[Rocky_Shorz]

"In all the 30 years we have been rescuing animals," Rebecca Dmytryk with WildRescue says, "we have never seen what we're seeing now. Ever."...


In 2007, after hundreds of marine birds washed up along Monterey in a mysterious event, the Department of Fish and Game determined they had been coated in a substance formed by an underwater algae that normally blooms in warm, nutrient-rich waters. But, it bloomed off-season -- in the winter, while the ocean was churning Dmytryk said. When the waves broke up the blooms, it turned them into a soap-like substance that the coated the pelicans' feathers. They lost their waterproofing, couldn't find food and died.

Last October, Dmytryk and her colleagues went to Oregon to help the Coast Guard retrieve nearly 500 birds that were coated in a similar substance. Despite their hard work, 10,000 marine birds died...

Dmytryk says the same issues that plague the pelicans may be affecting all marine life and speculates the absence of famed sea lions on San Francisco's Pier 39 might also be linked.

NBC San Diego

The image links don't work but I recommend going to that link and clicking on the small sea lion picture...