Sea lions are sick and dying along Southern California's coast
Sea lions are sick and dying along Southern California's coast
Over the past few weeks, droves of sick and dying sea animals have been washing up along the coast of Southern California, including beaches in Santa Barbara and Ventura.
The devastation has been caused by an outbreak of toxic algae on a scale never before seen in the region, according to NOAA Fisheries' West Coast branch.
As of last week, local officials had estimated that over 100 dolphins and over 500 sea lions had been killed by the algal bloom. It appears that the toxins are slowly spreading to Northern California.
I like how the article mentions vague climate change, and "nutrient rich water" drifting to existing algae populations and causing a bloom, all while heavily implying these things happen naturally.
I'm fairly confident this "nutrient rich water" is created by agricultural runoff. Even if it's not the source of this specific bloom, agricultural runoff is well known to cause algae blooms, and is something this article goes out of its way to avoid mentioning entirely.
Instead implying nature and maybe historically high temperatures over extended periods are the cause, but certainly only those two vague-ish things that are much harder to address than over-fertilizing and poor irrigation.