The State : Sea Lion Deaths Blamed on Nets

A federal biologist says the unusually large number of sea lion carcasses on Southern California beaches probably can be traced to an increase in the squid population. Sea lions apparently have congregated to dine on the squid, and drowned after getting tangled in fishermen’s nets, said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. The marine animals drown in nets at the rate of 2,600 a year off the Southern California coast, and those deaths don’t violate any fisheries law or threaten the population, he said. The number of carcasses washing ashore--56 since Jan. 21 in Orange and Los Angeles counties--represents a small fraction of that total, Cordaro said. One of the dead sea lions was shot, but most of the rest are believed to have drowned in gill nets used to catch halibut, he said. Cordaro discounted allegations made Friday by a conservation group called the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society that fishermen have been killing the animals by feeding them fish stuffed with explosives.