At the beginning of last September, 137 sea lions had been found dead on the shores of Comondú, Mexico. Back then, no apparent cause had been verified.
Over the last month, however, scientists managed to get closer to the root. Studies showed that the 136 males and one female seem to have fed on a school of fish that had consumed biotoxins - more precisely, domoic acid. This toxin is naturally produced in massive blooms of algae, so called red tides. That alone is not yet toxic for the animals. However, through the stepwise accumulation in the food chain, higher predators ingest such a high amount of the toxin that it leads to vomiting, seizures, respiratory distress and even death within a short period after ingestion. Since males usually hunt in groups separate from females, their high mortality rate would be explainable. To fully verify this notion, some final tests need to be run before the results will be officially announced.
The full report can be found here: https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/sea-lion-die-off-in-baja-california-sur-linked-to-red-tide/
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