In Alaska, Year Five Of Mass Seabird Dieoffs; Multiple Species & Locations - Starvation

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Biologists in Alaska have again seen massive seabird die-offs this summer, or “wrecks,” as some experts call them, extending from May into last month. According to the National Park Service, reports received by mid-August documented thousands of dead short-tailed shearwaters from Bristol Bay, and lower numbers of other types of birds, found deceased in the Northern Bering and Chukchi Seas. This marks the fifth year in a row Alaska has seen mass seabird mortality events.

“Of all the carcasses we’ve collected and sent in, and that people have examined or looked at in any way, it’s starvation. The birds are dying of starvation,” said Kathy Kuletz seabird section lead for Alaska with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Kuletz said scientists still can’t determine why hundreds and hundreds of birds, of a variety of species, are washing up on Alaska’s shores, starving to death. According to Kuletz, it’s possible that toxins from harmful algal blooms weakened the birds, preventing them from foraging, cannot be ruled out.

Besides unusually large amounts of dead birds, USFWS has also received reports of lethargic seabirds staying in nearshore areas, places where Kuletz said they wouldn’t usually be found. “Like up inside bays and harbors. And this has even been happening in the Gulf of Alaska near Kodiak. There’s been some shearwaters washing up in there, and in Bristol Bay, they were moving into those waters. During the salmon gillnet fishing season, they were getting caught in gillnets when they don’t normally occur in that region,”

EDIT

https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/09/23/wanted-unalaska-birders-and-beachcombers-to-help-track-seabird-mortalities/

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1. The shearwaters in the coal mine