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The sudden appearance of 500 sea lion corpses on a northern Peruvian beach has left authorities flummoxed.

According to BBC News, the corpses were found on Anconcillo beach in Santa province, about 420 km north of capital city Lima. The cause of animals' death is unknown but a complaint made by the local governor alleges that the animals were poisoned by marine fishermen. Environmental agencies are investigating the matter as the exact cause of animals' deaths is yet to be ascertained.

City workers quickly removed the corpses apprehending health hazard. Both adult and pup lions were found dead.

Peruv's coastline has drawn much attention in the recent years. The recent incident of sea lions was not first of its kind. Earlier this month, authorities found nearly 200 dead sea lions, dolphins and turtles under mysterious circumstances. The case is under investigation by environmental agencies, reported Sky News.

IB Times reported that the country's government sounded an alert in May 2012 after nearly 5,000 birds and 900 dolphins washed ashore in North Peru. Noise produced by deep sea oil exploration ships was blamed for the deaths then but was later ruled out by experts. This time, besides investigating the complaint made by the local authorities, fishing nets, diseases, ingestion of trash and hunting are also being looked into.

"If you look at the last two years there was a high and abnormal number of strandings in summer, between the months of February and March, and it did the same in the year 2014, but assume that this phenomenon was ahead, as it should occur in the first months of 2015," Russia Today quoted Aldo Aguirre, the head of the Illescas nature reserve in north-western Peru.