2009-10-25

Algal Blooms Impact Sealions

New Scientist this week report that algal red tides are affecting marine creatures in ways that we could not have contemplated. It appears that rge red tides are causing sea lions to stray into areas where you would not normally find them, including pools and parking lots.

'Now high-tech medical equipment is offering a peek inside the animals' skulls to discover what causes such bizarre behaviour.

Eric Montie of the University of South Florida in St Petersburg studied wild sea lions, including some that showed symptoms of poisoning by domoic acid - the neurotoxin secreted by the algae.' Using an 'MRI scanner to image their brains, [Montie] found that the hippocampus of sick animals was half the size of that in healthy ones. The hippocampus controls an animal's spatial awareness, which could explain why poisoned sea lions often get lost.'

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