Coastal Post Online
MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS MONTHLY - FREE PRESS
(415)868-1600 - (415)868-0502(fax) - P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924
June, 2009
Dead Birds On The Beaches
By Karen Nakamura
WildCare is informing the public that there have been "hundreds of seabirds found dead on California beaches" in recent months. The birds have been found from Santa Barbara to the Bay Area. The cause isn't known. The birds hit hardest are Brandt's Cormorants and grebes; 67 cormorants and 13 grebes were recovered at San Francisco's Ocean Beach by the end of April.
A wide network of organizations including WildCare, have been closely watching reports and comparing data and information. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service consider the die-off a "natural event" and not a threat to humans. Preliminary tests showed starvation as the only trait the birds had in common. The problem is birds have also come in with nearly normal weights.
All tests for Avian Influenza, West Nile Virus, Newcastle Disease and Domoic Acid, (which causes the deadly "red algae" blooms) were negative. That introduces a number of theories; a drop in food supplies due to over-fishing, climate change and stream run-off from current crop spraying inland. WildCare asks that dead bird bodies be left on the beach so Beach Combers and Beach Watch groups can gather accurate data. Any live and beached birds should be reported to the local animal control agency for rescue.
A check with Chris Pincetich of Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) said that while Lagunitas Creek and its tributaries are still the strongest southern gateway for returning Coho salmon, very few adults were seen during the past November to January spawning season. There was hope that the late rains might help but only two or three fish were seen after January. SPAWN's volunteers have, however, found 26 Coho redds (egg pods) this spring.
Salmon have a three-year cycle so the 86% overall decline for the second year in a row is alarming. And those two years came right after the New Year's Day flood of 2006 which may have flushed hatching babies into colder, incompatible, downstream waters.
What SPAWN is worried about now is "the teenagers" as Chris calls them. 2007/2008's year-old hatchlings are now going through the same type of changes that teenagers go through as they mature. It takes these out-migrating teenagers one and a half years in the creek to make it to the ocean fully developed and able to survive. Conditions have to be favorable to get as many full-grown adults as possible. That's another reason why, he points out, creek restoration is so important and hopes folks will volunteer for SPAWN's weekend restoration projects. He also recommends attending SPAWN's Barbeque and Celebration June 7 at the Inverness Yacht Club on Tomales Bay.
In early May, the Monterey Bay Aquarium announced that more than 400 leading scientists from nearly two-dozen nations signed a Statement of Consensus concerning the major threats facing the health of the Pacific Ocean, including over-fishing, pollution, habitat destruction and climate change.
For the first time, the scientific community came together in "a single voice to express urgency over the environmental crisis facing the Pacific Ocean." Meg Caldwell executive director of the Center for Ocean Solutions stated in Indonesia as government officials gathered. If left unchecked, scientists warned, there could be devastating consequences to "coastal economies, food supplies, public health and political stability."
The consensus, a synopsis of more than 3,400 scientific papers, was prepared and presented to the gathering by Stanford and the Monterey Bay Aquarium and its Research Institute. Their goal was to create a roadmap for charting "practical, enduring solutions to the many challenges facing the ocean."
One solution not found in the consensus but floating in the ether-sphere is to use Federal stimulus funds to pay local fishermen to restore the fishing fields in lieu of trawling for an appropriate number of years, say three, to give the Coho and Steelhead enough time to at least partially recover. Coho and Steelhead are not the only ones to benefit. Any creature caught in the toxic stew in the oceans is affected.
One extremely interesting concept that could fit into restoring fishing fields is coming from The Nature Conservatory, national and Rhode Island state agencies and NGOs including Save the Bay and the Salt Ponds Coalition, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, the University of Rhode Island and The Shellfishermen's Association, who have formed a public/private transplant restoration project around shellfish and clams in particular.
In the last two years this group has transplanted 20,000 pounds of clams into a sanctuary in Rhode Island's Quonochontaug Pond. The shellfish were taken from "uncertified waters" in an East Greenwich cove. These shellfish couldn't be harvested even though they were certified healthy. Using trucks and whatever it takes to move 90,000 + clams overland, the healthy clams were then transported by boat, to a "spawner-sanctuary", which also prohibits clam harvesting but acts as a breeding ground.
Now, here's the punch line, as those transplanted clams breed, they also feed vociferously on refuse and can clean "roughly one million gallons of water per day." As the babies come of age they move into the now clearer water on the edges of the bed and continue eating and cleaning.
But clams aren't the only aspect of the restoration. Last fall Save the Bay started a full-scale transplant of eelgrass and scientists are looking into ways to restore the entire ecosystem of the pond. Needless to say clean water reduces the potential for harmful algae blooms and other factors, making the pond a healthier place for people and wildlife.
As Save the Bay states. "By breeding in these protected areas, the shellfish will naturally extend the range of the clam population into areas with clean water. And healthy clams will seed and grow, providing recreational fishing opportunities as well as restoring the overall health of the pond."
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