Rising Tide of Ocean Plagues

Rising Tide of Ocean Plagues
-Randy Dotinga, Wired News
Four years ago, a disoriented sea lion created a stir by wandering past security onto the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport. Another addled sea lion took a wrong turn in the Pacific Ocean and found its way into California's Central Valley, surprising local citizens by traipsing through an artichoke field.

The two sea lions were treated for a powerful form of brain poisoning and survived. But hundreds of other sea lions have died, joining a short list of ocean animals that are succumbing to strange diseases.

In Florida, hundreds of manatees have died from an airborne toxin produced by "red tide." Infectious germs and toxins have killed bottle-nosed dolphins all over the eastern and southern coasts of the United States. And a parasite found in cat feces is taking the lives of sea otters off the coast of California.

Marine researchers are hesitant to say the world's oceans are sicker than usual. But they are raising the alarm that the ocean is changing -- possibly as a result of human interference -- and the evolving diseases are putting both sea animals and humans at risk.
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