Inside the fight to save California’s dying sea lions from toxic algae: ‘We’re like 911 operators’ | California

IT was after 8 am on Tuesday, it was still a thick morning fog clinging to California Coastline, and the Seaworld animal rescue team had already achieved the first rescue of the day: the faded sick sea lion who was seriously wandering from a highway from four lanes in the center of San Diego.

Now, in a private area of Seaworld This is a few thousands of daily visitors in the theme park, the rescue team was in full “sorting” mode. Half of the staff of the beloved lion of the lion from a truck bed, grabbed the IV bags full of fluids and vitamins.

Periodically, the animal retreated, lethargy, and then bit into the carrier bars. The high -tone bark of other sea lions across the complex.

But this marine lion was not any average feeding animal or cut off. She escaped from her natural home and was unusually slow, or “bottom and outside”, as Jenny Smith, head of the rescue unit, has alike signs of poisoning with Domoic acid, a nervous poison currently produced by harmful algae on the coast of southern California.

“We are like 911 operators and also respond to calls,” said Smith. “We are also an ambulance, or an ambulance for animals, then we are the careers as soon as they are here, so we are like nurses too.”

Smith soon examined her phone, which was used in the San Diegans 911 calls to discover the affected or sick sea lions. She had 31 missing calls and 18 audio messages in the past two hours alone.

This was not a typical spring for Samith and her team. While Blooms has been plagued by the poisonous algae in the golden country over the past four years, 2025 may be the worst year so far – at least for Diego’s tongue. Seaworld alone rescues 47 blacks and 30 birds with the suspect Domoic acid poisoned this year, compared to only 11 lions in 2024 and 18 in 2023.

Beyond San Diego only, The outbreak broke out Hundreds of sea lions, dolphins, birds and other marine animals In California During the past month, animal rescue workers left scrambling to keep up with. Small fish that consume toxic algae, and then eaten by larger animals, such as sea lions and dolphins. Smith said that the lion of the sea with domoic acid poisoning, which can lead to seizures and heart failure, the chance to survive is about 50-50 if treated in time. For dolphins, it is often fatal.

In response to the current outbreak, the Seaworld San Diego Rescue team was forced to double its employees. The team receives nearly 100 calls a day for several weeks.

“We have gone somewhat from scratch to 60 in two seconds,” Smith said.

While scientists are still working to determine the cause, exactly, this year, this year, Bloom was wide, with some questions related The potential effect of debris From Los Angeles fires in January, Warbing oceans fueled by the climate crisis It has long been proven to contribute to severe algae flowers.

Smith said that the careful work was the work of working on the animal rescue team recently with something like working in a high -pressure hospital.

“We have that rescue in the middle of the night, intense, and adrenaline is very high,” she said. “And throughout the day you just go, go,”.

“If necessary, we are here 24 hours.”

After eating the lion on the sea on Tuesday, the animal was added to the “stone” pen with four others; One of the sea lions swized around a small group of water, giving up a small silver fish but not eating it. Elsewhere in the Seaworld feature, a handful of chosen swans in domoic acid were collected and looked at the new arrivals with caution. Veterinarians and rescue team staff led to their occurrence, feeding animals and cleaning packages.

With her full hands, Smith approved the rescue team phone to Tircy Spehr, director of public relations at Seaworld, to help respond to calls.

By the time Spahr returned, she had a long list of other lions that needed the following help: One appeared in Coronado, a puppy lies by an Encinitas guardian, and the other by the Pacific Beach beach in which the police contacted and the fourth in Ocean Beach.

And scrolps [Pier] SPAHR added, as they are calling for it, and there is still one, and he reads from a page of manually written notes that she had taken every call. “It is alive but struggling. He is moving but he behaves strange.”

Two hours later, the Seaworld Rescue Team arrived at the scene. The big male sea lion is forgiven by the sand next to the sidewalk, and sometimes it sits until its neck retracts towards the sky. While a crowd gathered from the beach’s pioneers to watch, two rescuers – Kevin Robinson and TG Plein – pulled their truck on the beach and emptied their equipment: a metal box, nets and several plastic panels.

“It was a long and a half month,” said Plein One Onlooker, who answered questions about poisoning with the last Dominic acid.

With the help of two rescuers, it took a 15 -minute rescue men, it took about 15 minutes to clarify the beating sea lion in the box and load it on their truck. Although Robinson was not sure whether the animal was affected by toxic algae specifically – it could have struggled with another type of infection or cancer – the plan was to return it to the main headquarters, or took a blood sample or two and reached the course of treatment.

But for the rescue men, their day was far from the rescue.

They were packed and headed to the next Ocean Beach, a coherent coastal community 20 minutes south. Near the surfing, the sea lion was a small spiral ball, not moving, in the sand. A noisy fly around her head. She was a woman in a hot pink shirt on him, taking pictures. She said that she had monitored the animal for the first time the night before, and she had been praying and singing it since then.

“You are here!” She shouted to rescue men, a tear in her eyes. “I am the person who called!”

This time, it took a minute or two minutes. The rescuers were not sure again, the specific disease was, but Robinson was suspected of cancer.

“We will treat it as it is this [domoic acid] Initially, give it a lot of fluids, and possibly some antibiotics, this type of object, and run it through a full work, “Then we will have a better idea than what happens.”

Robinson, who worked in Seaworld 48 years ago, used this routine. Over the past two weeks, with the outbreak of fascism and spread from Malibu to San Diego, he was on a rescue tour at least once every day.

“I am a little tired, but I mean that this is what the rescue is going on: it gives you a feeling of the goal for this day,” he said. “The goal is to do some really good work and help these animals go out. There is your incentive.”

The final hope for the rescue team is that the rehabilitated animals can be successfully released to the wild. So far this year, Seaworld 10 Black Black has been re -treated to poisoning with suspicious Domoic acid.

After the mission of Robinson and Bleen in Ocean Beach, they returned to Seaworld. Robinson said that the rest of the afternoon may include more procedures, whether this means more saving the sea lion or animal sockets. Technically, it works until 5:30 pm every day – but this can change easily, especially with the continued poisoning with domoic acid. Although it is not certain that these current poisonous algae will continue, the previous flowering has sometimes continued for several months.

“If necessary,” said Robinson.