It was one of those cold miserable days at the ocean Saturday March 10, 2012. The wind was blowing, rain was off and on and it was still another half mile or so to where Snowy Owls have been habitating for the winter. Out the corner of my eye, I spotted a raven hopping around on some driftwood. Then another one. Little did I know at the time that one of the ravens I was about to photograph would lead to a troubling story about a parasitic infection that killed at least one northern fur seal and possibly others.
A Raven perches on the carcass of a northern fur seal at Damon Point near Ocean Shores Washington.
Slogging through the heavy sand with my cameras about a half mile from the parking area on the ocean side of Damon Point at the southern tip of Ocean Shores, I moved closer to the pair of Ravens. Most of the time travelling in pairs, Ravens, when on the beach, mean business.
I notice that their focus of attention was a dead seal that had washed up to the driftwood line. From a distance it looked like a harbor seal. Much smaller than a dead sea lion I saw washed up dead a month or so ago.
A tag on one of the front flippers of a northern fur seal found on a Washington beach. Photo by Dan Varland
I photographed one of the Ravens as it hopped on to the back of the dead seal. Didn’t really think much of it — except sadness for the poor seal – and forwarded the picture to Dan Varland, executive director of Coastal Raptors based in Hoquiam. He had mentioned to me earlier in the week that for research purposes his group also was interested in any dead animals I found on the ocean beaches during my photo excursions.
From the photo Varland determined instead that the dead seal was a first year northern fur seal which later I found out from Dyanna Lambourn, a marine biologist with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), was one of seven that have been reported washed up dead on Washington and Oregon ocean beaches over the last couple of months. Varland had also forwarded me photographs of two other dead northern fur seals found on Washington ocean beaches that had been tagged in Alaska. He and a student also hiked back out on the beach and photographed in detail the one I found. Both dead seals in the first photographs he sent me were approximately the same age and in poor physical condition when they died just like the one I had accidentally photographed.
Lambourn confirmed all seven dead northern fur seals were about the same age and that the tagged seals were from the same general rookery area in Alaska. She said the mortality rate for northern fur seal pups on their own for the first time is higher than the grownups and they do wash up dead on Washington and Oregon beaches this time of year.
However the red flag this year is that Lambourn’s examination of one of the dead northern fur seals turned up a parasitic infection that had punctured the stomach and entered the animal’s peritoneal cavity. The one she examined was emaciatated like the rest, she said.
According to NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Lab the parasitic infection is a new finding in Northern fur seals. March 1 the organization put out an alert to all of their coastal monitors to watch for stranded or dead northern fur seals on coastal beaches and report back to WDFW. Northern fur seals are not on the threatened species list but it has been determined their numbers are in decline. Some categorize the seal as “vulnerable.”
The watch is on and hopefully I can publish more details if more seal finds are reported or more physical examinations turn up potentially deadly problems.
Here’s the rest of the action:
