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
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
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