MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Christopher Stolz – “Teresa Camara and her husband, Keith Flanagan, were walking on the Oxnard beach Thursday evening north of Fifth Street when they came across a grisly scene.

‘We were having a really good time. We were with our dog, the sun was setting and the weather was beautiful, and then we came up to the first dead dolphin,’ she said. ‘And then we found another one, and we looked up and we realized the beach was kind of scattered with dead dolphins.’

On Friday morning, volunteers from the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute found four dead dolphins and four dead sea lions at a site not far from the power plant at Mandalay Beach.

‘They were all different sizes. Two of the dolphins were smaller and appeared to be younger,’ Camara said. ‘We didn’t understand what was going on, and we felt very sad for the dolphins.’

According to Tom McCormick, a marine biologist who has worked in biological assessment along the Ventura County coast for more than 20 years, the deaths probably are linked to a natural neurotoxin called domoic acid.

‘People are quick to point the finger at the power plant, but quite frankly the operators don’t add anything to the water they use except a little heat,’ McCormick said.” Read more.