Morro Strand State Beach is a beautiful and mostly empty state beach. Paddle boarders and surfers out in the water, and a few solitary beach walkers. We parked in the free parking area outside the campground and started our walk. We were accompanied by beach birds out and back. The Pacific is an outstanding blue here, maybe due to the cold water. This is by history, Chumash land.
On the way back we came across a beautiful white sea lion, dead. A few yards from the first, a second beautiful brown sea lion, dead. What wonderful creatures. We examined them closely and could find no damage to their bodies. What happened to them?
When we got back to the parking lot, we went to the kiosk to report it to the Park Ranger. A young man large round wooden earrings, and a gold piercing in his nose.
He explained that there recently was an algae bloom nearby. These algae acquire a high level of mercury. Fish eat the algae, sea lions and sharks eat the fish and they experience mercury poisoning. The mercury affects their central nervous system and they die painfully.
After our walk we shared this horror with a friendly waitress, who told us of her female friend, a marine biologist stationed in Morro Bay, who spent most of her days collecting dead bodies on the beach, caused by the mercury poisoning. She ended most of those days in tears, as there was nothing she could do to prevent their deaths. The mercury is deposited in the ocean from the air, from fossil fuels and coal. The mercury settles close to the shore where the algae bloom, and most of the fish are.
I was flattened by this direct example of the damage we do in using fossil fuels and coal. Those beautiful sea lions died as the result of simply eating to survive. The mercury levels in the ocean are increasing and more fish are being affected. I also felt sad that in some ways I had a hand in their deaths, by using the substances that led to their deaths. An accomplice is someone who participates with another in a crime by encouraging, assisting, or failing to prevent it.
The beach walk was at first beautiful, and wonderful. The ending story was just very sad.
Video by author
Jon Pinter