On April 4, private citizens on Shaw Island were alarmed to find a sea lion sitting on Blind Bay road. “The animal definitely was not acting right so we knew we had to call the Marine Mammal Stranding Network,” said Tina Wylie-Echeveria, Shaw Island resident. And they did just that. Joe Gaydos, a wildlife veterinarian with the SeaDoc Society and a Stranding Network collaborator arrived on the scene at about 7 p.m. “I was so impressed with the community’s response,” Gaydos said. “They had traffic cones out and people with orange vests were directing traffic around the animal.”

Initial examination showed that the sea lion, an adult female California sea lion, a species not usually found in the region, was blind. It was taken to Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center where it has been cared for since. Nikki Ruggiero, rehabilitation manager at Wolf Hollow, said the sea lion appeared to re-gain vision after about 24 hours in their care and that they suspect the animal has been exposed to domoic acid, a naturally occurring biotoxin produced by the diatom species Pseudo-nitzschia. The toxin is concentrated in small forage fish like anchovies that the sea lions eat. It is a common occurrence off the coast of California, but like the female sea lion, a rarity in the San Juans.

Gaydos said that the sea lion was likely exposed to the toxin a while ago, maybe even off the coast of California. Because domoic acid can damage the brain permanently, animals can have periodic seizures and post-seizure blindness long after exposure. The sea lion is currently being monitored round the clock for seizures and other symptoms. Humans exposed to domoic acid by eating contaminated shellfish get amnesic shellfish poisoning, which causes short term memory loss, brain damage and even death in severe cases. “It's just one more example of how human health and wildlife and marine ecosystem health are tightly connected,” says Gaydos.

Amy Traxler, coordinator of the Stranding Network, said, “this is an excellent example of how private citizens can do the right thing by calling the Stranding Network when they see a stranded animal." The San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network is run by the Whale Museum www.whalemuseum.org and handles about 200 stranding calls per year. They are currently looking for new volunteers and will hold mandatory training classes on San Juan and on Orcas Island on May 17th. People interested in the stranding network should contact Traxler at the Whale Museum to sign up (378-4710 ext. 31). Wolf Hollow also is looking for volunteers to help care for wildlife. Interested people should call Nikki Ruggiero at Wolf Hollow (378-5000).