"When a female adult sea lion came ashore in San Luis Obispo County in central California recently, responders immediately knew something wasn't right.

She was thin and underweight, swayed her head back and forth, and did not flee as people approached, said Dr. Cara Field, medical director at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito.

"All of those things tell us there's something wrong, but we didn't know what it could be until we got her here," Field said.

Once the sea lion was sedated and intubated in a quarantine cell on the center's grounds for an ultrasound, more worrying signs appeared."

Reuters had the story June 8, 2021. [2]