Jalapeothe sea lion showed up on a busy California beach in a daze, convulsing and heavily pregnant.
Instead of giving birth in a remote location like sea lions prefer, Jalapeo had her pup in Hermosa Beach in Southern California on a busy Saturday, surrounded by crowds of onlookers.
After the pup surfaced, Jalapeoro towed lethargic in the surf, on the verge of dying.
Two weeks later, things are looking up for both Jalapeo and her pup. Though critically ill from a historically bad algal bloom off the California coast, the mother and baby sea lions received round-the-clock care at the Marine Mammal Care Center in Los Angeles.
On Thursday Jalapeos scrambled to bring down any fish that one of his keepers was throwing into his enclosure. She was so exuberant that his cub had to take refuge in the shade of another nearby mother.
Watching her eat is kind of a big adrenaline rush right now, said John Warner, the center’s chief executive officer. She’s been really out of her mind since she got here, so eating means she’s awake and really recovering. And that makes me happy.
Jalapeo is one of the lucky ones. Since June 8, a recent algal bloom has sickened or killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of sea lions and dolphins off the central and southern coasts of California.
I’ve been a marine mammal veterinarian for 35 years, and this is definitely the worst of my professional life, said Sam Dover, executive director of the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute.
What is going on
The waters off central and southern California are experiencing a harmful algal bloom, sometimes referred to as red tide.
A harmful bloom occurs when natural algae grow out of control and produce a neurotoxin called domoic acid, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California diagnosed the first case of domoic acid poisoning in marine animals in 1998. Since then, harmful algal blooms have occurred along the California coast about nine times.
And now, these blooms are a growing problem in every coastal and Great Lakes state in the United States, according to NOAA.
While there are many unanswered questions about what creates the perfect storm for a damaging bloom, human activities that disrupt ecosystems appear to play a role in their most frequent frequency and intensity, according to NOAA.
Increased nutrient load and pollution, disruption of the food web, introduced species, changes in water flow and climate change all play a role.
Normally, a damaging bloom clears up in a couple of weeks, but California’s current bloom has been wreaking havoc for over a month now.
It’s a runaway train, said Clarissa Anderson, executive director of the Southern California Coastal Observing System. “It’s unusual that it lasted this long and managed to become so sharp.”
Impact on animals
Sea lions and dolphins are poisoned by domoic acid when they eat small fish where the toxin has accumulated. How sick an animal gets depends on the amount it ingests.
Symptoms include foaming at the mouth, seizures, confusion, lack of appetite, and erratic behavior.
Dolphins with domoic acid poisoning are largely incurable because by the time they get ashore they are already dead or dying. Because sea lions can survive out of the water, they are easier to care for.
But it is a disturbing sight.
What you saw were very large females on domoic acid who were having seizures, foaming at the mouth, lying comatose on beaches, all populated by thousands and thousands and thousands of people, Warner said.
Because there have been so many sick sea lions this summer, the Los Angeles relief center has had to open triage areas for sick animals and enlist the help of dozens of marine vets who have flown in from other states.
On Thursday, eight of the sick sea lions lay lethargic in a fenced-in area outside the center. Two new mothers, including Jalapeo, and their puppies were in a fenced-in area inside the facility to help protect the newborns.
We ran out of space two weeks into the whole thing, said Warner, who checks on the mothers and pups every morning.
And now?
The people who rescue and treat sick animals and the scientists who study algal blooms are all worried that this summer is just the beginning.
Dr. Lauren Palmer, lead veterinarian at the Los Angeles Care Center, said seeing the animals in pain on a daily basis took its toll.
It would be very unfortunate if this were the new normal, he said. I’m afraid that’s why we’re preparing.
Warner said he hopes audiences get the message about the impacts of climate change and understand it’s not too late. And it shouldn’t be a partisan issue, she said, noting that Republican President Richard Nixon passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
It’s not normal for people to go to the world’s most famous beaches and see death come out of the ocean, Warner said. “This should be a wake-up call.”
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