sea lion attacks!

[old3bob]

 

Los AngelesCNN — 

Along some 70 miles of Southern California coastline, usually curious and playful sea lions are attacking humans in the water. The animals are being poisoned by the ocean they live in, experts say, citing reports of sick sea lions at unprecedented levels. And many are dying.

Pheobe Beltran, a 15-year-old girl in Long Beach, was swimming on March 30, when a sea lion attacked her right arm.

“I was just so scared, so shocked, but I still felt the immense pain on my arms, like, over and over again,” Beltran, who was finishing up a 1,000-yard swim during tryouts to become a junior lifeguard, told CNN affiliate KCAL.

Beltran’s arm is covered in bites, bruises and scratches, but she didn’t require stitches, she said.

Up the coast in Ventura County on March 21, a surfer near Oxnard, was bitten by a sea lion in open water. The attack left him “shaken” to his core, he said.

The sea lion “erupted from the water, hurtling toward” RJ LaMendola at top speed – its “expression was feral, almost demonic, devoid of the curiosity or playfulness I’d always associated with sea lions,” LaMendola wrote on social media of the “harrowing and traumatic experience” that included the sea lion stalking him all the way back to shore.

 

Sea lion bite marks are seen on Phoebe Beltran's arm. 

KCAL/KCBS

The cause is less demonic and more likely domoic acid toxicosis caused by toxic algal bloom, often referred to as red tide, experts say.

“The sea lions are coming in almost comatose by the time they’re stranding. Something is happening in this particular bloom that seems worse on multiple levels,” John Warner, CEO of the Marine Mammal Care Center in Los Angeles, told CNN. “But volume-wise, it’s definitely the worst we’ve ever seen.”

 

Related articleHundreds of dolphins and sea lions have washed up dead or sick in California amid toxic algae outbreak

Dolphins also have been affected.

When the neurological toxin gets into sea lions’ food supply, it causes them to have trouble breathing and experience seizures, including a type of seizure called “stargazing” in which sea lions extend their heads back for an unnaturally long time with their eyes closed.

“When they are affected with this toxin, they’re out of their minds,” Warner said. “They’re scared. They’re totally disoriented and frightened. They really don’t understand where they are. They’re struggling to even get out of the water, so they don’t drown.”

During this time, the sea lions can experience a “hyper-energetic fight or flight kind of aggressive or scared behavior,” Warner said, adding, “if someone swims or walks next to them and they don’t see the animal or the animal doesn’t see them, that’s where some negative interactions can take place.”

 

A sick California sea lion with possible domoic acid poisoning is rescued to be evaluated by volunteers in Santa Barbara, California, on March 25, 2025. (Photo by David Swanson / AFP) (Photo by DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images) 

David Swanson/AFP/Getty Images

The center gets 3,000 to 4,000 calls per year about sick and stranded animals when there is no emergency. There have been more than 2,000 calls to its hotline in the past five weeks alone. Warner likened the deluge of calls to a “tsunami.”

Human-induced climate change makes unwanted changes to the ecosystem

The toxin, domoic acid, is naturally present in the Pacific Ocean. Now, a process called upwelling is responsible for pushing the acid into the aquatic food chain. As winds churn up cold water off the Southern California coast, sediment rich in nutrients is swirled up from the ocean floor and becomes feed for smaller creatures in the water who are eaten by larger ones like pelicans, whales and all kinds of fish. The nutrients are a “huge amount of food that is just everywhere in the water table,” Warner said, explaining how the abundant toxic algae enter the food chain.

Human-caused climate change and land development are also making unwanted changes to the ecosystem and feeding the outsized toxic algal blooms, Warner said. The warmer temperatures on the ocean surface are more acidic, which favors algae. Nitrogen fertilizer from farming is also running into the ocean, carried by rivers and streams, which feeds the algae just like it feeds plants on land.

While these blooms used to happen every few years, they are now happening annually, according to Warner.

 

A stranded California sea lion suffering from suspected domoic acid poisoning lays on the beach on March 27, 2025 in Oxnard, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) 

Mario Tama/Getty Images

“It’s when it gets out of whack that it produces these large toxic blooms that have such a huge effect on the apex predators – especially the sea lions, dolphins and marine birds,” Warner said.

In 2023, the Marine Mammal Care Center reported the worst algae event in recorded history in Southern California. This year is already seeing an increase, not just in the number of animals sickened by the bloom but also in the intensity of their sickness when they’re found stranded on beaches.

 

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Related videoSea lions sickened by toxic algae released back into ocean

“Somewhere between 50% to 65% of animals will recover and go back to the ocean,” Warner said, noting the toxicity levels in the ocean are much higher this year and it is proving harder to heal some sea lions. “We have quite a few animals on site that we’ve had now for three weeks that are still really in more of a comatose state, and it’s questionable how many of those are going to recover.”

This could mean a lower survival rate this bloom compared to past ones, Warner said.

Working to bring the animals back to health

About 80% of the sea lions they have treated this year are pregnant, Warner estimates, noting the toxic domoic acid often forces the mothers to expel their fetuses to survive.

“Every day that the mom still is pregnant is really affecting whether she will survive this,” Warner said, adding the overall sea lion population is still robust but that this trend could have implications for the species down the line.

“It is getting to the point where elephant seal pups and sea lion pups are stranding now in high numbers,” Warner said.

To bring the animals back to health, the Marine Mammal Care Center works to flush the water-soluble toxin out of the sea lions.

 

Rescued sea lions suffering from malnutrition eat fish as they rehabilitate at CIMWI (Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute) on March 27, 2025 near Santa Barbara, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) 

Mario Tama/Getty Images

“In addition to giving the anti-seizure medications … which will prevent permanent brain damage, we’re also giving a lot of fluids, a lot of nutrition to flush that out of the system,” Warner said, explaining in the beginning they tube-feed the sea lions twice a day. Within about a week, they are normally able to resume feeding themselves, but this year the recovery is taking longer, he said, adding they try to get the animals healthy and back to the ocean as quickly as possible, in part, so that there’s space to care for more ill animals.

The center has also opened a triage site in its parking lot that allows for the care of around 25 additional animals.

Domoic toxin poisoning is a death sentence for dolphins

This toxic poisoning is also deadly for dolphins. This year is the worst the center has witnessed for the mammals, with more than 70 strandings in Los Angeles County alone.

“There’s no rehabilitation that’s going to work with dolphins. Most of the time when they strand, they’re already deceased. The ones that are struggling on the beaches that are seizing,” Warner explained. “The best thing we can do is humanely euthanize them which, unfortunately, we’ve had to do more than we’ve ever done before.”

About 20 of the stranded dolphins that they’ve encountered this year are still alive.

 

A stranded dolphin suffering from suspected domoic acid poisoning on the beach in Long Beach, California. 

Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles

So far this year, the center has treated 240 animals as of the end of March, but they have only budgeted to treat 300 animals for the entire year. The budget includes costs for medicine, food, personnel, freezer storage and animal disposal expenses.

LaMendola, the surfer attacked by a sea lion, was very close to the Channel Islands – the main breeding ground for California sea lions. According to the center, 85% of sea lions are born on the islands in June.

“This seems to be the epicenter of these domoic acid events the last four years,” Warner said.

CNN’s Samantha Lindell contributed to this story.

 

 

[old3bob]

 

I was once face to face, eye to eye with a sea lion (about a 18 inches away) when it suddenly surfaced right next to my surfboard as I was paddling  out to a point break,  I also saw its teeth, anyway we were both surprized to say the least but he swam away and I sat up for a moment on the board to calm down,  Anyway the encounter ended without conflict.  (back in the late 60's)

 

And there were the Sea Lions at Sea world which were very tame and fun to watch in the little shows their trainers had with them.

 

 

[Nungali]

Thats all very sad .  Poor animals .   

 

That toxic algae bloom stuff is  effed up ; I saw a doco on Maya last night ,  after tests they found , after a  long drought , it had  got into the huge  rain collecting ponds  the Maya  incorporated into their architecture that was used for agriculture and drinking  ... a significance contributor to the end of Mayan civilization . 

 

I too had an encounter with sea lions ; in NZ . I saw a bunch of them out on the rocks, thinking I could walk out there I decided to go and take my camera ( pre mobile phone era) .  I wound the strap around my wrist a few times and was holding the camera up high .  It wasn't far  nor deep but there was a strong current to and fro between the shore rocks and island  from the swell,  the  surface under my feet underwater was volcanic , very rough uneven and numerous holes and very sharp and HUGE arms of thick spiky kelp were swirling around and wrapping around my legs and at times waist .   But I got there . The sea-loins were on the other side of the rock so I crept up low and slow and  rose from behind the rock , camera ready to get a surprise close up . 

 

Thing was, one of them must have heard or smelt me ?  It was doing exactly  the same thing as I was , slowly coming up from behind the rock to take a peek from the other side  . We came over the rock the same time ,  sea lion's face right in front of the camera  - it got a shock as I did and let out a growl (or whatever it was  .... boy did its breath stink !   )  But I was quick enough to grab one of the most excellent  shots , close up, right in its face .

 

Then I had to get back . I nearly lost the camera , or at least nearly submerged it . Back through the  'tide' , the sharp rocks and holes, the leg lashing kelp  and made it back to the rocks and over to the sand  , pretty exhausted  but thinking it was worthwhile , until .... 

 

yeah .... I still had the lens cap on    

[old3bob]

 

I've gotten tangled up in kelp after wiping out on waves,  its a little scary when one is underwater freeing yourself from it.  There were also plenty of moray ells in the rocky reef where I surfed, I worried about those a fair amount because if they bite into you they don't let go!!  (and as you probably know they have very powerful jaws;  I image they are much bigger in size where you are at?)

 

Edited 11 hours ago by old3bob