Alaska Dispatch News reports that thousands of dead Common Murres are washing up in Whittier and other parts of Prince William Sound.
Thousands of dead common murres are washing up on the beaches of Whittier, an unprecedented die-off that has scientists wondering how many more thousands remain uncounted throughout Prince William Sound.
A recently retired federal biologist doing beach surveys in Whittier over the weekend estimated there were more than 7,800 dead murres along a little over a mile of beach. That’s nearly five dead birds per meter of beach, officials say.
The birds are dangerously underweight and emaciated. Bird rescuers in Anchorage have been treating a number of murres who have been found recently stranded in inland locations where they don’t have the open water they need in order to take off. Some may have been blown inland by recent storms with hurricane force winds. All of them were starving.
Scientists don’t know exactly what’s causing the die-offs and associated murre strandings inland, far from the North Pacific, where they normally spend the winter. But they know the birds are dangerously underweight and emaciated.
It’s possible that warmer ocean conditions have pushed prey fish deeper, beyond the murres’ diving range of about 600 feet, or that there's a disease or some other medical condition that's causing them to starve. It's also possible that strong winds from recent storms pushed the birds off course, or stressed the already starving murres to the point of exhaustion and death.
Murres, which weigh a little more than two pounds, need to eat half their body weight every day, Piatt said.
The hundreds of stranded live birds picked up have overwhelmed Alaskan bird and wildlife rescue organizations in recent weeks .