[mou] bird die-offs

[Jim Williams]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ellen Paul <ellen.paul@verizon.net>
Date: July 15, 2005 11:33:01 AM CDT
To: ORNITH-L@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Ornithologists and birds in the [worrisome] news
Reply-To: "ORNITH-L: the scientific discussion of Ornithology"          
     <ORNITH-L@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU>

Pelican die-offs in South Dakota; increased seabird mortality on both 
coasts.

Ellen Paul           Executive Director
The Ornithological Council
Mailto:ellen.paul@verizon.net
Ornithological Council Website:  http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET
"Providing Scientific Information about Birds"

July 13, 2005

Scientists Raise Alarm About Ocean Health

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:50 p.m. ET

SEATTLE (AP) -- With a record number of dead seabirds washing up on 
West Coast beaches from Central California to British Columbia, marine 
biologists are raising the alarm about rising ocean temperatures and 
dwindling plankton populations.

''Something big is going on out there,'' said Julia Parrish, an 
associate professor in the School of Aquatic Fisheries and Sciences at 
the University of Washington. ''I'm left with no obvious smoking gun, 
but birds are a good signal because they feed high up on the food 
chain.''

Coastal ocean temperatures are 2 to 5 degrees above normal, which may 
be related to a lack of updwelling, in which cold, nutrient-rich water 
is brought to the surface.

Updwelling is fueled by northerly winds that sweep out near-shore 
waters and bring cold water to the surface. The process starts the 
marine food chain, fueling algae and shrimplike krill populations that 
feed small fish, which then provide a source of food for a variety of 
sea life from salmon to sea birds and marine mammals.

On Washington beaches, bird surveyors in May typically find an average 
of one dead Brandt's cormorant every 34 miles of beach. This year, 
cormorant deaths averaged one every eight-tenths of a mile, according 
to data gathered by volunteers with the Coastal Observation and Seabird 
Survey Team, which Parrish has directed since 2000.

''This is somewhere between five and 10 times the highest number of 
bird deaths we've seen before,'' she said, adding that she expected 
June figures to show a similar trend.

This spring's cool, wet weather brought southwesterly wind to coastal 
areas and very little northerly wind, said Nathan Mantua, a research 
scientist with the Climate Impacts Group at the University of 
Washington. Without northerly winds, there is no updwelling and 
plankton stay at lower depths.

''In 50 years, this has never happened,'' said Bill Peterson, an 
oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
in Newport, Ore. ''If this continues, we will have a food chain that is 
basically impoverished from the very lowest levels.''

Problems at the bottom of the food chain could also be related to 
decreases in juvenile salmon populations this summer.

NOAA's June and July surveys of juvenile salmon off the coasts of 
Oregon, Washington and British Columbia indicate a 20 percent to 30 
percent drop in populations, compared with surveys from 1998-2004.

''We don't really know that this will cause bad returns. The runs this 
year haven't been horrible, but below average,'' said Ed Casillas, 
program manager of Estuarine and Ocean Ecology at NOAA's Northwest 
Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

Scientists tracking anomolies along Washington's coast reported the 
appearance of warm-water plankton species and scores of jellyfish 
piling up on beaches. A Guadalupe fur seal, native to South America, 
was found dead in Ocean Shores.

Parrish and a scientist near San Francisco report changes in bird 
breeding. Both said starvation stress could be the cause for decreased 
breeding and increased bird deaths.

Peterson, the NOAA oceanographer, said many scientists suspect climate 
change may be involved.

''People have to realize that things are connected -- the state of 
coastal temperatures and plankton populations are connected to larger 
issues like Pacific salmon populations,'' he said.

Parrish cautioned that human activity could jeopardize the survival of 
animals already stressed by environmental changes.

''This, for instance, would be a truly bad year for an oil spill,'' she 
said.

July 13, 2005


  Officials Investigating Pelican Deaths

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 1:32 p.m. ET

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating 
the deaths of thousands of young white pelicans at a wildlife refuge in 
central North Dakota, a year after thousands of adult birds abruptly 
left the same location.

At least 8,000 chicks may have died over the past two months, said Ken 
Torkelson, a spokesman for the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

''The difference is, last year the adults left first,'' he said. ''This 
year, the young have died and the adults have no reason to stick 
around.''

Severe storms or a disease outbreak may have caused the mass die-off, 
said Marsha Sovada, a biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's 
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in Jamestown.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said an inspection of the refuge last 
week indicated only about 500 chicks left from a nesting period that 
could have produced as many as 9,000 of them. All but about 2,000 
adults had left, from a population estimated at 18,850 in late May.

Officials had hoped the refuge would return to normal after nearly 
30,000 adult pelicans took off last year, leaving their young behind. 
Officials still can't determine what caused last year's exodus.

The white pelican, one of the largest birds in North America, breeds 
only once a year, and males and females take turns caring for their 
young. The birds have a wingspan of nearly 10 feet and live about 25 
years.

The white pelican colony at the 4,385-acre Chase Lake National Wildlife 
Refuge north of Medina has been the largest in North America, peaking 
at 35,466 birds in 2000.

The pelicans normally stay at the Chase Lake refuge through September, 
raising their young and feasting on crawfish, small fish and foot-long 
salamanders from small ponds known as prairie potholes.

Samples have been sent to the National Wildlife Health Center in 
Madison, Wis., to try to find out what killed the young birds at Chase 
Lake.

The chicks that remain at the refuge are still being cared for by 
adults, Torkelson said. The chicks remaining at the refuge appear to be 
healthy, Sovada said.

Biologists have attached backpack-like electronic tracking equipment to 
eight pelicans to monitor their movements when they leave the colony, 
and plan to fit two more with the equipment.

Sovada said large die-offs of pelican chicks also have been reported 
this week at Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northeast 
Montana and at Waubay National Wildlife Refuge in northeast South 
Dakota.

''It could have no relation to what's happening at Chase Lake,'' she 
said.

The West Nile virus likely is to blame for the chick deaths in Montana 
and South Dakota, Sovada said.

Other pelican nesting colonies have had high chick mortality rates in 
the past three years, Torkelson said.