Troubled times for tubenoses

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

We were surprised to see dark gray, gull-like birds called Northern

fulmars hanging around the Huntington Beach and Newport piers

recently. The presence of Northern fulmars far off the coast of

Southern California in December isn’t all that unusual, since they

winter here. But seeing them close to shore often means that they are

sick. In fact, fulmars are dying all along the Pacific Coast from

Seattle to Ensenada. Unfortunately, no one knows why.

Local bird rescue centers are swamped with sick fulmars. The

Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach has received 45

birds so far. Sea World in San Diego has treated 170 birds and

another 70 have been taken to a facility in San Pedro.

Fulmars are lumped with albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters in a

group called tubenoses. They earned this name because their nostrils

are enclosed in prominent tubes set atop relatively heavy, hooked

beaks. The tube is actually an organ that excretes salt, which

enables them to drink salt water and remain at sea for most of the

year.

Fulmars differ from gulls in appearance by being stockier, with

thicker necks and more prominent foreheads. They also have different

feather markings, but quite honestly, you have to be heavily into

bird watching to notice the differences.

Adult fulmars come ashore only to nest. They spend the rest of

their lives far out to sea, searching the surface for small fish,

squid and jellyfish. They often scavenge scraps from fishing boats,

squabbling with each other over feasts of fish entrails tossed

overboard.

Clues to the tubenose troubles have come from both professional

and amateur bird watchers. A marine resources manager formerly with

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Oregon has been counting dead

fulmars on beaches there for more than 25 years. Hey, everyone needs

a hobby.

During the 1980s, he usually recorded between zero and 12 dead

fulmars each year, and never as many as 50. During the 1990s, there

were five years in which he found more than 100 dead fulmars per

year. This shows a disturbing trend toward increased mortality. This

year, he found 421 dead fulmars, almost all in October and November.

Counting dead fulmars turns out to be a hobby that is far more

common than we would have guessed. Last month, various groups

reported 281 dead fulmars in Washington, 500 in San Francisco Bay,

300 in Monterey Bay, and 500 south of Ensenada. Keep in mind that

these reported deaths are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Many more dead fulmars are likely to have sunk at sea and many others

that washed ashore were not counted.

Not satisfied with mere body counts, biologists from Moss Landing

Marine Laboratories in Monterey Bay collected 166 dead fulmars for

detailed examination. They discovered that 96% of the dead birds were

juveniles that hatched this past summer. Feather color and bill

characteristics indicated that the birds were from the Gulf of Alaska

flock, rather than from the Aleutian or Bering Sea flocks. The birds

had no fat reserves and their muscles were atrophied, both signs of

starvation.

When the scientists delved deeper, they discovered plastic in the

birds’ gizzards, but not enough to have killed them. A starving bird

will eat anything. While some of the gizzards contained old squid

beaks, none contained any fresh prey. The feathers on the dead birds

were in good condition with no fraying, so battering from storms

apparently wasn’t the cause of death. The scientists concluded that

the young birds had starved to death.

They proposed that the fulmar die-off is the result of a series of

storms that disrupted the usual food chain along the migratory path

of the birds as they flew south for the winter. But why the high

mortality rate among just the young birds and why along the entire

Pacific Coast? Perhaps the migratory path or feeding pattern of the

young birds differs from that of adults. Perhaps unseasonably warm

waters in October caused prey to move deeper in the water column.

Fulmars don’t dive. They are strictly surface feeders. But so are the

other tubenoses, and they aren’t washing up dead. It’s difficult to

explain why mostly first year fulmars, and apparently just those from

the Gulf of Alaska flock, are dying from Washington to Baja.

All evidence points to a lack of food. Did changes in Arctic

waters wrought by global warming disrupt the normal movements of the

fulmars’ prey? If the first year fulmars needed to fatten near where

they hatched before setting off on their fall migration, and if the

Gulf of Alaska was bereft of food for them this year, that might help

explain the mystery. But that’s a lot of ifs.

Good science and good data collection by even amateur bird

watchers may help solve the puzzle eventually. Meanwhile, the ocean

still holds many mysteries for us to unravel.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].