Since September, 13 dead California sea lions have been reported, with six confirmed to have been shot, according to Seal Sitters, a volunteer group that responds to reports of stranded or dead marine mammals. 
 
 On the afternoon of Nov. 14, Randie Stone came across the bullet-pierced carcass of a California sea lion that washed up along the beach. In 38 years of living by the West Seattle shore, Stone has thrilled to the sights and sounds of these marine mammals, and she was saddened and angered by this encounter. 
 
 The next morning, just across the way from her Alki Beach house, people gathered around the body of another dead sea lion. “Honestly, I just could not go to look after what I had seen the day before, ” Stone said. “To me, this is such a heinous act.” 
 
 These two carcasses are part of a larger body count of California sea lions slain by humans this fall in Puget Sound. 
 
 Since September, six sea lions have been confirmed to have died from gunshot wounds in central Puget Sound and Kitsap County, according to Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network, a group that responds to reports of stranded or dead sea lions. Another seven are suspected to have died from “acute trauma” caused by humans, including a decomposed sea lion with its head sliced off found washed ashore Tuesday in a West Seattle cove. 
 
 Michael Milstein, a NOAA Fisheries spokesman, said the federal agency has confirmed the deaths of five California sea lions in West Seattle, including four that died of gunshot wounds. 
 
 NOAA Fisheries law-enforcement agents are investigating these crimes, which are prohibited under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and can result in fines of up to $28,520 along with up to one year of imprisonment. 
 
 Many sea-lion killings go unsolved. Anyone with information about a violation of the federal act is asked to call 800-853-1964. 
 
 California sea lions were once hunted for pet food and pelts almost to extinction, but their population has undergone a remarkable recovery, increasing from less than 90,000 in 1975 to more than 250,000 in 2014. 
 
 As their numbers have expanded, so too have their conflicts with humans, including some fishermen angry that sea lions may go after the salmon hooked on their lines. 
 
 Between 1998 and 2017, National Geographic, citing NOAA Fisheries, reported that up to 700 California sea lions were found with gunshot and stab wounds across their range which includes the waters off California, Oregon and Washington. 
 
 Sea-lion shootings have periodically been reported in Puget Sound during the fall and spring when males migrate from Southern California Channel Islands, where there are rookeries, to forage further north for food, according to Kristin Wilkinson, of NOAA Fisheries. 
 
 Robin Lindsey of Seal Sitters said reports of shootings typically increase along with the fish runs. During the nearly three months since September, the number of confirmed sea lion deaths is much higher than an average year during the past decade in King and Kitsap counties. 
 
 “According to those who live and work along the Elliott Bay and Duwamish waterfront, shots are being heard even more frequently this year,” Lindsey wrote in a Nov. 21 posting on Seal Sitters’ Blubberblog. 
 
 And the peak period for reports of sea lion deaths is still ahead in the months of December, January and February, according to Lindsey. 
 
 Seal Sitters is a volunteer group that averages about 200 responses to marine-mammal sightings in the West Seattle area, with the vast majority resulting from harbor-seal pups that pull up on to beaches. 
 
 The group has been part of a cooperative response to sea-lion deaths this fall with state and federal agencies. 
 
 The Seal Sitters on Nov. 15 provided photo documentation and other information about two West Seattle sea-lion carcasses. NOAA Fisheries officials involved in orca research towed one of the dead sea lions to shore and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists examined the bullet wounds. 
 
 Though federal law provides protection for the California sea lions, their appetite for steelhead and salmon has resulted in NOAA Fisheries authorization for some targeted actions. 
 
 In the 1990s, several sea lions that repeatedly fed on steelhead trout by the Ballard Locks were relocated. During the past decade, Washington and Oregon state biologists — under a federal permit — have euthanized some sea lions that have been drawn to Columbia River waters below the Bonneville Dam to hunt for salmon. In November, NOAA Fisheries also authorized the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to euthanize some sea lions that have been eating salmon and steelhead south of Portland near Willamette Falls. 
 
 Though the Marine Mammal Act prohibits the harassment of the sea lions, NOAA Fisheries is developing formal guidelines and regulation for fishermen and others who might seek to deter California sea lions without harming them. In the meantime, the agency has released a list of potential methods, yet to be approved by NOAA Fisheries, but are examples of methods that have been effective in the past. 
 
 For fishermen, those tactics include pounding on a hull, horns, bells and whistles, underwater firecrackers and rubber bullets. 
 
 For property owners, they include using fencing or netting to keep out sea lions. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 By Angel Torres 
 
 Thirteen sea lions have been found dead along the shores of Washington since September, according to reports from a wildlife welfare group. 
 
 Six of the sea lions died of gunshot wounds, four in West Seattle and two in Kitsap County, according to Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network. The other seven died of acute trauma suspected from human interactions around Kitsap County and the Puget Sound, with one sea lion washing up decapitated, said Seal Sitters, an organization that responds to reports of dead or stranded sea lions. 
 
 Marine mammals, like sea lions, are protected in the U.S. by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibits people from harassing, hunting, capturing, killing marine mammals, or attempting to do so. Violations of the MMPA could result in fines of up to $28,520 and/or one year in prison. The 13 sea lion deaths are currently being investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. 
 
 “We are concerned about a number of recent reports of marine mammal deaths caused by gunshots in the greater Seattle area. All marine mammals are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and OLE investigates all reported unlawful takes of sea lions,” Greg Busch, assistant director of the NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Law Enforcement (OLE), said in a statement. 
 
 Sea lion deaths increase around the time that fishing runs do, according to Seal Sitters, because fishermen and sea lions often hunt for the same food. 
 
 “Animals searching for food to survive and fishermen searching out fish for consumption or livelihood are on an annual, never-ending collision course,” according to a Seal Sitter blog post. 
 
 To combat the competition between sea lions and fishermen, the NOAA Fisheries put out suggestions for how to deter marine mammals from interfering in fishing without violating the MMPA. These include making loud noises with horns or through banging, rubber bullets, pyrotechnics and non-lethal, water-soluble paintball guns. 
 
 Sea lion deaths for the months of September to November are up six times the yearly average, Seal Sitters report, but the most dangerous months for sea lions are yet to come. The highest months for sea lion deaths, the group added, are December through February, concurrent with fishing runs. 
 
 The NOAA reported that between 1998 and 2017, as many as 700 California sea lions were found with gunshot and knife wounds, according to National Geographic. Only a few people were charged for the crimes against marine wildlife, National Geographic reported, all of them fishermen.
– The bodies of sea lions that met violent deaths have been washing up in Washington state—and since some of the bodies have gunshot wounds, sharks are not suspected. The Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding group says of the 13 sea lions that have washed up since September, six were dead from gunshot wounds and the rest died from "acute trauma suspected from human interactions," including one that was decapitated, NBC News reports. The group says that sea lion deaths caused by humans rise along with fishing runs since sea lions and fishermen are competing for the same fish. They predict that the peak fishing season from December to February will bring more deaths. NOAA Fisheries is urging fishermen to try different ways to deter the animals, including using horns, bells, underwater firecrackers, or even rubber bullets. West Seattle resident Randie Stone tells the Seattle Times that two dead sea lions washed up near her home in the space of two days. The first one had been repeatedly shot. "To me, this is such a heinous act," she says. Authorities are investigating the killings, which carry a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $28,500 fine under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Over the last 20 years, as the creatures' numbers rose to more than 250,000, more than 700 California sea lions that were shot or stabbed have washed up on the West Coast, though prosecutions of fishermen for the killings have been rare. (This community tried to scare off sea lions with a fake killer whale.)