Overview
- Researchers and volunteers have documented unusually large numbers of emaciated and dead seabirds on California beaches this spring as warm surface waters pushed anchovies, sardines and krill offshore.
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography sensors and robotic gliders recorded record-high coastal temperatures and a persistent warm anomaly that NOAA says has lasted about a year.
- Wildlife rescue centers treated hundreds of starving birds this spring, with many victims young, severely emaciated, and showing infections tied to malnourishment.
- State tests show most examined birds have tested negative for avian flu, and officials say food limitation from displaced prey is the leading proximate cause though some deaths may reflect normal post-breeding chick losses.
- Scientists warn the newly confirmed El Niño could make conditions worse and note past events like the 2013 heat anomaly caused far larger, hard-to-measure losses because many birds die at sea and never wash ashore.