CITY FOCUS:Toxin may revisit waters

The death toll of birds, sea lions and other coastal animals that have been turning up poisoned on beaches throughout Southern California has slowed somewhat after a morbid week. But the danger to animals and people who eat local fish and shellfish may get worse again, officials said this week.

As an algae bloom releasing the deadly toxin domoic acid moves south to San Diego, ocean currents may swirl it around right back to Huntington Beach, said Debbie McGuire, board president of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.

“My hope is if it does return, I hope it’s not as toxic,” she said. “We’ve never seen it this bad — so bad we can hardly react to treat them. We became a morgue instead of a rehabilitation center.”

The bloom can affect humans as well. On Friday, the state Department of Health Services advised people not to eat bivalve shellfish, sardines and anchovies they catch themselves, and to avoid the organs of all lobsters and crabs. Commercially caught clams, mussels, scallops and oysters are exempt from the warning because they are frequently tested for safety.

About 150 dead birds have been brought into the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach since March 21, McGuire said. The center is caring for only 12 survivors in poor condition, she said.

In that time, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach has seen more than 20 sea lions die, said Emily Wing, the center’s director of development and marketing. Nine more are in bad condition, she added.

But the full death toll is much higher because many birds were disposed of as soon as they were found, McGuire said.

Animal control workers told her “there were so many dead birds littering the beach that they couldn’t count them,” she said.

Domoic acid is produced naturally by algae blooms, which typically occur in the spring and early summer, said Astrid Schnetzer, a research assistant professor at USC.

It’s not clear what makes the algae produce domoic acid — a toxin to animals that can cause seizures and death — but Schnetzer said it could be related to the amount of nutrients in the water.

Test results on samples from the sick animals found the poison in 14 of 20 samples, Schnetzer said last week. At the same time tests showed local waters were teeming with plankton.

“It seems to be a very, very strong event,” she said.