Experts say a sea lion rescued three times in California has suffered brain damage so severe she cannot survive even in captivity.
Nau'au, as the animal has been named, will be put down, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., said Monday. The sea lion was found Saturday a mile from the water in Oakley in the Sacramento Delta at the eastern end of San Francisco Bay.
Jim Oswald, a spokesman for the center, said even though Nau'au has been moving and feeding, an MRI and EKG showed severe brain damage from eating fish contaminated with toxic algae.
Nau'au was first rescued in May after she came ashore in Santa Cruz, about 50 miles south of San Francisco, to give birth. Her pup died because she could not produce enough milk to feed it.
In July, she was removed from a Santa Cruz beach. She was treated at the center both times and then released.
The toxin in the algae destroys the brains of marine mammals over a period of time.
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