Post by rowanberry on Dec 15, 2019 9:43:52 GMT
A few days ago I came across an article about the deaths of hundreds of seabirds washing up on the beaches near Sydney.
The birds are short-tailed shearwaters, and avian experts are saying the birds starved to death on their migration from Alaska to Australia.
A short Google-search brought up another article about the birds... it seems they were dying of starvation even before they left Alaska.
"The carcasses began to arrive in July.
Residents around the Bristol Bay area of Alaska found thousands of dead short-tailed shearwaters washing up on remote beaches, and sent samples to Anchorage.
“We collected about 100 birds for testing and they didn’t test positive for any diseases or toxins,” says Dr Kathy Kuletz of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
“They were severely emaciated. The birds had starved.”
Residents around the Bristol Bay area of Alaska found thousands of dead short-tailed shearwaters washing up on remote beaches, and sent samples to Anchorage.
“We collected about 100 birds for testing and they didn’t test positive for any diseases or toxins,” says Dr Kathy Kuletz of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
“They were severely emaciated. The birds had starved.”
But, there were other articles coming up during my search relating to the dead birds and the state of Alaska's fisheries... it seems that the United States government has had to take the drastic action of closing the Alaskan fishery.
"Extremely low cod numbers have lead feds to close the Gulf of Alaska fishery for the first time ever. In an unprecedented response to historically low numbers of Pacific cod, the federal cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska is closing for the 2020 season."
It seems that it's not just fishing that is depleting the numbers... the warming waters are causing the cod (and other fish) not to spawn, and it is also killing young spawn who need cooler waters. This is what links these two envionmental crises....
"In November 2019, thousands of short-tailed shearwaters birds migrating from Alaska were washing up dead on Sydney’s iconic beaches and the bird deaths had nothing to do with the massive wildfires in the area, thousands more, short-tailed shearwaters were dying out at sea, in what was confirmation of the incredible fish shortages in the Pacific Ocean. The corpses had been spotted at several shorelines including Bondi, Manly and Cronulla. The birds were migrating back to southern Australia to breed after spending the summer in Alaska. But, according to experts, a higher number than usual are dying on the way due to a lack of food. The birds need to be at full strength to make the 14,000km trip over the Pacific but the krill and other fish they feed on have apparently dwindled due to sea temperatures rising."
What I find to be so extraordinarily troubling is that they know about this TWO YEARS AGO.... this article was published in November 2017.
"Last month, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which regulates groundfish in Alaska and other federal fisheries, received some shocking news. Pacific cod stocks in the Gulf of Alaska may have declined as much as 70 percent over the past two years. That estimate is a preliminary figure, but it leaves plenty of questions about the future of cod fishing in Gulf of Alaska."
Our canaries in the coalmines are dying all around us, and I'm not sure the people in charge are really doing anything about it... other than wasting time attacking and lampooning a young girl who is doing her best to shout out the alarm. 
