A Coastal bird affected by a rare algal bloom.
Posted: Monday, October26, 2009
Wildlife rescue centers in Western Oregon and Washington are
being overwhelmed with dying seabirds. The US Coast Guard
today used a military cargo plane to airlift more than 300 birds to a
rehab center in California. Correspondent Tom Banse has more
from Astoria.
The problem is an unusual algal bloom. This particular algae cleans
the water-proofing off bird feathers, meaning affected seabirds can
no longer stay warm and dry. Hundreds of dead and dying seabirds
started washing up on ocean beaches last week. Rebecca Dmytryk
of the International Bird Rescue Research Center has never seen a
disaster quite like it.
Dmytryk: “It is extremely like an oil spill without the oil, except
that we don’t have any responsible party other than it is nature.”
Sound: [bird plaintively chirps]
Dmytryk was part of small team of bird rehabilitators flow up
from California by the Coast Guard. They flew home with a plane
load of over three hundred loons, grebes, and murres. The diving
birds were collected between Long Beach, Washington and Cannon
Beach, Oregon. Other weakened birds are being transported and
nursed back to health as far away as Seattle.
Copyright 2009 KUOW