- Wildlife officials are investigating the mysterious deaths
of hundreds of sea birds that have washed up on beaches along the Atlantic
coast since mid-June 2005, including south of Sandbridge and on the Outer
Banks.
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- Most of the birds have been greater shearwaters, which
are now migrating north from their breeding grounds in the South Atlantic.
The birds, while fairly common, are rarely seen by beachgoers because they
typically stay 30 to 100 miles offshore, where they feed on small fish
and squid.
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- Some of the birds have washed up alive, unable to fly
and appearing weak, and later died. The number of dead birds has alarmed
wildlife officials, who are scrambling to pinpoint a cause.
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- More than 500 dead sea birds have been reported from
Maryland to Florida since June 12, said Emi Saito, a wildlife disease specialist
with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison,
Wis. "It's unusual to see so many," Saito said this week.
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- Wildlife pathologists are examining the carcasses for
exposure to toxins, pollutants such as heavy metals, and infections that
might indicate a broader environmental concern, she said.
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- During the past week, staffers at the Back Bay National
Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach have found about a dozen dead greater
shearwaters on the beach, said Dorie Stolley, a wildlife biologist. Only
a few remained in good enough condition to be examined, and the others
were incinerated by city animal control officers, she said.
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- Staffers used rubber gloves and took other precautions
while collecting the birds. People are advised not to touch dead birds
they find on the beach.
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- Reports of dead birds also have come from Ocracoke and
Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks.
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- Diane Duncan, an ecologist with the federal wildlife
agency's Ecological Services Office in Charleston, S.C., said the first
reports came from Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and several nearby islands.
Nearly 200 birds have washed up since then in South Carolina, Duncan said.
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- "In 20 years here, I have never seen this kind of
mortality event," Duncan said. "It certainly is a concern to
us, and we'd like to know the cause."
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- Tests on 2 of the birds ruled out toxins found in red
tide, a type of algal bloom that biologists initially suspected as a
culprit, Duncan said.
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- Will Post, an ornithologist and curator at The Charleston
Museum, said he had dissected 6 greater shearwaters that had washed up
alive, unable to fly, and later died. The birds' stomachs were empty, but
they had varying levels of fat reserves, suggesting that they did not die
of starvation, Post said. "They were below normal weight, but that's
normal when they're in migration," he said.
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- The shearwaters fly nearly 5000 miles during their annual
migrations to and from their nesting grounds on Tristan da Cunha, a chain
of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic, Post said. The cold-water birds
breed in April and May and then fly to their summer grounds off New England
and points north, he said.
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- Islanders in the South Atlantic are allowed to harvest
about 50 000 of the young birds a year for food, which is controversial,
Post said. There's an estimated 5 million breeding pairs, he added. The
birds resemble gulls in appearance and size, with brown to gray heads and
white undersides. They have webbed feet and dark, tube-like bills.
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- Since they spend their lives at sea, Post said, they
are able to drink salt water, excreting excess salt through special glands
in their heads.
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- ProMED-mail
-
- ProMED-mail would appreciate more information on this
die-off from authoritative sources. - Mods.TG/MPP ....................tg/pg/mpp
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases"
- message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
- Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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