Alaskan scientist thinks murre die-off related to algal blooms

An Alaskan scientist thinks he knowswhat caused a recent seabird die-off along the coast of Alaska.

Thousands of commonmurres have been found dead this month, apparently from starvation.

"It kind of looks like the murre thing is associatedwith a harmful algal bloom," said Bruce Wright,a scientist with the Aleutien Pribilof Islands Association.

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Harmful algal bloomsare caused bymicroscopic plants producinga toxin known asparalytic shellfish poison, orPSP. The toxinis known for making shellfish toxic to humans, but Wright thinks it's hitting the food chain even lower.

He saidother researchers havefound that thezooplanktonpopulation was reduced last year and theenergyin the organismhad also decreased. This supports his theory thatmurres could be starving because PSPhas reduced the food base.

"You have this whole part of the food web that's been altered," Wrightsaid. "I think because of that, these birds are not finding the food to survive, and of course the winter time is the difficult time for these birds. So the animals are food-stressed."

Wright estimates up to 200,000 Alaskanmurrescould die. With a population he puts atmore than two million, Wrightsaid the species should recover, as long asthe food base comes back.

He said there have beentwo significant algal blooms off the coast of Alaska in recent months, one which Wright called "giant."Because these bloomsare associated with ocean warming, there will likely be more.

"I don't think there's anything we can do," Wright said.

He said the best course of action is to continue studying harmful algal blooms to better understand what's going onand to figure out how humans can adapt when disruptions in the food chain reach us.