Scientists are concerned that the warming of the Pacific Ocean may be improving conditions for blooms of harmful toxic algae.
Julie Speegle with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration…
Speegle: “There’s naturally occurring algae blooms and in certain ocean conditions they just explode in population and they can have a toxic substance. If the population is low on those blooms they’re not problem but if there’s a lot of those blooms they can increase toxicity, especially for animals that live in the water.”
NOAA released a study Thursday that found toxins from harmful ocean algae were found in surprising amounts in the samples of more than 900 Alaska marine mammals.
Over the last nine years scientists tested feces, urine, and stomach contents of 13 marine mammal species collected from southeast Alaska to the Arctic Ocean.
Algal toxins are blamed for sea lion deaths along the California Coast and now that the toxic algaes were found in species from harbor seals to bowhead whales, that verifies that those toxins are creeping north.
Algal blooms and their accompanying toxins fair best in tropical waters. NOAA Fisheries research biologist Kathi Lefebvre (leh-FEE’-ber) says the concern is that warmer sea temperatures are making Alaska more favorable for the harmful algae.
