Overview
- A California sea lion was found seizing and died on Crissy Field beach, with responders taking samples and the California Academy of Sciences planning a necropsy to determine the cause.
- The Marine Mammal Center says it is seeing an intense surge in strandings and hotline calls that are three to six times normal levels and has already exceeded its typical annual domoic-acid rescues.
- Experts link the illness to domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by harmful algal blooms that accumulates in small fish and causes seizures, brain damage and sometimes death in sea lions.
- If responders reach affected animals quickly, treatment with clean fish and fluids can aid recovery, but repeated or prolonged exposure to the toxin often proves fatal.
- Officials warn people to keep their distance, leash dogs, report sick marine mammals to the Marine Mammal Center hotline, and watch for possible impacts on shellfish and commercial fisheries as tests proceed.