Pacific seabirds could be in danger as 'marine heatwaves' worsen, new study says
A study from the University of Washington is revealing a threat to Pacific seabirds that is already in motion and may have heartbreaking consequences.
Called, "marine heatwaves," the threat to birds is giant blobs of warm water that form in the Pacific Ocean. Alison Hermance with WildCare rehabilitation hospital in San Rafael said the heated water can have catastrophic effects on seabirds.
"It causes the fish to go deep," she said. "And the fish going deeper means that birds like common murres and Cassin's auklets, some of the smaller seabirds that we have off our coast of California, those birds can't dive deep enough to get the food that they need."
That's what happened in 2015 when hundreds of common murres, a cute little seabird that looks like a miniature penguin, began showing up on Bay Area beaches. The International Bird Rescue in Fairfield was inundated with them.
''We normally get maybe 150 of the common murres every year, but we had more than 500 of them over a three-month period in 2015," said Dr. Rebecca Duerr, IBR's Veterinary Science Director. "They were stranding with signs of serious nutritional stress. Their feathers were bleached. They didn't have the energy to molt their feathers normally. Yeah, they were essentially starving to death."
The problem is the marine heatwaves are getting worse. A new study from the University of Washington analyzed 29 years of data from Northern California to Alaska and came to a grim conclusion.
"Given that these events likely include some of the largest marine bird mortality events that have ever been documented ... It is likely that the abundance of North Pacific marine birds was reduced by millions of birds as a result," the study noted.
Dr. James Harvey, a marine biology researcher with San Jose State participated in the study and said the marine heatwaves are occurring more often and over larger areas. And he said the consequences may make our worst fears a reality.
"Because it's occurring so fast, most species are not going to be able to adapt to it and be able to survive," said Dr. Harvey. "They can't take that for very long. If you keep doing this over and over and over again, at some point you're going to see population level changes. And that could lead to extinction of some species."
Back at WildCare, the cages are all tarped off to protect the patients from another deadly threat, the Avian Flu. And while, in the wild, seabirds may be accustomed to dealing with an ever-changing environment, Hermance wonders when it will all be too much for them.
"Watching these bird populations plummet because of these hot water, marine heatwave events is really, really scary," she said. "And it says a lot about what's happening to our environment."
Rising ocean temperatures are happening all over the world. Recently the water temperature in Manatee Bay in Florida reached 101 degrees, a common setting for hot tubs.
It is thought to be the hottest ocean water temperature ever recorded. Of course, the worst part is, we know of no way to stop it.
Animal care experts say all people can do now is try to eliminate any other activities that may be putting pressure on seabirds, so they can at least have a fighting chance.