Sick and Stranded

I saw a sea lion or maybe a seal beached on our shore late March. The stricken animal tried its best to wriggle back into the ocean but could not move its hindquarters. I thought perhaps it was injured or bitten by a shark. It was neither. The animal had been poisoned.

As reported in the New York Times a neurotoxin, domoic acid, produced by an algae bloom, is affecting hundreds of sea mammals along coastal Southern California San Diego to Santa Barbara. While harmless to fish, the  toxin is life threatening to the sea mammals and birds who feed on the fish causing seizures, strange behavior and comas. Locally at SeaWorld, where treatment is available—flushing out the toxin and medicate the symptoms— animal-rescue calls have increased from 20 to 100 a day.

So far there are no real conclusions about the severity of the toxins. Theories from experts range from the warming sea temperatures, to nutrients in the runoff from land including the Los Angeles wildfire debris can stimulate the blooms. While it is agreed that more research is needed, funding for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been and is being cut.