Mysterious mass deaths of

Alaskan birds baffles

scientists
By Joby Warrick January 12 at 4:16 PM

Tens of thousands of dead birds are washing up on the beaches of Alaskas

Prince William Sound, an unexplained mass die-off that some experts say may
be related to the changing climate.
The birds, all of a species known as the common murre, appear to have
starved to death, federal wildlife officials say, suggesting disruptions to the
supply of herring and other fish that make up the birds diet.
A survey by wildlife officials over the weekend counted more than 8,000 dead
murres on the shores of one beach near Whittier, about 60 miles southeast of
Anchorage. Local news video showed bodies of the black-and-white birds
scattered on the beach and floating in the water offshore.
Even for a region that has seen die-offs of murres before, this event seems
exceptional, local officials say.
Scientists tend to get blas about this, but this is bigger than Ive ever seen,
David Irons, a biologist who recently retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Services migratory bird division, said in a video interview with KTVA-TV as
he assisted with the bird count.
Seabird biologists say seabirds are indicators of the health of the ecosystem.
Now theyre dying, and that is telling us something, he said.

Wildlife officials say its not yet known why the birds are starving. One
possible explanation is that the birds usual food supply the schools of
herring and other small fish usually found near the coast have not
materialized this year, perhaps because of changing climate or this years
extreme El Nino weather pattern. While generally plentiful elsewhere in
Alaska, herring populations have been depressed in the Prince William Sound,
scene of the 1983 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
A 2008 scientific study co-authored by Irons found that mortality rates for the
murre tend to increase in years when ocean temperatures are unusually warm.
Alaska is home to an estimated 2.8 million murres scattered among about 230
primary nesting grounds. Wildlife officials are continuing to investigate why
so many are dying this year, starting with the attempt to document the scale of
the die-off.
If we dont record theyre dying, it goes unnoticed, Irons said.
Joby Warrick joined the Posts national staff in 1996. He has covered national security, intelligence and the
Middle East, and currently writes about the environment.

Study: Carib reefs need fish

Published:Thursday | July 3, 2014 | 12:00 AMPhoto

In this file photo, a parrotfish is shown swimming over a dead coral reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary near Key
West, Florida.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP):

Colourful parrotfish and spindly sea urchins are the key to saving the
Caribbean's coral reefs, which may disappear in two decades if no action is
taken, a report by several international organisations said yesterday.
The report, which analysed the work of 90 experts over three years, said Caribbean reefs
have declined by more than 50 per cent since the 1970s. It said that while many experts
have blamed climate change for the problem, a drop in the populations of parrotfish and
sea urchins is largely responsible.
feed off seaweed
Parrotfish and sea urchins feed off seaweed, and a drop in their numbers has led to an
increase in seaweed, which smothers coral reefs, Jeremy Jackson, lead author of the
report, said.
"The situation is truly horrific in the sense that you have all these places that are
desperately overfished," Jackson said in a phone interview from Australia.
He said the main culprits in reef degradation are overfishing, coastal degradation and
diseases introduced to the region.

"Climate change for me so far is 10 per cent of the story," said Jackson, a senior adviser
with the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature, which issued the
report with the United Nations Environment Program and the Global Coral Reef
Monitoring Network.