Skip to main content
Advanced Search

Filters: Tags: Common murre (X)

2 results (10ms)   

View Results as: JSON ATOM CSV
About 62,000 dead or dying common murres (Uria aalge), the trophically dominant fish-eating seabird of the North Pacific, washed ashore between summer 2015 and spring 2016 on beaches from California to Alaska. Most birds were severely emaciated and, so far, no evidence for anything other than starvation was found to explain this mass mortality. Three-quarters of murres were found in the Gulf of Alaska and the remainder along the West Coast. Total mortality was estimated at 0.54 to 1.2 million birds. About two-thirds of murres killed were adults, a substantial blow to breeding populations. Additionally, 22 complete reproductive failures were observed at multiple colonies region-wide during (2015) and after (2016-2017)...
During 2015, beachcast bird survey programs (Beach Watch and BeachCOMBERS) reported higher than average deposition of common murres (Uria aalge) on central and northern California beaches from August through December. Increased common murre mortality was not reported for southern California beaches. International Bird Rescue (IBR) located in Fairfield, CA and other coastal wildlife rehabilitation centers received more than 1,000 live, stranded and debilitated murres from Sonoma County to San Luis Obispo County during August – October. Approximately 2/3 of birds admitted to IBR were after-hatch-year birds in emaciated body condition and in various stages of molt, with extremely worn plumage. To determine the probable...
    map background search result map search result map Data release for Investigation of a largescale common murre (Uria aalge) mortality event in California in 2015 Data release for Investigation of a largescale common murre (Uria aalge) mortality event in California in 2015