Experts puzzled by seabird deaths
MARINA, Calif. -- More than 150 seabirds are sick and 26 have died recently at Marina State Beach, apparently of starvation.
David Jessup of the state Department of Fish and Game said Wednesday that Northern fulmars in Central California are thin or emaciated.
Most of the ill birds are young; the famine could result from a mysterious change in the food chain.
Some have signs of poxvirus infection, and three have an oily substance researchers hadn’t yet identified.
The fulmar resembles a sea gull but is unrelated. It eats fish, squid and zooplankton and may live 30 years. The years 2003 and 1976 also saw famine in the gray-and-white birds, which migrate from Alaska and Canada.
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