Sea animal poisonings climb

Sick and dead coastal wildlife continued pouring into local animal refuges this week from the worst occurrence of domoic acid poisoning animal-care specialists have seen in five years.

Since Friday, 12 sea lions have been brought into the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. Only four survived, and it does not look good for those animals either, said Emily Wing, director of development and marketing for the center.

“The thing about this neurotoxin, the damage it causes is irreversible because they have ingested these high levels,” Wing said.

The center has treated 43 adult California sea lions since mid-April. All were female, and 35 of them died. Many of those were picked up from Newport Beach shores.

Sadly, due to the time of year, “they are all pregnant,” Wing said. “It’s not one, but two animals we’re losing.”

Every year, a few sea lions are affected by the neurotoxin, Wing said.

The poison moves up through the food chain, gaining strength as it filters through each animal.

This time around it has been ingested in such a concentrated form that more animals come in for treatment while few ever make it back out to sea, Wing said.

She said she had not seen numbers that massive since 2002, the year the center treated a total of 123, only one-third of which survived, she said.

Only 32 were treatedfor the entire year of 2006 and roughly half of those were released back into the ocean, Wing added.

The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington has stopped accepting dead birds and other sea life for research after 19 out of 20 birds tested positive for domoic acid poisoning.

The neurotoxin is produced by blooms of red algae that have been found all along the California coast, from San Diego to Monterey, USC researcher Astrid Schnetzer said.

“Most of the time it [the algae] doesn’t produce a toxin,” said center director Lisa Birkle.

“We’re not sure what triggers that naturally benign algae to click on and produce that toxin.”

California gulls, pelicans and cormorants have come in at numbers too high to count anymore, center staff said.

The wetlands center will no longer accept dead animals, as they no longer need them for testing to determine the cause.

Birkle recommends that people call Animal Control to pick up any dead animals found on local shores.

USC researchers have scheduled to go out in the harbor and collect plankton and water samples to get a better idea of what conditions cause the algae to produce the toxin.