Dead sea lions, some with gunshot wounds, crockery on the shore near Seattle

California sea lions.
(NOAA Fisheries)

Since September, at least 13 dead sea lions in California have been killed along the banks of the Puget Sound near Seattle, including six gunshot wounds and another discovered Tuesday with their heads cut, according to conservation groups.

The marine mammal sinkers of the Seals Seal, a group that responds to dead and stranded sea lions, confirmed that seven of these dead sea lions were believed to have died as a result of an accident. Acute trauma "caused by man, reported the Seattle Times.

Earlier this month, the carcass of a sea lion riddled with bullets was stranded along one shore of west Seattle and another was found the next day .

"Honestly, I just could not care about what I had seen the day before," said Randie Stone, who discovered a dead sea lion on November 14th. "For me, it's such a heinous act.

NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency for marine resources management, has confirmed the deaths of five sea lions, four of them gunshot wounds, a spokesman said.

The federal government estimates that between 1998 and 2017, approximately 700 California sea lions were found injured by gunshot or stabbing.

A local sea protection group has announced a $ 5,500 prize for catching sea lion shootings, KING-TV reported in Seattle.

Robin Lindsey, of Seal Sitters, said shootings information generally increased with fish lifts.

During the fall and spring, shootings with sea lions were reported in Puget Sound when men migrated from the Channel Islands to southern California to search for food, said the door. from NOAA Fisheries, Kristin Wilkinson.

"According to the people who live and work along the Elliott Bay and Duwamish wharves, the gunshots are heard even more frequently this year," Lindsey wrote in an article published on November 21 on the Seal Sitters Blubberblog.

Sea lions can be found mainly along the west coast and are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Formerly hunted for food and domestic animal skins, California sea lions were about to disappear, but their population grew from less than 90,000 in 1975 to more than 250,000 in 2014.