Speaker 1: Okay, let's say good morning now to Dave Bader at
Speaker 1: the Marine Mammal Care Center. Good morning, Dave, Good morning,
Speaker 1: So thanks so much for taking some time to talk
Speaker 1: to us today. This is just so heartbreaking to see
Speaker 1: what's going on that there are all these sick animals.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to go back, tell us what's going
Speaker 1: on that's making these animals sick, and then we'll talk
Speaker 1: about what we do when we encounter them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. We have a harmful algabum that's off
Speaker 2: the coast of Los Angeles right now, actually southern California.
Speaker 2: It's producing a neurotoxin that builds up in the food chain,
Speaker 2: gets into dolphins, sea lions and seabirds, causes some really
Speaker 2: bad symptoms, causes seizures, aggressive behavior, lethargy. The animals are
Speaker 2: showing up in places where they normally don't show up,
Speaker 2: and we have a lot of them out there right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, and that includes we heard about a surfer being
Speaker 1: a off the coast of I believe Oxnard over the weekend,
Speaker 1: and they're saying that they're attributing that and it's not
Speaker 1: bit by a shark but bit by a sea lion.
Speaker 1: They're attributing that to the toxin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can have aggressive behavior. It's a neurotoxin, so
Speaker 2: it affects their brain. That the animals are not intentionally
Speaker 2: being aggressive or anything like that, but they're really sick.
Speaker 2: And it's really important for everybody, and given that news
Speaker 2: as well, that we stay at least fifty feet away
Speaker 2: from any marine mammal that we see on the beach,
Speaker 2: be it a dolphin or a sea lion, and make
Speaker 2: sure you call your local stranding authority to be able
Speaker 2: to respond to that animal. For us here in Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: that would be eight hundred and three nine whale. And
Speaker 2: we also have people are calling the Pinniped Control. They're
Speaker 2: volunteers for the Marine Mammal Care Center that are out
Speaker 2: on the beaches helping out our responders and helping keep
Speaker 2: people safe and helping to keep the animal safe as well.
Speaker 1: Okay, and now you mentioned a sea lion, which might
Speaker 1: not be as surprising to see a sea lion up
Speaker 1: on the beach as it would be a dolphin.
Speaker 2: And yeah, is there no sorry, Yeah, we're seeing sea
Speaker 2: lions in places along our beaches that they're normally not seen,
Speaker 2: right like right in the middle of you know, some
Speaker 2: of our busiest beaches where you know, you might see
Speaker 2: them in Redondo Beach or King Harbor, on the buoys
Speaker 2: and the docks, but not not on our city beaches.
Speaker 2: And dolphins as well. They're showing up unfortunately, way too many.
Speaker 2: And when dolphins strand, they're really unlikely to survive. Many
Speaker 2: of them have shown up already to cease.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then what now, what about the sea lions?
Speaker 1: Can you treat them?
Speaker 2: Yeah? When we get a chance to rescue the sea lions,
Speaker 2: we bring them back to our center. We give them
Speaker 2: fluids to help to keep them hydrated as well as
Speaker 2: wash out any of the toxin that is still remaining.
Speaker 2: We can give them anti seizure medicines and sedation helps
Speaker 2: to keep them calm and RESTful while they're recovering. There's
Speaker 2: no anti toxin unfortunately, so the best we can do
Speaker 2: is take care of their symptoms and after a little while,
Speaker 2: the talksin kind of works its way out of their
Speaker 2: system and we're able to start to give them clean food,
Speaker 2: you know, all of the medicines they need, and then
Speaker 2: hopefully get a chance to release them in the end.
Speaker 1: Okay, but with the dolphins, it's a different story because,
Speaker 1: like you said, by the time they beach themselves, they're
Speaker 1: probably too far gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, dolphins, if they're sick, they're sick at sea. You know,
Speaker 2: they don't come to shore ever, and so if one
Speaker 2: should should be so sick, it winds up on the shore.
Speaker 2: It's on its way. Okay.
Speaker 1: And then Dave, how long are we expecting this to last?
Speaker 1: And is it a naturally occurring thing or is there
Speaker 1: something going on that's causing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these blooms usually last anywhere between six to eight weeks.
Speaker 2: We're probably around about four weeks right now, so we
Speaker 2: have a number of weeks left to go. It seems
Speaker 2: not to be dissipating at all. These blooms. While the
Speaker 2: algae itself is naturally occurring, they usually only would occur
Speaker 2: every so often, maybe every four to seven years. We're
Speaker 2: seeing back to back to back blooms. Last four years
Speaker 2: we've had an algal bloom of this type and almost
Speaker 2: this intensity, and that's not normal. We see that because
Speaker 2: of climate change, ocean acidification, nutrification of our coastal ocean,
Speaker 2: we're creating conditions that are favorable for harmful alga blooms.
Speaker 2: In our case, it's been the last four years and
Speaker 2: that's really unprecedented.
Speaker 1: Is there anything we can do or is it just
Speaker 1: that's the way it is now because of climate change
Speaker 1: and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we can do things right. Climate change is
Speaker 2: something that we know is going to be impacting us,
Speaker 2: you know, worse and worse into the future. But we
Speaker 2: can mitigate against that. We can choose the future that
Speaker 2: we want. We can't choose it to not be bad
Speaker 2: at all, but we can choose how bad it gets
Speaker 2: by reducing our carbon footprints. And mostly we need to
Speaker 2: think about adaptation as well. Going to be a new
Speaker 2: normal for us, and part of that, unfortunately, is going
Speaker 2: to be increased marine mammal strandings. So we need to
Speaker 2: think about our resources and how well resourced we are
Speaker 2: to respond to these kinds of things. Our local municipalities
Speaker 2: need to think about that as well and make sure
Speaker 2: we have the funding resources available to organizations like ours
Speaker 2: to be able to respond to the new increase in
Speaker 2: the number of animals that we're going to be seeing
Speaker 2: on our local beaches comes with increased costs, and the
Speaker 2: public can help with that as well.
Speaker 1: Okay, and Dave, If people want to get more information
Speaker 1: about your organization, is there a place they can go
Speaker 1: and check it out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Marine Mammalcare dot org is our website. You'll have
Speaker 2: information about the bloom right there. You can tell you
Speaker 2: all about what's happening with the animals. It's also an opportunity,
Speaker 2: if you feel like it, you can donate to our
Speaker 2: organization help to pay for the increased costs in medicine
Speaker 2: and food that we're seeing at this time.
Speaker 1: Okay, Dave Bader with the Marine Mammalcare Center, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for the information. And again, if you do
Speaker 1: a stranded sea lion or a dolphin, call don't get
Speaker 1: close to it. Call one eight hundred and thirty nine Whale.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: We appreciate it. Take care, Thank you so much.