Land animals, including livestock and pets have been affected. Dogs have died from the toxins after swimming in algal blooms. Warnings have come from government agencies in the state of Ohio, which noted that many dogs and livestock deaths resulted from HAB exposure in the U.S. and other countries. They also noted in a 2003 report that during the previous 30 years, they have seen more frequent and longer-lasting harmful algal blooms." In 50 countries and 27 states that year there were reports of human and animal illnesses linked to algal toxins. In Australia, the department of agriculture warned farmers that the toxins from a HAB had the "potential to kill large numbers of livestock very quickly."
Marine mammals have also been seriously harmed, as over 50 percent of unusual marine mammal deaths are caused by harmful algal blooms. In 1999, over 65 bottlenose dolphins died during a coastal HAB in Florida. In 2013 a HAB in southwest Florida killed a record number of Manatee. Whales have also died in large numbers. During the period from 2005 to 2014, Argentina reported an average 65 baby whales dying which experts have linked to algal blooms. A whale expert there expects the whale population to be reduced significantly. In 2003 off Cape Cod in the North Atlantic, at least 12 humpback whales died from toxic algae from a HAB. In 2015 Alaska and British Columbia reported many humpback whales had likely died from HAB toxins, with 30 having washed ashore in Alaska. "Our leading theory at this point is that the harmful algal bloom has contributed to the deaths," said a NOAA spokesperson.
Birds have died after eating dead fish contaminated with toxic algae. Rotting and decaying fish are eaten by birds such as pelicans, seagulls, cormorants, and possibly marine or land mammals, which then become poisoned. The nervous systems of dead birds were examined and had failed from the toxin's effect. On the Oregon and Washington coast, a thousand scoters, or sea ducks, were also killed in 2009. "This is huge," said a university professor. As dying or dead birds washed up on the shore, wildlife agencies went into "an emergency crisis mode."
It has even been suggested that harmful algal blooms are responsible for the deaths of animals found in fossil troves, such as the dozens of cetacean skeletons found at Cerro Ballena.