OXNARD : Dead Gulls Mystify Wildlife Experts

Wildlife experts in Sacramento are analyzing five sea-gull carcasses, but so far haven’t solved the mystery of why 90 dead gulls washed ashore Saturday at Oxnard’s Ormond Beach.

“We don’t know why they died, but we know they weren’t shot,” said Dr. Pamela Swift, wildlife veterinarian with the state Department of Fish and Game. “We checked for the presence of lead shot and we didn’t find any.”

Also mystified is Al Sanders, chairman of the local Sierra Club. Nor can he understand why nobody has bothered to remove the dead birds from the beach.

“They’re starting to smell right now,” Sanders said. “And they’ll continue to smell for quite some time.”

Morgan Wehtje, a state wildlife biologist, said nature will take care of that problem. Other birds, he said, will eat the gulls, or the carcasses will eventually wash back into the ocean.

Wehtje speculates the birds most likely were poisoned after eating a toxic meal from a garbage receptacle or Bailard Landfill. That theory is bolstered by the fact that people also noticed dead gulls along Harbor Boulevard, Wehtje said.

“Because they all hang out as a group, they probably all ate together,” Wehtje said. “They all fly off and they all die. Not all poison causes you to drop dead on your feet instantly.”

Authorities found the gulls lying on their backs or face down. The birds showed no signs of wounds, discoloration or oil, Sanders said.

Swift said her lab should get results back on the necropsy, or bird autopsy, next week. By then, she said, she should be able to determine whether it was an infectious disease that killed the gulls, spreading from bird to bird.