Wednesday April 9, 2025
CBS News —
When the Palisades Fire ripped through Malibu three months ago, strings of beachfront homes burned to the ground. But since then, little has been done to contain the runoff, leading to a dangerous phenomenon threatening aquatic wildlife and other animals — including humans — that feed off it.
Tracy Quinn, CEO of nonprofit Heal the Bay, said recently tested water off Santa Monica revealed “a lot of heavy metals.”
“That debris is still sitting there within the high tide line. So every day the ocean is washing up and lapping those contaminants into the sea,” Quinn said.
At the same time, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of sick animals washing up on the shores of Southern California, with one care center saying it is seeing four times as many as usual.