[Mike]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0324deadmurres-ON.html

Associated Press
Mar. 24, 2004 01:50 PM

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Seabirds called murres are starving all over
Alaska’s south-central coast, and scientists say they don’t know why.

Ailing seabirds are dropping onto Valdez streets and parking lots,
floating into Whittier and washing up on Seward beaches.

“It’s staggering,” said Verena Gill, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
biologist, who led a survey of Seward beaches that found 72 dead
murres.

Throughout March, people have been calling wildlife agencies with
murre sightings.

Biologists said the common murres are experiencing a major die-off.
So far, Gill said, all the sightings add up to 1,000-2,000 dead or
ill murres, and that would be a fraction of the total number.

Mass deaths happen periodically to murres, which look like little
penguins, around the world.

The seabirds are not endangered, though. Perhaps 10 million murres
live in Alaska waters, said John Piatt, a U.S. Geological Survey
biologist who documented a 1993 die-off. In that instance, more than
100,000 birds died, Piatt said.

In 1998, a smaller die-off occurred, apparently confined to Cook
Inlet, he said.

Common murres are about 17 inches tall, with dark brown coloring on
their backs and heads and white bellies. They weigh 2.2 pounds when
healthy. They waddle on land, but are phenomenal deepwater divers.
Their primary food source is herring.

Scientists haven’t figured out what is causing the starvation. It
could be a combination of bad weather and scarcity of fish, Piatt
said.

“The fish may move off or move deeper. They (the murres) are making a
living out there in the open ocean all winter long,” he said. “They
have to feed pretty much every day.”

The Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward has rescued 18 birds – some just
60 percent of their average body weight – and hopes to learn more
about what’s causing the deaths, said center rehabilitation
technician Tim Lebling.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will also send some dead birds to a
USGS lab in Madison, Wis., which investigates unusual die-offs. The
Madison group will look for toxins, parasites and diseases, Gill said.

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