Starving Sea Lions May Herald ‘El Nino’ Arrival in the Americas

[FarCenter]

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Sea lions are starving to death in unusual numbers along Chile’s northern coast, signaling the weather shift known as El Nino is taking hold in the Pacific.

The El Nino effect, which is bringing warmer water to South American shores, seems to be driving away fish the mammals eat. Evidence of that is found in the autopsies of emaciated pups, said Walter Sielfeld, a professor of marine science at Arturo Prat University in Iquique, Chile, who examined the sea lions.

The warming trend is deepening the woes of Chile’s $4 billion fishing industry, already ravaged by a salmon virus that has hurt exporters. In the last 30 years, El Ninos have sparked deadly floods and landslides from Ecuador to California, drought in Africa, wildfires in Australia, causing billions of dollars in damage, according to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

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