313 sea lions were reported stranded along the northern California coastline, from Mendocino to San Luis Obispo, compared with 485 for the whole of last year.
The Marine Mammal Centre in Sausalito, which covers 600 miles (965km) of coastline around San Francisco, is rescuing as many as 20 sea lions a day.
Scientists fear that the sea lions, like the 500 cormorants found starving or dead in April and May, may be an early warning sign of the El Niño phenomenon, the periodic warming of water in the tropical Pacific Ocean that can affect weather patterns around the world. One theory is that the warming water may be forcing the anchovies and sardines on which the sea lions feed to follow colder currents farther out to sea.
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