What is Happening in the Ocean?

Winter has brought dropping temperatures all over the East Coast and has had a detrimental effect of marine life.

Multiple nights of single digit weather in Cape Cod, Massachusetts has led to an annual occurrence of cold and stunned marine life. During this cold season nearly 400 sea turtles have been washed up on the shores of Massachusetts as a result of the extreme drop in temperatures, nearly half of these being in the weeks following Thanksgiving.

Each cold season usually washes upwards of 600 turtles to the shores of Massachusetts. The sea turtles migration patterns have been getting pushed back further and further in the year as our planet continues to get warmer, so when these turtles have not yet made their trip south, sudden drops in temperature leaves them defenseless to the cold bite of winter.

Many species of turtles are susceptible to being stunned by the cold, but the most common is the Keps Ridley Sea turtle.

This species is critically endangered but there is no way to prevent the cold brought to the eastern coast by mother nature, the most that can be done is transferring the surviving turtles to warm water. The cold season of the East Coast has just begun, but hopefully the rest of the turtles have started their southern migration to safer, and warmer waters.

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145 pilot whales were found by a hiker along a remote shore in New Zealand this weekend. The line of whales stretches along the coast as far as the eye can see. Not all these whales were dead when the hiker discovered them. Many were still alive but they were in such critical condition that there is no way they could successfully be but back into the ocean. Marine official ultimately decided that the most humane thing to do as to euthanize the animals.

There could be many reasons for this mass beach including the fall of the tide or even the possibility the whales were chased too far up the shoreline by a predator.

These types of stranding are common along on the beaches of New Zealand, so even a beaching this massive wasn't too surprising to New Zealand Department of Conservation. Although there are many different cases of marine life washing up, they are rarely in relation to each other even if they happen within a close amount of time. The reason for this specific occurrence has no concrete reason behind it.

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Sea lions living off of the coast of Washington have suffered from the wrath of human violence as thirteen have washed up dead from gunshot wounds and acute trauma.

Six of the sea lions found had been shot dead and seven died of some sort of violent trauma. One had even been decapitated.

The people who have committed this crime have not been found, but they would have to pay fines up to $28,000 or even face a year in prison. Some Marine life officials are speculating that the fisherman were trying to eliminate the competition in fish hunting when they killed the sea lions.

The average number of marine life killed by guns has risen in the last few years. The rate of sea lions killed alone has gone up by six percent in comparison to previous years, and it's very hard to catch the people who are shooting marine life. Out of the 700 cases since 1998, only a handful were ever found.

Fishermen are legally allowed to scare the animals with loud banging or even with paint or rubber bullets, but shooting the lions with real bullets is definitely a boundary fishermen shouldn't cross.

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