Humans may be decapitating sea lions in Canada, zoologist warns

Residents of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, have noticed a disturbing trend since this spring: headless sea lions washing ashore on their beaches.

According to the CBC, multiple sea lion carcasses have been discovered since March and humans might be to blame.

“It seems more likely that it is human caused,” Marine mammal zoologist Anna Hall of Seaview Marine Sciences said, noting the animals’ injuries did not match killer whale or shark attacks.

Marine mammals are protected by Canada’s Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act. Additionally, Steller sea lions, which Hall believes these animals to be, are given a “special concern” under the Species at Risk Act.

Sea lion hunting is illegal in the United States.

There are a number of possibilities for why humans would be targeting sea lions, such as hunters killing them for sport. However, sea lions are sometimes killed by commercial fisherman who fear the animals are consuming too much fish or ruining equipment in the area.

Headless sea lions have been reported in Canada before, including 4 in 2013 in Vancouver Island and 12 in 2014 in Quebec, on the other side of the country.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) told the CBC it had seen an increase in dead sea lions, but called the phenomena “a fairly common occurrence.” However, the DFO noted that if the animal carcasses were tampered with and beheaded after washing ashore, that would be a crime.