Hundreds of dead sea lions have washed up along Chile’s northern shoreline, most of them newborn pups. Marine researchers are looking into the strange occurrence that is also taking place elsewhere on South America’s Pacific coastline. The aftermath of the recent El Niño weather phenomenon in the Pacific has been blamed for causing starvation among sea lion population, by disrupting their food chain. Latin One reports: For the past three moths, dead sea lions are dying and washing up ashore. The American sea lions are called Otaria flavescens. Most of those that are dying off are newborns, with a few adults and juveniles. This makes the problem even more significant. Researcher Carlos Guerra-Correa said that Chile’s neighboring countries are also experiencing this. “This is happening along the entire coast of northern Chile and we’re getting reports that it’s also happening in Peru, our neighbor to the north,” researcher Carlos Guerra-Correa said. “We could be talking about hundreds of sea lions washing up ashore dead in the entire region.” Guerra-Correa added that it is alarming that most of the dead sea mammals are literally just babies. “Some of the dead animals we have found still had their umbilical cord attached,” Guerra-Correa said. “We found one with a placenta,” [...]