Biologists Examine Big Alaska Seabird Die-Off

(12 Jan 2016) IN WHITTIER, ALASKA SEABIRDS ARE DYING. AN ESTIMATED EIGHT-THOUSAND COMMON MURRES WERE FOUND ALONG THE SHORE RECENTLY. ONE OF NORTH AMERICA'S MOST ABUNDANT SEABIRDS, THE COMMON MURRES ARE APPARENTLY STARVING TO DEATH. SOUNDBITE (English): Sarah Schoen, biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey: "What we want to do is find out, is this an isolated event or is this happening across Prince William Sound? We want to know where it's happening, and the magnitude. DIE-OFFS HAVE OCCURRED IN PREVIOUS WINTERS--BUT NOT IN THE NUMBERS SEEN THIS SEASON. FEDERAL RESEARCHERS WON'T EVEN ESTIMATE THE NUMBER OF DEATHS. SOUNDBITE (English): Robb Kaler, biologist for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: "At this point, we've tested nearly a hundred birds, the majority of those are common murres, and all have back negative for toxins or disease. And their necropsies, essentially the evaluation of their body condition, they were emaciated, in an emaciated condition." THE DEEP-DIVING BIRDS FEED ON SMALL FISH. ABOVE-AVERAGE WATER TEMPERATURES IN 2015 COULD BE IMPACTING THE BIRDS' FOOD-SUPPLY. WHITTER RESIDENT HAI HAN HAS TAKEN IT UPON HIMSELF TO RESCUE UNDERNOURISHED BIRDS. SOUNDBITE (English): Hai Han, Caring for sick birds: "This one, I was able to ... smart enough to figure out how to eat food, because they're not used to it. Just something you can feed them, otherwise you have to force feed them. And it took a while, maybe a day to figure it out, how to go after the salmon. We've been feeding salmon fillets." AT THE SAME TIME, THE BIRD TREATMENT AND LEARNING CENTER IN ANCHORAGE IS RESCUING INJURED AND ORPHANED MURRES. SOUNDBITE (English): Guy Runco, executive director of the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage: "So, this has been going on since late October and we've seen about 400, 425 at this point. We've been able to release about 80, 85 percent of them so far." ((BUTT)) "In a normal year, we see two (murres), maybe three. So this is definitely odd for us." RELEASING THE BIRDS BACK INTO THE WILD, ONCE THEY ARE HEALTHY ENOUGH. MATT FRIEDMAN. ASSOCIATED PRESS. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1d0160a313b9545ef92df88df46828ea Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork