The State - News from Jan. 29, 1989

Fourteen dead sea lions have washed up on Orange County beaches since last weekend, but the carcasses were too decomposed for necropsies to determine the causes of death. Possible causes include drowning in fishermen’s nets, attacks by white sharks, viral infections and deliberate slaughter with firearms, officials said. “Sea lion deaths are pretty common, although it’s a little unusual to see this many in this short a time,” Jim Lecky of the National Marine Fisheries Service said. Eighteen dead sea lions washed up on Orange County beaches last year, most of them in the winter.