‘It gets worse every day’: why are sea lions and dolphins dying along California’s coast?

In addition to an estimated more than 1,000 sick and dying sea lions, 110 dolphins have also been killed. Photograph: Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (CIMWI)

The unprecedented outbreak has scientists concerned as record number of animals turn up lifeless on beaches

On a recent morning on Leadbetter state beach in Santa Barbara, a California Sea Lion puppy, weighing about 30 or 40lbs, lay dead in the sand.

It’s the latest victim in what scientists and rescue organizations have described as an unprecedented event along the California coastline.

Since the beginning of June, dead sea lions and dolphins have been turning up all along the southern California coast – from the tiny Butterfly and Miramar beaches, down south to Santa Monica beaches in Los Angeles and even further to Laguna Beach in Orange county.

“The flood gates opened and it just gets worse every day. We’re getting 30 to 60 reports an hour and more than 300 reports a day,” said Ruth Dover, co-founder at Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (CIMWI), the marine mammal rescue organization in Santa Barbara.

The culprit is an algae named pseudo-nitzschia, which produces an amino acid that can act as a neurotoxin. A similar outbreak last year sickened dozens of sea lions and other marine life, but many think this year’s outbreak is even worse. Sam Dover, a co-founder of CIMWI and its director of veterinary medicine, notes that “in 35 years of doing this work, the current crisis is just unprecedented”.

Santa Barbara has been deemed the outbreak hotspot by the California Harmful Algae Risk Mapping (C-Harm) System, which tracks algae including the one that produces domoic acid. This epicenter has collided with pupping season which can bring upwards of 70,000 female sea lions to the Channel Islands in Santa Barbara to give birth in June.

Every harmful algae bloom (HAB) has its own features and this particular bloom seems to be coming from further offshore than usual. This means that in addition to an estimated more than 1,000 sick and dying sea lions, 110 dolphins have also been killed along the California coast. And these numbers don’t include those that may be dying at sea or out on […]

Full article: www.theguardian.com