© Robin LindseyDyanna Lambourn, left, with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marine Mammal Investigations Unit, and Casey McLean, of SR3, examine the entry wound from a bullet on a dead California sea lion found in West Seattle.
On the afternoon of Nov. 14, Randie Stone came across the bullet-pierced carcass of a California sea lion that washed up along the beach. In 38 years of living by the West Seattle shore, Stone has thrilled to the sights and sounds of these marine mammals, and she was saddened and angered by this encounter.
The next morning, just across the way from her Alki Beach house, people gathered around the body of another dead sea lion. "Honestly, I just could not go to look after what I had seen the day before, " Stone said. "To me, this is such a heinous act."
These two carcasses are part of a larger body count of California sea lions slain - in violation of federal law - by humans this fall in Puget Sound.
Since September, six sea lions have been confirmed to have died from gunshot wounds in central Puget Sound and Kitsap County, according to Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network, a group that responds to reports of stranded or dead sea lions. Another seven are suspected to have died from "acute trauma" caused by humans, including a decomposed sea lion with its head sliced off found washed ashore Tuesday in a West Seattle cove.
Comment: They're coming thick and fast now. This from New Zealand just a few days ago: 145 stranded pilot whales die on New Zealand beach