The Marine Mammal Center’s 24-hour rescue hotline was flooded with hundreds of calls reporting sightings of the animals in distress.
Rulli said that 75% to 80% of those calls were regarding individual sea lions in San Luis Obispo County alone, where the center’s team rescued 25 of the animals that they later determined had been sickened by an outbreak of domoic acid poisoning. Marine mammals can contract the naturally occurring neurotoxin through eating fish such as herring, anchovies and sardines, and once the toxin is in their bloodstream, it can lead to significant heart or brain damage, or even death.
“As the world’s largest marine mammal hospital, we’re well equipped to deal with these types of events having dealt with past outbreaks on a much larger scale and other mass stranding events of marine mammals,” Rulli told SFGATE in an email. “That said, the logistics of transporting these mostly 150-200 pound subadult and adult marine mammals from our field office in Moss Landing to Sausalito — on an expedited timeframe due to their serious health condition — can still be challenging.
Torple, an adult female California sea lion rescued for domoic acid poisoning in San Luis Obispo County on Sept. 5, 2022, exhibits a common behavioral sign of the disease -- head weaving -- during rehabilitation at the Marine Mammal Center’s hospital and visitor center in Sausalito. The animal was successfully released back to the wild at Chimney Rock in Point Reyes National Seashore on Sept. 30, 2022.There is no known cure for domoic acid poisoning, though it can bethrough urinary excretion.
“Thanks to the quick action of our teams in responding expeditiously to the sick sea lions and beginning immediate treatment, more than half of the sea lions have already been released back to the wild,” Rulli said, noting that the sea lions still in rehabilitation at the hospital are on target to be returned to their habitat in the near future.
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