The Official Save-The-Planet-Book

A short story about a sea lion

The sea lion rides with the current, swirling in and out of the concentrated water. His stomach rumbles, but he's learnt to ignore his hunger during the mating season. His favoured beach was far away from the clutches of other humans. He had learnt his lesson of staying away from them when his mother had been killed after trying to steal fish from them.
It was an unusual death, no claws, no jaw, just a loud popping sound accompanied with seemingly endless blood pouring out of her body... The sea lion shudders, trying to keep it out of his mind. Today isn't the day to reminisce about bad times. It's the day to make babies!

He reaches the beach and fights ferociously with his fellow males, bearing his teeth and snapping at them with angry grunts. As a young male, he gets rushed out almost immediately, but he manages to make do.
The sea lion warns as many as possible about the humans, but some sea lions laugh at him, saying something along the lines of the death stopping. He cocks his head in confusion; it hadn't been that long since he had heard of the last death.
What's changed?
After he gets fully thrown off the beach, the sea lion went to investigate, swimming fast and furiously towards the nearest human area. He hesitates slightly but wants to find out the truth about the rumours. The sea lion passes into human territory and spots the fish all caught up and unable to move.
Bad memories rush in as a low rumble gurgles in his throat. He turns to leave but his stomach yearns for food. The sea lion shouldn't be eating during mating season, but all the fish are so easy to get to...
The sea lion swims over, his eyes darting up above to try and spot any humans. He claws at the strange ropes, opening a hole and snapping his jaws at the juicy fish. Without warning, a loud crack in the air rips through the sea lion's ears, as he suddenly feels weightless in the water. His eyes glaze over, and the last thing he hears is distant shouting laced with panic and anger.

Steller sea lions are endangered marine animals. They first started to decline in numbers when humans shot them to stop them from eating the fish they caught. In this little short story, I imagine that some old guy who didn't get the memo attacked our young sea lion and that his coworker told him off in a panic of getting in trouble.

written by @PurpleFlamme