AngeLA

AngeLA is an adult female California sea lion who first stranded on Redondo Beach on June 22. Although the visible scarring around her neck from a previous entanglement is jarring, it was not the cause of her distress that day.

Instead, our team observed that AngeLA was lethargic and having seizures, signs that she was suffering from the effects of a record-breaking toxic algal bloom occurring off the coast.

Hundreds of California sea lions were sickened by the bloom, which produced a toxin called domoic acid that affects the brain. For more than a month, these poor animals washed up on the beaches of Los Angeles weak, lethargic and suffering from violent seizures—sometimes a dozen a day.

AngeLA needed to be rescued, but the toxin had already affected so many sea lions in the area that our hospital was full and could not take any new patients.

Thankfully, our Los Angeles Unified School District neighbors worked with us to expand our hospital capacity during this crisis by building a triage space in the parking lot where we could provide patients with the medications, meals and space they needed to recover.

Four days after she initially stranded, AngeLA was one of the first patients to be rescued and cared for in that space. And six weeks later, after her condition improved and she gained a healthy 66 pounds, AngeLA was able to be released back to her ocean home.