Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumIn Maine, Tern & Puffin Dieoff Worsens; Scientists Link Disappearing Herring To Climate, Overfishing
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Weve seen a 40 percent decline of Arctic terns in the last 10 years, said Linda Welch, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist at the refuge. Arctic tern pairs in Maine have fallen from 4,224 pairs in 2008 to 2,467 pairs last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service said. Biologists at the Maine refuge are not sure whether herring sought colder waters elsewhere or went deeper, but they are no longer on the surface, from which Arctic terns pluck them. While other birds can dive deep for food, Arctic terns cannot.
Theyre not getting herring, so they bring butterfish that the chicks cant swallow, Welch said. So they starve to death. You have thousands and thousands of chicks dying. Its very sad. On the Machias Seal Island, the largest tern colony on the refuges 50 islands, a shortage of fish prompted 3,000 pairs to abandon their nests in 2007. They havent raised any chicks since, Welch said.
Arctic terns arrive at the Maine islands after a month of flying from the Antarctic, about 470 miles a day 14,000 total low on energy, longing for a bite. If they lack food and energy, they cant keep the gulls off them, Welch said. Gulls eat terns.
In the past two years, Welch said, biologists at the refuge went to the most productive foraging grounds where seabirds, whales and dolphin prey on herring, and spotted fishing trawlers. When [the trawlers] come out, the whales and birds disappear, and you dont see them again, Welch said. I think its hard to deny that they dont have an effect on these birds.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/biologists-worried-by-migratory-birds-starvation-seen-as-tied-to-climate-change/2013/06/19/c04d8a74-d90d-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html?tid=ts_carousel
pscot
(21,024 posts)Cherry point (site of an oil port and refinery) was historically the most productive herring spawning ground in the sound. The area has seen a 92% decline since the 70's, yet there's still a commercial fishery. Now the critters are beset by a non-native parisite.
All the forage fish are in trouble up here. Anchovy have all but vanished, and the scientific effort to understand these populations has been minimal. This is the base of the food chain for all the bigger animals in the sound. The proposed coal port on Bellingham bay will no doubt do wonders for the health of the Salish Sea.