Fishing News
Sea creatures dying from toxic shellfish
By Laura Mecoy
Barely a year old, the bird rescue station here is in "crisis mode" because of a mysterious toxin that's causing endangered California brown pelicans to literally fall out of the sky.
Workers at the International Bird Rescue Research Center are working 17-hour days to save the sudden influx of sick pelicans.
"It's just been a nightmare," said Jeannie Magis, the center's rehabilitation director. "It is crisis mode."
Next door, at the Marine Mammal Care Center, the pens are almost full of listless sea lions being treated for the same condition, domoic acid poisoning.
Domoic acid is a nerve toxin produced by eating small fish and shellfish that have fed on a toxic species of naturally occurring marine algae. The toxin doesn't affect the fish - only the creatures that eat the fish and shellfish in large quantities.
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