Latest news with #GiancarloRulli
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Health
- Newsweek
Disease Outbreak Among Sea Lions Could Spread to Pets
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Sea lions off the coast in California are contracting a kidney disease that has arrived earlier than expected, raising concerns about transmission to humans and pets. Newsweek has reached out to the Marine Mammal Center (MMC) for comment via email on Sunday. Why It Matters Leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that attacks the kidneys, can cause severe illness or death in animals. Infected sea lions are often spotted drinking water, a rare behavior since they normally get hydration from food, signaling their kidneys are not functioning properly, according to the MMC. It's not rare for sea lions to contract it, often appearing in about four-year cycles. Humans and other animals can also contract it, with untreated cases leading to kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, trouble breathing, and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What To Know Sea lions across California's coast have contracted Leptospirosis in recent days, with at least 100 infected this month, per the MMC. According to ABC 7, the outbreak began along the California Central Coast and has appeared in more northern counties. The disease most oftenspreads through urine of infected animals. "This is a zoonotic disease. So, it can be spread to humans and dogs. We are especially concerned in this area of spread to your pet," Giancarlo Rulli, associate director of public relations for the MMC, told ABC 7 on Friday. The CDC estimates there are around 1 million annual Leptospirosis cases in humans around the world, resulting in about 60,000 deaths. Sea lions diagnosed with leptospirosis are recommended to be treated with antibiotics. However, even with treatment, around two-thirds of them with acute leptospirosis do not survive, according to the MMC. Sea lions crowd onto rafts along Pier 39 on May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. Sea lions crowd onto rafts along Pier 39 on May 23, 2024, in San Francisco. Liu Guanguan/China News Service/VCG via AP What People Are Saying Giancarlo Rulli, associate director of public relations for the MMC, said on Friday: "To have basically very large outbreak with right now with no end in sight, beginning six-to-eight weeks plus earlier than what we are historically used to, is something that has our collective attention right now." The MMC wrote in an August 13 X post: "Since July, we've rescued an unprecedented number of sea lions suffering from #leptospirosis. This potentially deadly kidney infection can transmit easily between these animals and dog." What Happens Next? The disease is expected to continue spreading among sea lions, with ongoing concern it could infecthumans or pets. Health experts advise people taking their dogs and pets to the beach to keep them on leashes, to prevent them from getting too close to marine life.
San Francisco Chronicle
08-08-2025
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
Diseased sea lions suddenly showing up from Monterey to Bay Area
A deadly disease is spiking among California's sea lions — and dog owners taking beach walks should stay on alert, experts say In July, the Marine Mammal Center's Sausalito hospital checked in more than 100 sea lions — many of them from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties — suffering from the bacterial disease leptospirosis. That number wouldn't be unprecedented later in the year, but center spokesperson Giancarlo Rulli said an outbreak this early represents 'a bit of a phenomenon.' 'We've never seen 100-plus California sea lions come into our hospital with leptospirosis in the month of July before,' Rulli said. 'The open-ended question that we are very much preparing for is that there is no clear indication as to how long this may last.' The center only treated about 50 sea lions for the disease in the first half of the year, Rulli said, and did not anticipate a surge until late summer or fall. The disease has historically surged every three to five years, but it last spiked off the California coast as recently as fall 2023. Although the center's goal is to rehabilitate and release sea lions, Rulli said that more than two-thirds typically do not survive the disease, either dying in transport or at the hospital. The disease can cause irreversible kidney damage — and while they're not the only marine mammals that are susceptible, Rulli said sea lions currently represent the 'vast majority' of leptospirosis's victims. Tightly-tucked flippers and unusual drinking habits are tell-tale signs of diseased sea lions. They're also typically lethargic and might appear to be sleeping on the beach, leading some passersby to approach for a closer look. But Rulli said that beachgoers, especially those with dogs, should give the animals a wide berth. 'This can be fatal to dogs and it often shows up as fever well after the animal has already contracted the bacteria,' Rulli said. 'That could be anything from picking it up on their paws, to the unfortunate circumstance where a dog closely approaches a sea lion impacted by the disease and picks it up from open orifices like their eyes, nose and mouth.' Rulli urged dog-owners to keep their pets leashed and proactively seek out available leptospirosis vaccines. He's not yet aware of any dogs in the Bay Area dying from the current outbreak. There's also no evidence that the sea lion that bit a child in Monterey last week had any exposure to the disease. In July, the Marine Mammal Center took in an 'outsized share' of infected sea lions from Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, where 40% of the center's rescues already take place. But the disease has already reached sea lions in Marin, Sonoma, San Mateo and San Francisco counties, Rulli said, in part due to the large expanse of ocean that sea lions are able to cover in a single day. Experts remain unclear about what's driving the disease's early peak. But Rulli said the outbreak pattern has generally become harder to predict since the 2015 marine heat wave known as 'the Blob.' Every year since 2017, he explained, leptospirosis numbers have trended higher than in the 40 years prior to that anomaly. Katherine Prager, a UCLA ecologist who studies the disease, stressed the difficulty of proving a clear connection between the Blob and the current outbreak. Observing patterns across long-term data sets could be increasingly difficult in light of ongoing cuts to federal funding, she added — making events like this year's leptospirosis spike harder to explain. 'Predicting any outbreak is difficult, no matter what,' Prager said. 'Oceanographic conditions play into it, but disentangling the complex relationship between oceanographic conditions and the final outbreak can be quite difficult.'
Newsweek
31-05-2025
- Science
- Newsweek
Scientists Investigate as Whale Deaths Surge in San Francisco Bay
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A total of 15 whales, including 14 gray whales and one minke whale, have died so far in 2025, according to a joint press release from California Academy of Sciences and the Marine Mammal Center. "The reason or potential reasons behind the massive spike in sightings this year are still being investigated by researchers," the release said. The latest death, a gray whale found in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday, marked the sixth whale death in as many days. Newsweek reached out via email to the California Academy of Sciences and the Marine Mammal Center on Saturday during non-working hours for more information. Why It Matters There has been "unusually high number of sightings" of whales in the region this year but there has also been an increase in deaths. The whale population has seen a 45 percent decrease since the 2019- 2023 Unusual Mortality Event (UME), according to the release. A record-low number of newborn whales was also seen this year, causing concern among researchers for the long-term outlook for the North Pacific gray whales, following the second UME in a 20-year period. "These whales basically left the Arctic with a half tank," Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, recently told about the other deceased whales discovered in the region. "The food sources that they were normally accustomed to eating that were highly nutritious for this massive, 10,000–12,000-mile journey, had moved farther away due to climate change, and as a result, these whales were left to forage on food matter that was much less nutritious." What To Know The whale on Wednesday was found near the Alamere Falls in Point Reyes National Seashore, the joint release said, which is about 30 miles northwest of San Francisco. While some of the deceased mammals have been necropsied, others have either been too far decomposed or stranded in areas that are inaccessible, making it difficult to pin these deaths on one similar cause. While it is not unusual to see whales in the region as they migrate, the number of deaths is the highest it has been, including in 2019 when 14 whales were found deceased in the UME, according to the release. The number of deaths currently matches the record of 15 for all of 2021, the release said. At least three of these deaths have been attributed to suspected vessel strikes, but others remain undetermined. The whales that have been spotted alive have been observed to be either regular size or emaciated. There are a total of 33 confirmed gray whale sightings in the San Francisco Bay this year, compared to only six seen last year, with about a third of those whales remaining in the bay for about 20 days. Whale carcasses have been found as far north as Alamere Falls, as far west as Farallon Islands and as inland as Berkeley. Beachgoers look at a dead juvenile Humpback Whale that washed up on Baker Beach on April 21, 2020, in San Francisco. Beachgoers look at a dead juvenile Humpback Whale that washed up on Baker Beach on April 21, 2020, in San Francisco. Photo byWhat People Are Saying The California Academy of Sciences and partners at The Marine Mammal Center said in the press release: "With San Francisco Bay serving as a shared space for commerce and increased gray whale activity, experts at the Academy and the Center note it's vital that all boaters—from large commercial vessels to sailboats—be 'whale aware' and continue to slow down. Gray whales often have a very low profile in the water that can make them difficult to sight, unlike other coastal whales like humpback whales." What Happens Next The results of the necropsy on the whale found on Wednesday are still pending, complicated by a number of factors due to "inaccessible locations that hinder full post-mortem investigations, as well as poor tissue quality from advanced decomposition, and the lack of available locations to tow for further investigation." Meanwhile, the whales that are alive are expected to be in "the bay for another one to two weeks before continuing their annual northern migration to arctic feeding grounds," according to the release. If people do see whales, they can report them through an app called Whale Alert or the Marine Mammal Center website. Sightings of dead whales should be reported to the Academy's department of Ornithology and Mammalogy.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Six dead gray whales found in San Francisco Bay area in the last week
Six dead gray whales have been found in the area of San Francisco Bay over the last week, officials said Wednesday, in a year when there has been an unusually high number of sightings in the area. The gray whales were found dead from May 21 to Wednesday, when one was found washed ashore at Point Reyes National Seashore, the California Academy of Sciences said. On Monday, two were found the same day — one on Alcatraz and one at Point Bonita, it said. In most of the cases, no necropsy, which is like an autopsy for an animal, was performed. The partial necropsy for a yearling gray whale found at Bolinas was inconclusive, and results from the necropsy on the whale found Wednesday are pending, the academy said. The whales have died as an unusually large number of them have been spotted in San Francisco Bay, officials said. Why the whales died was not clear. 'That is the open question, the why,' Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, told NBC Bay Area this week. 'Why not only are there so many deceased whales in the region, but why has it been a banner year of having more sightings in San Francisco Bay of live whales than we have seen in at least two-plus decades, if ever?' So far this year 14 gray whales and a minke whale have died in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the academy said, and the deaths of three of them were found to be from boat strikes. More gray whales have been sighted in the bay this year compared with last, it said — 33, compared with only six in 2024. Some have looked normal and others emaciated, it said. "The reason or potential reasons behind the massive spike in sightings this year are still being investigated by researchers," the academy said. "It is expected that gray whales will be in the bay for another one to two weeks before continuing their annual northern migration to arctic feeding grounds." Gray whales used to be common in waters throughout the Northern Hemisphere but are now regularly found only in the North Pacific Ocean, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They travel around 10,000 miles in an annual round-trip migration, it said. Gray whales are known to be curious around boats, which means they are often seen on whale-watching trips, the agency said. They can grow to around 49 feet long and weigh about 90,000 pounds. Because of the long migration, the whales are sometimes hit by vessels and entangled in fishing gear, which are among their top threats, the fisheries service says. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Why are so many dead whales washing up in the Bay?
(KRON) — There is a growing crisis facing whales in the Bay Area. In the last few weeks, nearly half a dozen whales have been found dead in and around the San Francisco Bay. Now experts are sounding the alarm and alerting the public that they can help. 'In one necropsy, the whale died of a boat strike,' said Giancarlo Rulli with the Marine Mammal Center. On Friday, Rulli said the center along with researchers are working feverishly with boat services like ferries, recreation and cargo container pilots to get the word out about the migrating whales. With commercial Dungeness crab season along the Bay Area coast going through May 1, whales in the area are at risk of entanglement. Latest tech layoffs hit Meta's Reality Labs division 'We know that research shows many whales are dying in Baja,' said Rulli. According to Rulli, one way the public can help is by alerting experts of a whale sighting so that scientists can go see if there is trouble before the whale goes into distress. The Marine Mammal Center reported 11 live whales inside the Bay one week ago. An app is available for those who want to help whales. 'This is the way to help, the app is called Whale Alert,' Rulli said. Rulli also says that besides whales getting impacted by water hazards, the melting of ice depleting fish supply is also problematic. 'Whales are starving,' he said. Whales, Rulli said, serve a vital role in the bigger picture. 'They are the ambassadors, if they are dying then oceans will be impacted and a lot of other life as well,' he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
