Shocking truth behind hundreds of dead birds found on Aussie beaches
According to experts, the large number of seabird deaths at one time is referred to as a “mass mortality” or a “wreck” event.
Video transcript
Hundreds of birds found washed up dead along several Aussie beaches is a warning sign of what's to come, according to experts.
The large number of seabird deaths at one time is referred to as a mass mortality or a wreck event, Seabird Research group Adrift Lab said.
In Australia, the main species caught up in these events is usually the short tailed Shearwater, though particularly bad events can involve other species too.
Shearwaters are known to migrate from the northern hemisphere to Australia to breed along the coastline.
However, a drift lab is frustrated that reputation organisations continually blame the long distance migration for the birds dying and deem it normal.
Marine scientist Jennifer Lava told Yahoo News Australia.
We should never normalise the mass mortality of any animal.
If it was natural, if it was just exhaustion due to migration, then we should actually see this as a widespread annual phenomenon and in thousands of other highly migratory species.
This has nothing to do with migration.
Instead, Lava suggests it has more to do with climate change and ocean warming.
It's claimed the warming waters are wiping out food sources which shear waters are known to prey on so by the time they arrive in Australia, they're usually starving, Lava said.
What we know is that the Tasman Sea is an ocean warming hotspot.
It's warming between two and four times faster than anywhere else.
And what that suggests very strongly is that if birds die when water is warm, more birds are going to die in more years, she added.
With climate change and ocean warming, marine heatwaves are becoming more common, especially off the east coast of Australia.
The death of thousands of long lived sentinel species is a warning.
It is dangerous to normalise this.
