Death on the beach: thousands of sea lions washed up along West Coast beaches

The noise stretched like a tight wire through the air as dozens of sea lions gasped for their last breath along central Oregon coast beaches near Florence yesterday. Thus far, scientists estimated that “thousands of sea lions” have washed up at various West coast beach locations due to a bacterial infection that also threatens people and animals. Dead sea lions were found near the world famous “Sea Lion Caves” still featured the usual group of 1,000 or so sea lions sitting on rocks as great waves of the Pacific Ocean created a storm of applause. According to marine biologists -- at the nearby Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport -- the deceased sea lions and various other marine life, to include thousands of dead starfish, “have tested positive” for leptospirosis...more

That's what they get for eatin' all those endangered salmon.