SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Stranded sick sea lions have been suffering from the fatal disease known as domoic acid poisoning, and now according to Marine Biologist Dr. Lyall Bellquist, these sea lion deaths are a symptom of a greater problem facing the local ocean in the San Diego area.
“Extreme environmental events as a symptom of climate change are increasing and intensifying,” Bellquist said.
While the sea lions are visible, Bellquist and his statewide team are identifying many critical species that are feeling new pressure from our warming seas.
“Sheepshead, Kelp Bass, Bart Sand Bass, Bonito, also a lot of invertebrates, lobster, urchin, Abalone, Dungeness crab, all of those species,” Bellquist said.
In their newest paper published in The Plos Climate Journal, Bellquist and his team are monitoring the shifting fisheries and how they are changing with the warmer waters.
“Fisheries are dynamic, the environment is dynamic, we are seeing changes all the time,” Bellquist said.
For fisherman their daily catches might become more difficult find in the decades to come.
“These warming events happen and species migrate up and down the coasts, fishermen are having to try new things, try new places, to catch what they normally would in normal areas,” Bellquist said.
So with ocean heat waves, coastal acidification, domoic acid poisoning, Bellquist says fishermen will have their work cut out for them.
