Family recounts sea lion attack in Long Beach linked to toxic algae poisoning
“She’s got this. She’s a swimmer in water polo, this is a walk in the park for her,” Bibi Beltran, 52, told her husband Sunday afternoon on March 30, as the pair watched their 15-year-old daughter Phoebe swim a 1,000-yard lap at a junior lifeguard cadet tryout in Long Beach.
Her comment was cut short by two loud, excruciating screams coming from the water near the area of Ocean Boulevard and Cherry Avenue, in front of the Long Beach Lifeguards Headquarters.
Bibi Beltran initially thought someone got tangled in seaweed until another person yelled “Shark!”. Moments later she saw her daughter, injured and surrounded by lifeguards and paramedics as she was rushed ashore.
“I saw her coming out of the water with her arm just gushing blood, I didn’t know what to expect,” said the Long Beach mother.
Phoebe suffered several surface-level puncture wounds from — not a shark — but an aggressive sea lion’s bite. The teenager said the attack caught her off guard, she had finally adjusted to the freezing-like ocean temperatures and was nearly finished with her 1,000-yard lap when she felt something latch onto her arm.
The shock caused her to briefly go underwater. Even then, all she could see was the shadow of whatever had decided to bite and hold on.
“It bit me two or three more times, making its way down my arm,” she said. “It was painful, it was a hard 10.”
The 15-year-old was placed on an IV and rushed to the ER, where she received a tetanus shot and fluids that would flush out any bacteria and reduce the risk of a potential infection from the bite. She said the doctors did not believe she was at risk of being exposed to rabies.
It was at the ER that Sophie learned she had been attacked by a sea lion, their aggression likely a symptom of domoic acid poisoning from toxic algae, according to her doctor.
“A sea lion isn’t naturally aggressive,” said marine biologist Dave Baver, from the Marine Mammal Care Center. “They’re not in their right minds. It’s 100% caused by the domoic acid toxicosis that it’s suffering from.”
Domoic acid is found in algae blooms, which are a natural occurrence, and often follow a wind-driven upwelling when deep cold water rich in nutrients rises to the surface and replaces warmer, nutrient-depleted water. It becomes an issue when sewage and fertilizer runoff are combined with warmer waters due to climate change, contributing to large-scale toxic algal blooms.
Marine mammals such as sea lions, dolphins, and whales that eat sardines, shellfish and other fish contaminated with domoic acid become sick and sometimes die. Baver, whose organization rescues and rehabilitates marine mammals, said this is the fourth year in a row that they’ve seen “a large volume of marine mammals, impacted by this and stranded on our beaches.”
“The toxicity of this particular bloom seems to be a lot higher, ” said the marine biologist. “Animals are in worse shape than they have been in the past.”
Affected sea lions are often washed ashore, disoriented, and may suffer from aggression and violent seizures.
While sea lion attacks are uncommon, Baver urges beachgoers to be mindful as summer approaches and to give sea lions at least 50 feet of space. Interacting with them might cause them to have a seizure or cause them to be stressed in a way that might negatively affect their ability to be rehabilitated. He said if you see a marine mammal on the beach, don’t approach it, call the rescue hotline at 1-800-39-WHALE.