The Los Angeles Unified School District has helped set up a temporary outdoor “triage” center to care for the infllux of sea lions stricken by a deadly coastal algae blooms, officials announced during a press conference on Tuesday, June 27.
The Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles, located on LAUSD property within San Pedro’s Angel’s Gate Park, is overwhelmed with a large number of ill animals that are being brought in. The wave of sick sea lions has strained the facility’s resources and the outdoor accommodations that offer medical care, rehabilitation space and pools where the wildlife can recuperate before being returned to the ocean.
John Warner, Marine Mammal Care Center’s CEO, referred to it as an ongoing crisis for marine life in Southern California, with a large toxic algae bloom causing the illness. The center is filled the center beyond its capacity.
There were currently 113 animals at the center on Thursday; the facility is designed to hold about 100.
The 500-square-foot outdoor triage addition, on the south end of the center’s property, holds six sea lions that are among those needing the most intensive care. It can hold up to about 20, MMCC officials said.
The active participation of the school district was launched after LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho came upon a stranded sea lion in distress while he was hiking in the White Point area of the southern bluffs in San Pedro a few weeks ago.
The animal, he said, was lethargic and seemed to be in distress, Carvalho said. This was before the algae bloom issue had received much attention, he added.
“I didn’t know what to do so I alerted a lifeguard,” the superintendent said.
The center and LAUSD has had a partnership since 1989, when the property was part of a deal reached after the former Marineland of the Pacific, an oceanarium and public attraction, closed.
Ever since, the district, which remains the center’s landlord, has sent thousands of students on field…
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