Common murres have had a few bad
years. The unusual warm weather temperatures, known as the blob, dramatically
shifted the availability of their food supply in the Gulf of Alaska, starving
thousands of birds to death. And most murres stopped breeding. But there is
some good news. A small amount of baby murres are hatching again in colonies
from the Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea.
It’s not unusual for common
murres to have die-offs. But Heather Renner, a supervisory biologist at the
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, said the die-off a few years ago was
unprecedented.
“There's about two or three
million common murres in Alaska and we don't know exactly how many died
during the big die-off of 2015 to 2016, but probably about 500,000,” she said.
Renner said it’s clear the warm
weather temperatures from 2014 through the beginning of 2017 were responsible
for starving thousands of common murres. The sudden change in temperature led
to fewer fish for the murres to eat and there are a couple theories as to why:
Continued
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