Recent necropsies have shown that 10 sea lions have confirmed gunshots wounds in the last few months in Puget Sound area, which is located in near Seattle. The number is 6 times higher than their yearly averages, leaving the local stranding network concerned. Read more here.
Over the past couple of weeks, New Zealand has suffered from three large mass strandings of whales. Some whales were able to be pushed back out to shores and saved while the majority of the whales were either euthanized or found dead on arrival.
The first mass stranding took place on Monday, Nov. 26th, on a remote island called Stewart Island, where as many as 145 pilot whales stranded. Read more here.
That same weekend a mass stranding event took place on New Zealand's northernmost tip, where 10 pygmy-killer whales stranded. Read more here.
The third mass stranding took placed on Thursday, Nov. 29th, in the Chatham Islands, where 80-90 pilot whales stranded. Read more here.
During this past weekend, two whales were struck by recreation boats in the Monterey Bay. One incident off Hopkins Point caused moderate injuries to a woman. In breakwater cove, a 10ft boat capsized due to a breaching whale. It is unknown whether the whales suffered any injuries.
Read more at KSBW
Despite legal protections for sea lions, fishermen still resort to lethal force to keep them from stealing their catch. This year alone there has been more than a dozen marine mammals that have been stranded with gun-shot wounds. Although more than 700 California sea lions have been found with either gunshot or stab wounds between the years of 1998 and 2017, only a few people have been caught. All those people were fishermen.
Read more at National Geographic.
