Sea Lion Food Chain

Who doesn’t love sea lions, even though they smell and are extremely loud. What is this algae that has already taken 8+ sea lions lives? On April 14th, 2017 a toxin produced by algae blooms in the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Ocean is the suspect in multiple sea lion deaths, an officer with Laguna Beach's Pacific Marine Mammal Center. Back on April 4th, 2017 the center that cares for the marine mammals has rescued about 15 sea lions poison by this horrific algae which is produced by toxins. 8 out of the 15 they saved died, unfortunately, when an animal is that far along, there is not much that they can do. The significance of this topic is that animals in the ocean are dying without any reason, eventually, there will be nothing left. One of the
officers Higuchi said she went to Main Beach in Laguna Beach on April 4 after getting reports of a sea lion that looked confused. Here’s a report that Higuchi says; “It was sitting on the rocks and its head was weaving, which is one of the signs of domoic acid poisoning,” Higuchi said, adding that affected sea lions are non-responsive, lethargic and can suffer seizures”. The very first report was from Orange County then moved to the Pacific Marine. They haven’t seen anything like this since 2007 with the sea lion attacks. Higuchi and her crew had to find all their food they were consuming to see if that is where the algae was on. Scientists gave the sea lions tests. They hid some buckets of fish from them. The sea lions with healthy brains did well. Sea lions with poison in their bodies could not remember how to find the buckets of fish. They then took pictures of the sea lions brains and watched them closes to see the process of the poison algae and also find a cure to stop it. When the researchers found out that the sea lions brain they wanted to know what part, it happened to be the part where they remember things. That explains why they couldn’t find food when the scientist tested them. The algae kills the brain and makes the sea lions pretty much rely on people to feed them since they can’t on their own. Another scientist Kathi Lefebvre also states that a hurt brain is a big problem for a sea lion. It has to search for food to live. Lefebvre a scientist says learning about the algae could help people, too. People eat seafood.
The algae shut down fishing for crabs in most of California. This algae is also affecting sea lion babies. The problem is caused by warm ocean water. Their food source comes from cold water, but when the water is warm there is not enough food for mother sea lions. Mother sea lions cannot make milk without food. The babies are hungry and are super thin. The experts biggest worry is pregnant mothers since are more vulnerable to the illness because they consume more fish while pregnant. Higuchi reported “After the past three year mass strandings we thought with less rescues of dehydrated and starving sea lion pups, it was starting to get back to normal,” “But, then it started with one or two strandings and suddenly went up to five or six a day. Viezbicke from Pacific Marine said that “there is potential for us to see increased levels of strandings,” he said. “As the water gets warmer and a lot of runoff that hasn’t been out there flows into the ocean, we’re getting more nutrients into the system.” About two years ago elevated toxin levels in shellfish cause managers to close the southern Washington coast to Dungeness crab fishing, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center
website. This algae has taken other lives in the sea, it has killed hundreds of birds, sea lions and dolphins in California.
About 40 birds have been taken to the International Bird Rescue Center in San Pedro with symptoms from the poison algae, it attacks the brain and can cause severe seizures. Nobody has seen anything this bad before, a report said “I have been doing this work for 35 years and I have never seen anything like this as far as the number of species affected, other than an oil spill,” said
Holcomb. The algae has spread from california to now alaska. 82,000 sea animals died from the oil spill, about 20,000 sea animals died just from algae. At least nine fin whales were found dead in the waters off Alaska in June, and in July reports of dead or dying whales, seals, birds, and fish have been rolling in. It’s not just sea animals that are getting affected by this algae, it can also affect humans if they eat too much sea food. Toxic Algae also poison the water and create dead zones when they die. Decomposing algae use up all of the water's oxygen, making it unlivable for the majority of sea. There's nothing they can do to stop this process, and it seems like it will keep getting worse as climate change makes oceans warmer, creating more dangerous algae blooms.