Climate change won't be a "problem" until GOP soccer moms start washing up in their suburban driveways, malnourished and dehydrated.

You mean like they are now?

I think once we have killed everything we can all move on, without this distraction, to eating each other. Fun times are ahead! I'm glad I probably won't live to see them.

Baby Sea Lions Deserve to Die

Yeah, I said it. What's missing from this article is the fact that Baby Sea Lions are actually foreign covert infiltrators operating on behalf of Agenda 37-F.

In order to save our great nation, we need to elect a leader who's not afraid to do and say what needs be be done regardless of how many people he offends.

We need to elect Trump in 2016 to protect us from the Baby Seals.

the preceding message was not paid for by the Elect Trump campaign but we'll glad accept $100K in gratitude......

Seals & Sea Lions are 2 different critters.

Sea Lions are an invasive species here so I'm not shedding any tears. The environment can't support an unlimited number of them or any particular species including (especially?) humans.

Of course you "shed no tears " at the decimation of a species. You use up all your tears crying for those poor coal companies and their billionaire owners who have to live under the "tyranny" of environmental regulations.

ROFL You might find out who you're talking to before you say something so stupid & off base. Nice try though.

Pfft. Hiding your comments doesn't delete people's memories of your previous posts. Nor from seeing the foolishness of your current post

The topic being sea lions & you bring up coal. & for your info, I'm not for coal as the mining of it is harmful to the environment & to those who mine it & pollutes the air when used. If you're a democrat, you're an embarrassment today.

Grrrrr - go get 'em happy

Are you going to bark next? LOL

How many accounts to you have here?

First time on here, easy to spot the one trying to draw the foul

BTW, what comments did I hide? & how does one do that?

Both are probably working together.

Trust neither...

LOL Good advice. Have a great evening.

White people are an invasive species here...the environment can't support an unlimited number of them

Was it really necessary to bring race into it?

Well I couldn't say humans, because there were plenty of humans native to this area. Guess I could say European's. Sure, that'll work. See, I just modeled courteous accountable discourse. Feel free to try it on as well.

You're an idiot. Humans are not native to the US. American Indian populations can be traced back to Siberia. Last time I checked, Siberia was no where near American soil.

Name caller.

I'm… sort of impressed that these are correctly labeled "sea lions" and not "seals." Not very many media outlets could be trusted to know the difference.

The oceans have been taking the brunt of global warming and CO2 concentrations. Things are changing too fast for animals to adapt. We are next.

Remember when the Amazon forest was razed for McDonald's burgers, and scientists warned us that it was dangerous because of the amount of oxygen it produced? I do. Now the absence of that natural resource our oceans are becoming too acidic.

"Rehab' intervention is ridiculous. This is a naturally occurring event among an overpopulated specie.

Read. The. Article.

I read it. I also know from reading other articles that have been cropping up for several years that sea lions are doing just fine. Better than fine actually. By most reports there are more of them now than their environment can support. You might almost say that they're an overpopulated species.

Like humans - an overpopulated species. But unlike humans, pinnipeds are not a destructive species.
Seal says: Cull the human herd.

Okay, so can we just let some of you people die as a "naturally occurring event among an overpopulated species" ?

We do that on a daily basis. Like withholding available food while over a million north koreans died of starvation, while impoverished people are unhoused and malnourished, waging wars.....

How about how the Fukushima Daiichi damaged the Pacific? Maybe someone should look into all the other issues the Pacific has had with die offs? It seems like the media does its best to avoid reporting the damage.

Radiation is a conspiracy theory.

Just because we've seen a couple UME's and multi-species die-offs along the Pacific since 2011 doesn't mean anything, its only been birds, whales, dolphins, walrus, sardines, herring, needlefish, smelt, salmon, trout, sturgeon, seals, sea lions, sea stars, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea hares, octopus, limpets, mussels and the ones I forgot.
Just because NOAA (or anyone else) isn't sampling any of these specimens for radionuclides doesn't prove anything, except that radiation is a conspiracy theory with no factual basis in science.
Its not like three cores bleeding into the ocean for 1631 days could even have an effect, look how big the ocean is and look how small radionuclides are... and its not like there are studies proving irradiated water increases water temperature for the life of its decay.

Meh, conspiracies.

Nicely done.

And the State Secrecy law Japan passed is helping to ensure there's little "factual basis in science" being leaked.

At least they're stemming one of the leaks. /s

While Abe bleeds all the while touting the healthy food from Fukushima he's been eating. Dana Durnford and Yoichi Shimatzu would be betters sources of info than this lame article.

Indeed. The tons of irradiated water still being pumped into the Pacific from Fukushima and the ash from the burning irradiated Fukushima debris sent all over Japan for disposal couldn't possibly get into the jet stream, then across and into the waters ALL THE WAY across to the West coast, either. Water must dilute plutonium. Naw.... Only a conspiracy theorist would conclude that if all the things that feed these dying, disappearing, deforming, creatures are already gone (due to the 4 years and counting of the ongoing bioaccumulation of at least a couple of the over 200 radionuclides generated by the Fukushima multiple meltdowns) that those higher on the food chain might face some difficulty. Where's my tin foil hat?

I'm pretty sure NOAA has done testing on some of the expired sea lions for radiation. Nothing has been said in the field regarding finding any notable amounts of radiation that could be from Fukushima or otherwise.

The blob, indeed. Really, they have been calling it 'the blob', like there isn't any scientific assessment available other than pointing out 'the blob'.

Fukushima?

Shhh! danny j!!! You said the "F" word!! Didn't you get the hint when it showed up NO WHERE in this fine piece of investigative journalism? What are you trying to do, get people real information about this issue? Tsk, tsk. That's just not done. How dare you.

I honestly don't know if Fukushima is related to this algae-bloom or to the die-offs in some other ways.

But I find the lack of scientific data on that disaster very troubling.

Honest questions: Of what benefit are sea lions to our human population that we are so concerned about them dying off?
Why no concern regarding salmon and sturgeon dying off in record numbers in the PNW?

Symptoms vs diseases. What is causing the deaths? Is it symptomatic of a larger problem that does affect us - directly or indirectly? This is why we want to know.

Just because there is an article about a new thing does not mean that an old known thing is not still a concern - or even a more important concern.

Perhaps the sea lions contracted something from all of the salmon they were decimating in the Columbia River.
I was attempting to make a connection because it seems odd that a few months ago there was an uproar regarding sea lions destroying salmon populations in the PNW (which has been happening for many years) and they were actually targeted by WADFW for extermination.

Guy needs a Geiger counter to go fishing

Yes, like something that has been known for 4 years with observable, measurable, disastrous consequences...and still very much a concern. Guess what that could be? Reading this piece, you'd be left guessing.

Because this piece is not about a 4 year old known issue. This is not hard.

My point was Fukushima has been going on for 4 years, is more than related to this article, but not mentioned. It was an attempt in frustration using Coracle's new and old thing reference. Forgive me.

Fukushima's relationship is less than clear - especially when the article itself describes measurable proximate causes.

Pinnipeds (sea lions, seals, walruses et al) are known as sentinels of the sea. Since they can survive for an amount of time breathing (our) oxygen on land, as well as surviving for an amount of time in water, they can be observed (and hence examined) to determine the health of our oceans and seas.
Whereas fish (such as the salmon and sturgeon you mentioned) cannot be examined in the same way to determine the health of the oceans/seas.

I skimmed through this article for mention of Fukushima and - nothing. What's wrong with you people? Don't you understand the effects of ongoing radiation poisoning over the course of 4 years? Humans have killed life in the Pacific Ocean, not Mother Nature.

Sorry Heather, they are not allowed to say the "F" word.