Los Angeles, California – Thousands of marine mammals along the Southern California coast have fallen ill or died this year due to a severe harmful algae bloom , according to marine life experts and federal officials.
The bloom, first detected in February, has been linked to the deaths of several species, including sea lions, dolphins, and whales. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries West Coast confirmed in a news release that four whales — one humpback, one minke, and two gray whales — have washed ashore dead in Orange and Los Angeles counties in recent weeks.
NOAA determined that domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by the algae, was the cause of death for two of the whales: a juvenile female humpback whale stranded in Huntington Beach and a juvenile male minke whale found in the Port of Long Beach…