BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS 28th Street Jetty...

BRIEFLY IN

THE NEWS

28th Street Jetty sea lion taken away

The 400-pound bull sea lion that had been reappearing near the

28th Street Jetty in Newport Beach was removed at about 10 a.m.

Sunday morning and later destroyed because it was suffering from

neurological damage.

The “severe” neurological damage, possibly from a toxin, meant the

sea lion was no longer able to survive in the ocean on its own, said

Michele Hunter, director of operations of the Friends of the Sea Lion

Marine Mammal Center, the Laguna Beach-based organization that

removed the animal.

“It was disoriented and had neurological problems. It would have

drowned in the surf,” Hunter said.

Results of the brain and spinal tests will not reveal the problem

for another two to four weeks, but it is most likely a case of domoic

acid, a brown tide toxin secreted by plankton, said Richard Evans,

medical director.

“The fish eat it and the sea lions eat the fish,” Evans said. “In

the past couple years, we have been inundated with such problems.”

The worst outbreak of the toxin happened last year and it has

caused great harm to marine life, he said. In the case of humans, it

is known as amnesic shellfish poison and most commonly leads to

memory loss.

A previous patient at the center, the sea lion had been released

only about three weeks ago. At that time, there was no evidence of a

problem, Evans said.

Animal control kept people away from the sea lion in the morning

until Friends of the Sea Lion volunteers could arrive.

While the sea lion had not caused any harm to people, it did have

large, adult-size teeth, and there was the possibility of it lashing

out and biting, Hunter said.

“People are used to seeing the sea lions at Sea World and they

think it is a docile domestic animal,” said Mike Halphide, lifeguard

lieutenant. “It is not so much a problem by itself, but people think

it is safe to approach.”