Runoff from the Southern California wildfires may be feeding toxic algae blooms
When the Palisades Fire ripped through Malibu three months ago, strings of beachfront homes burned to the ground. But since then, little has been done to contain the runoff, leading to a dangerous phenomenon threatening aquatic wildlife and other animals — including humans — that feed off it.
Tracy Quinn, CEO of nonprofit Heal the Bay, said recently tested water off Santa Monica revealed "a lot of heavy metals."
"That debris is still sitting there within the high tide line. So every day the ocean is washing up and lapping those contaminants into the sea," Quinn said.
At the same time, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of sick animals washing up on the shores of Southern California, with one care center saying it is seeing four times as many as usual.
At the Marine Mammal Care Center, there are so many animals being treated that the nonprofit has had to build enclosures in the parking lot. CEO John Warner said part of the problem is animals are eating fish that have consumed algae containing a toxin called domoic acid.
"It's a neurological toxin. It affects their brains. They're having seizures. They're completely disoriented," Warner explained.
Algae with domoic acid is sometimes called red tide. It existed before the L.A. wildfires, but biologists suspect the wind storms that fueled the flames also stirred up sediment in the ocean. That, along with the nutrient-rich runoff, is feeding the algae.
"Whether it be with a fire or just organic waste flowing into the ocean, those all contribute to the size, scale, intensity of these blooms," Warner said. "And we believe there's a direct correlation to the toxicity levels in the algae itself. They're at a high, high level during this particular bloom."
The hazardous contaminants from the fire debris could cause even more long-term problems.
"We're gonna see a lot of the animals that are lower on the food chain consuming a lot of those heavy metals," Quinn said. "And then as those get consumed by larger fish, that will accumulate throughout the food chain."
A problem that could potentially impact people eating locally caught seafood.
