Recreational and commercial fishing along the West Coast has been shut down because of California's toxic algae blooms. The toxic algae bloom has appeared to be one of the largest seen in California and could be playing a role in strandings of a host of sea lion in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Small fish, like anchovies and sardines as well shellfish, rely on the algae, pseudo-nitzschia, to satiate their hunger. But the algae releases a neurotoxin called domoic acid that kills marine life and can cause harm to human beings when consumed in high doses.

Marine life experts are making efforts to figure out if the blooms have a connection to an above-average number of sea lion strandings in Northern California. Since the beginning of the year, thousands of malnourished pups have been witnessed and experts have failed to figure out the reason behind it.

The unusually warm waters in the Pacific this year are likely to be a culprit, said scientists. Due to this, sea lions' food supply has been limited since January, said the Marine Mammal Center.

Raphael Kudela, professor of ocean sciences and chairman of ocean health at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said an outsized role appears to have been played by the algae bloom.

Kudela said in an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times, "I wouldn't be surprised if many of the strandings over the past month were not related to toxin. We test the samples for the rescue centers, so we will eventually know how many animals were exposed to toxin".