It’s being called “unprecedented” and “grisly” by National Geographic. Massive waves of dead seabirds are littering the coastline of the Western US and British Columbia (BC). In January 2015, National Geographic reported that thousands of blue-footed diving seabirds (Cassin’s auklets) were washing up on the beaches from San Francisco, Washington State and all the way to central BC (1).
Many of the dead birds are juveniles and are described as being “scraggly”. The die-off is said to be the largest ever recorded. So what is happening to these birds?
Cassin’s auklets (auks) are chunky small seabirds and are found in the North Pacific. They like to nest in small burrows by digging holes in the soil or find a safe place in natural crevices. When in flight they look to many people “like a flying tennis ball” (2).
National Geographic reports that in October 2014, the young birds began to wash up on the shores of California’s Farallon Islands to Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) off central British Columbia.
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