The small, white-bellied gray birds seem to be starving say scientists, and that is perplexing, although some researchers say a small number of seabird deaths is to be expected in harsh winter conditions, or when severe storms hit. But even these conditions don’t explain the hundreds of birds being found on beaches.
“To be this lengthy and geographically widespread, I think is kind of unprecedented,” Phillip Johnson, executive director of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, told the Salem Statesman Journal. “It’s an interesting and somewhat mysterious event.”
Julia Burco, a wildlife veterinarian for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says the mass die-off, called a “wreck” in birding lingo, of the Cassin’s auklets has been going on since October of 2014. And from reports coming in from people finding the little birds along the beaches in Oregon, the number of dead birds amounts to 50 to 100 per mile.
Even though the die-offs have been reported as far north as British Columbia to as far south as San Louis Obispo, it appears that Northern Oregon beaches are the epicenter of the mass die-offs said Phillip Johnson, executive director of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition. “To be this lengthy and geographically widespread, I think is kind of unprecedented,” he said.
Because the birds appear to have starved to death, toxins are being ruled out. Instead, researchers are thinking that perhaps an unusually successful breeding season has lead to too many young birds competing for food. They think bad weather may have forced the birds into areas they are not familiar with, or the storms have prevented them from foraging.
Another possibility is the warmer, more acidic ocean. This could be affecting the tiny zooplankton such as Krill the birds like to eat. The suggestion is that the ocean for some combination of reasons is less abundant for their food sources,” Johnson said. He added that the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin is conducting additional necropsies.
