Featured Image Credit: Marine Animal Rescue via Facebook
By Emily Persico
Sea lions have been behaving oddly the past few weeks, climbing aboard boats, dizzily swaying their heads, and having seizures. Last Friday, another sea lion was found, this time in the middle of traffic.
“When [sea lions] come into your area and seek refuge, it’s usually an indicator that the fear barrier is dropped and they need help,” says Captain Barry Curtis, a marine mammal disentanglement nonprofit volunteer.
As it turns out, this particular sea lion was very much in need of help. Pregnant and visibly sick, it was clear that someone had to act. Officers in the area immediately helped Marine Animal Rescue gently coax this road block of an animal into a cage and away from danger for rehabilitation.
Well, that’s a first. On my way into work, traffic on Lincoln Blvd came to a halt when a sea lion wandered onto the road. #weird
— W. Joe DeMiero (@wjoedemiero) April 14, 2017
Sea lion blocking the road on the way to LAX ????
— JennEm (@OfficialJennEm) April 14, 2017
Many pregnant sea lions have been found in similar conditions over the past few weeks. In another incident a few days earlier, Marine Animal Rescue found eight other pregnant sea lions, all sick. In the same time and similar place, the Marine Mammal Center has discovered 13 related cases. Despite their best efforts, seven of these sea lions are now dead.
This is not a coincidence, not pregnancy hormones, not some strange sea lion version of “The Plague”—No, these sea lions are suffering at the interface of the human and natural world, in a year when heavy rains have washed away human-deposited fertilizer, directly into the ocean.
As a result, there is an algal bloom. Resulting from that is a neurotoxin. The cascading effects keep cascading until, eventually, sea lions are dying in our care.
If you see a sea lion behaving oddly, waving its head or coming into your space, back away and call your local wildlife authorities. They cannot save every animal that comes under their care, but they will certainly do their best to right our collective wrongs.