September 5, 2018 — Scores of starving baby seabirds have been washing up on Northern California beaches this summer, raising fears among scientists that a climatic cycle like the one that wreaked havoc on sea creatures a few years ago may be moving in.
More than 100 undernourished common murre babies have been plucked from beaches from Monterey to Marin County by biologists and volunteers with International Bird Rescue and are being rehabilitated at the organization’s Fairfield center.
J.D. Bergeron, the executive director, said it is unusual at this time of year for the center to have more than a handful of baby murres, a native fish-eating seabird that, with its dark color and white belly, looks like a cute, foot-long penguin.
Normally at this time, he said, the chicks are out at sea being fed by their fathers while the mothers go off to replenish energy reserves after giving birth. But rising ocean temperatures may have made it difficult for the fathers to find the cold-water fish the birds normally eat. Large numbers of beached seabirds have also been found in Alaska this year.
“Obviously there could be some sort of environmental contaminant, but, since the babies are coming in healthy but starving, we think this is a food issue,” Bergeron said. “One of our concerns is that, while this has been all chicks, we will see a followup event with the adults.”
Record high ocean temperatures in Southern California in August created widespread alarm among marine biologists.
Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle