In the past, how many strandings or deaths have occurred as a result of commercial fishermen shooting animals to protect gear/catch?
Gunshot injuries are the most common man-made cause of strandings in sea lions and seals on the West Coast. For example, from January 1986 to September 1998, 6,196 pinnipeds stranded alive on the Central California coast. Of these animals, 464 (7.5%) showed evidence of human interactions, in which 306 were gunshots. The majority of gunshot injuries were in young California sea lions. Although there seems to be no significant differences in gunshot incidences over the years, peak years were 1992 and 1998, both El Niño years. This is likely because depleted fish stocks drive young pinnipeds to seek out commercial fishing activities as a source of food. It is typically not possible to identify who shot these animals, although this connection with El Niño years suggests that these injuries may be as a result of interacting with commercial fishers. The effort to detect gunshot and other man-made injuries in stranded marine mammals has increased over the last decade, making it difficult to d
