Seabird Woes
In the early part of this winter season, birders and beachcombers began finding dozens of dead loons strewn along beaches, particularly on the ocean shoreline of the South Fork and in the area of Napeague Bay. Most, but not all, of these were Red-throated Loons. To date, I have not heard that a cause had been determined. Around the same time, various members of the Auk family showed up in curious places. A Thick-billed Murre found in Hempstead Lake State Park was observed for several days, after which its carcass was recovered from the ice. Several Dovekies were reportedly picked up from area beaches and delivered to local veterinarians and wildlife rehabbers. Up north, the population of Ivory Gulls has reportedly crashed. It is unknown whether the unusual occurrence of two Ivory Gulls in Massachusetts this winter, far south of their normal range, was a result of these birds trying to escape the causal agent or agents.

Here on the East Coast, we are not unique in observing this extreme seabird mortality. Out on the West Coast, hundreds of Brown Pelicans have been found dead and dying. Many of these have shown up in locations away from the immediate coast, in parking lots and fields, in an obvious disoriented state.

Carl Safina, in his wonderful book, The Eye of the Albatross, described the precarious existence that seabirds live. The odds are not in their favor, and factors such as non-sustainable fishing practices, pollution and global warming could tragically tip the scales and drive many species to extinction. In the case of the West Coast pelicans, it is believed that domoic acid, produced by marine algae, may have played a role, at least as a partial cause. Domoic acid, passed up the food chain to seabirds, causes the birds to become sick to various degrees, and, although it may not often kill them directly, it impedes their ability to cope with other environmental stresses, such as cold temperatures.

Well, you may say, cold temperatures and acid-producing algae are both natural phenomena, so we needn’t worry. Two factors need to be considered, however. First, there has been a significant, documented increase in the number, extent and duration of “nuisance” algae blooms in coastal waters. These large blooms, a major source of domoic acid, are the result of overfertilization from runoff from developed lands, and they might also be linked to global warming. Our local Brown Tide is a good example. Second, global warming is increasing the foraging ranges of many seabirds, including Brown Pelicans. Twenty or thirty years ago, it was nearly unheard of to see a Brown Pelican north of Cape May. Now they are reported regularly in our area waters in the summer. If they linger too long into the fall, and an arctic cold front pushes through, these non-cold adapted birds are in trouble. This may also explain some of the recent pelican mortality out west.

Finally, Antarctic researchers are deeply concerned about portions of the Emperor Penguin population. These magnificent birds are very much like Polar Bears in the northern hemisphere in their dependence on sea ice. The current projections are for a drastic reduction in sea ice within a portion of the Emperor Penguin range, which will possibly extirpate certain of the more northern populations of this species.

The news isn’t good, and, as more reports file in, it keeps getting worse.