Climate change link to puffin deaths (1 Viewer)

Climate change played a role in the deaths of thousands of puffins in Alaska, according to a study.

Scientists believe the birds starved to death when the fish they eat migrated north with rising sea temperatures.

The bodies of dead, emaciated puffins began washing up on beaches on Saint Paul Island in autumn 2016.

Up to 9,000 puffins and other seabirds died over the course of a few months, US scientists say.

And climate-driven shifts in fish populations, combined with the onset of moulting, may have caused this mass die-off.


Full article here.

US Federal wildlife officials said this month [9 Sep 2019] that the deaths of thousands of seabirds in western Alaska this summer was because of starvation, as they investigate a fifth straight year of unusually high numbers of seabird fatalities amid warm sea surface temperatures.

Thousands of short-tailed shearwaters were reported dead and washing onto beaches in the Bristol Bay region starting in late June [2019], the National Park Service said in a statement on Monday 9 Sep 2019:

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/201...ie-off-in-alaska-waters-linked-to-starvation/