Hundreds of starving sea lions are washing ashore along the California coast as El Nino weather conditions warm the Pacific Ocean and drive away their usual prey, according to media reports Friday.

The report in the Orange County Register follows accounts earlier in the year of hundreds of sick and starving pelicans along the west coast, an occurrence that was also attributed to El Nino.

'We saw a large number of starvations at the end of last year,' said Richard Evans, a veterinarian at the Pacific Marine Mammal Centre, who has been treating the sick sea lions. 'Pups from that group are now out on their own, and they can't find anything to eat.'

Twelve pups were being treated Thursday, nine of them in critical condition. They are the only survivors of 27 starving seal pups that had been brought into the centre in recent weeks.

Almost all the pups weak enough to be captured and brought to the centre have been starving so long that their bodies have begun to consume muscle and heart tissue, making survival unlikely, Evans said.

'They're just skin and bones,' he said.

The veterinarian compared the seals' plight with a similar ordeal in the El Nino year of 1998, when thousands of hungry sea lions sought refuge on the beaches.

El Nino is a periodic warming of the eastern Pacific that can have a significant effect on fish stocks and on other animals that feed on fish. Scientists believe the warming water is also responsible for the sudden disappearance of thousands of sea lions from San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf, where they had been a major tourist attraction.