The State - News from June 12, 1986

The remains of nine harbor seals found dead on an isolated stretch of beach at Point Reyes National Seashore were being studied to determine what killed them. Sarah Allen, a biologist for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, found the mammals lying close together in the Palo Marin section of the seashore last week. The seals, mostly females, were killed at the height of the breeding season. They had been dead about 14 days and first appearances indicated that they had been shot, Allen said. Prof. Bob Jones of the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Allen hiked into the area to remove the heads and stomachs of the animals for study, a museum spokesman said. There are about 14,000 harbor seals off the California coast.