Jalapeño the sea lion turned up on a crowded California beach in a daze, experiencing seizures and heavily pregnant.

Instead of giving birth in a remote location like sea lions prefer, Jalapeño had her pup on Southern California’s Hermosa Beach on a busy Saturday, surrounded by throngs of curious onlookers.

After the pup emerged, Jalapeño rolled lethargically into the surf, on the verge of dying.

Two weeks later, things are looking up for both Jalapeño and her pup. Although severely sickened by a historically bad algal bloom off the coast of California, the mother and baby sea lions have been receiving around-the-clock treatment at the Marine Mammal Care Center in Los Angeles.

Jalapeño scrambled to scarf down every fish that one of her caretakers was throwing into her pen on Thursday. She was so exuberant, her pup had to take refuge in the shadow of another nearby mother.

“Watching her eat is sort of a big adrenaline shot right now,” said John Warner, CEO of the center. “She’s been really out of it since she got here, so eating means she’s awake and really recovering. And so that just makes me happy.”

Jalapeño is one of the lucky ones. A recent algal bloom has sickened or killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of sea lions and dolphins off the central and southern coasts of California since June 8.

“I have been a marine mammal veterinarian for 35 years, and this is definitely the worst in my professional lifetime,” said Sam Dover, executive director of the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute.

What’s happening

The waters off central and southern California are experiencing a harmful algal bloom, sometimes referred to as a red tide.

A harmful bloom happens when naturally occurring algae grow out of control and produce a neurotoxin called domoic acid, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.