West Coast Pelicans Mysteriously Dying Off in Droves

Published on January 9th, 2009

Rescuers are baffled over ailing pelicans — This is peculiar because this was the first year that I personally noticed a lack of Pelicans in the SF Bay Area. The bird may be doomed!

Hundreds of brown pelicans have turned up sick or dead in the last two weeks from Baja California to Washington, stumping scientists who suspect toxic algae, disease or unpredictable weather conditions.

The birds with distinctive prehistoric silhouettes are turning up disoriented in odd places, some with discolored or bruised pouches. They fly onto highways and parking lots or sit quietly in backyards where they are rescued.

The International Bird Rescue Research Center, in Cordelia near Fairfield and in San Pedro in Southern California, is treating 75 birds, 15 of them received Thursday. Some birds have recovered.

Veterinarians and researchers are considering a range of causes, including natural toxins in algae called domoic acid or a virus or unpredictable weather conditions that may have thrown the birds off of their feeding patterns.

19 users responded in " West Coast Pelicans Mysteriously Dying Off in Droves "

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# 1 Miss Teareous said, on January 9th, 2009 at 1:02 pm

This is simple, there was a cold snap last month and they got bird flu. Don’t expect scientists to figure this out anytime soon though they will keep hunting for “clues” as that’s what pays their mortgage!

# 2 The Warden said, on January 9th, 2009 at 1:02 pm

Al Gore has secretly poisoned them with alka seltzer so he can publicly blame their deaths on man made Global Warming from gas engines. He’s one sneaky geek!

# 3 Personality said, on January 9th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

It is a fact that sludge from Mexico travels North and pollutes the waters of South Cal. Maybe it is getting worse.

# 4 Misanthropic Scott said, on January 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pm

This is very sad. The idea that this could be caused at least partially by a rise in the population of a species of diatom that produces toxins makes me wonder if this could be related to an article I read a while back about precambrian life making a comeback due to our near total destruction of large swaths of life in the oceans that would otherwise keep such creatures in check.

http://tinyurl.com/m4ocf

# 5 Angel H. Wong said, on January 9th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Those are nothing but liberal, tree-hugging lies threatening the fishermen’s livelihoods just for a handful of birds.

Damn, I’m good at impersonating Republicans.

# 6 Misanthropic Scott said, on January 9th, 2009 at 2:15 pm

#5 – Angel,

Almost good enough to catch me there for a second.

BTW, I do not consider being called a liberal tree-hugger to be an insult, though I don’t actually hug trees.

# 7 bobbo said, on January 9th, 2009 at 2:52 pm

#6–Scott==”I don’t actually hug trees” /// You will if you ever are in one more than 10 feet off the ground. (smile!)

# 8 chuck said, on January 9th, 2009 at 3:31 pm

The cause of the problem is simple: All the pelicans had AMEX cards and the APR just went up to 46%. They can’t afford the payments, but can’t get a government bail-out, so they’ve committing suicide.

# 9 patromino said, on January 9th, 2009 at 4:59 pm

….bird flu?……

# 10 Glenn E. said, on January 9th, 2009 at 10:43 pm

Since the Pelicans are dropping dead on US soil, I’m sure the scientists are just waiting to blame the average US citizen for their deaths. It’s not like they could be suffering from the polution coming from China. Or as Personality says, sludge from Mexico. It may not even be a “man made” problem at all. But you know that’s not going to go over well with the eco-fanatics. They’ll label this as more evidence of G.W., just to keep that con alive, thru a hard winter. I think the people up in Washington State would welcome a little Global Warming right now. And Alaska has had some record low temps lately too. Temps they usually don’t lasting so long.
http://tinyurl.com/8ynvls

# 11 Buzz said, on January 10th, 2009 at 12:56 am

It’s called a “flight of pelicans” not a drove of pelicans. Geez.

# 12 Glenn E. said, on January 10th, 2009 at 1:05 am

Well I haven’t see any mention of it yet, here at the blog. So I’m posting it on this item, a bit out of topic. But still part of environmental concern.

NASA came out with another scare about the possibility of solar flares blacking out the worlds’ power grid. And so they urged spending billions to strenghten the grid in the US. This sounds to me like NASA is using Enron’s old tricks to get billions for the utilities industry. Or at least FOX News was. NASA also wants millions to build an in-space early warning satellite, to detect the flares. Not that a blessed thing could be done, with a few minutes of warning.

But NASA has been in the “why we need your tax dollars” excuse business. The “Texas sized” meteor scare wore thin, I guess. And they had no practical solution for those anyway. So they’ve moved on from “brimstone” tracking, to “hellfire” tracking. And of course when they get around to re-scaring us about the sun becoming a “red giant”. That will be their “lake of fire” prediction. How very Old Testament NASA can be, for a pack of atheists.

# 13 Mr Truther said, on January 10th, 2009 at 2:45 am

Oddly enough For the first time in my life I have seen these birds on our river front in kentucky! For at least the last two summers. I figured they were blew up here from N.O.

# 14 Paddy-O said, on January 10th, 2009 at 6:48 am

# 12 Glenn E. said, “NASA came out with another scare about the possibility of solar flares blacking out the worlds’ power grid.”

If you’re talking about the solar flares of ‘59, then yes, it’ll toast the power grid and any photovoltaic power generation systems in use, if we get flares that large again…

# 15 deowll said, on January 10th, 2009 at 8:27 am

The ocean is full of dangerous crap mostly put there by humans not that mother nature doesn’t have her fair share of natural dangers.

Then you have the issue of 90 of the normal ocean population being missing due to fishing.

I suspect the birds deal with climate shifts. Those tend to break up breeding for a year ot so but the adults can move.

# 16 Nth of the 49th said, on January 10th, 2009 at 9:57 am

It’s simple.
Birds can only live so long eating the plastic that floats around before the toxins take effect.

(effect affect durrrr brain explodes)

# 17 Buzz said, on January 10th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Step two of the “NASA can’t do a blessed thing when they detect solar flares” offtopic thread is obvious:

Develop the things that can be DONE about it. Not an impossible task by far. Even if it means lifting service or de-gridding service momentarily to save the system from its widespread interconnected self.

We can live without half an hour of power if it saves a whole section of the grid from a long outage.

I say this only to boost the stock price of UPS manufacturers.

# 18 ArtWorks said, on January 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 pm

I am taking care of an injured American White Pelican. So I have been studding Pelicans. They are fish eaters and very susceptible to poison. 8000 died in 1996 from poison fish. The fish gave them botulism. We are polluting our waters and those that make light of this better wake up. We are headed for some bad times if we don’t change. So it goes for the animals, and bird’s, you can bet humans will soon follow. Just look at the dead zone in Mexico created from human and animal waste and agriculture runoff just to name a few. This is al going into the Mississippi and into the gulf of Mexico. So my guess these pelicans are sick from our pollution. The fish need to be checked for botulism.
We need immediate change from greed to need.

# 19 LEGAZPI1 said, on February 23rd, 2009 at 8:07 am

PELICANS ARE DYING AT AN ALARMING RATE ON THE COSTALEGRE IN MEXICO. IN MELAQUE, JALISCO WE FIND 2-4 NEWLY DEAD EACH DAY

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