This year unusually high numbers of Northern Fulmars have been found washed up dead on the beaches of the North Coast of Oregon.  Fulmar die-offs associated with storms in November and December occur annually, but the numbers this year are significantly higher than the average. I examined the wing molt pattern of 46 birds on Sunset Beach and found 7 (15%) with differential wear patterns indicative of after-hatch-year birds (AHY) and 39 (85%) with even wear consistant with hatch-year birds (HY).  I am very confident of the juveniles, some of the birds identified as AHY were less firm.  Two AHY showed sequential molt at about p2 or p3  which would be definitive.  All others were called AHY because p9 and p10 showed substantially more wear than other primaries.  I am prepared to stand corrected. Birds examined by researchers studying this event for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sactuary in California found  96%HY and 4% AHY (Nevins and Harvey 2003).  They collected earlier in the event and (obviously) much farther  south which may explain some the differences.  In any case, many more young of the year are dying than adults.

I counted total birds per 100m using a handheld  Magellan GPS to measure distance with the following  results: km surveyed total count birds/km Sunset Beach 1.5 50 33 Del Rey Beach 1.8 26 14 Gearhart Beach 1.9 54 28 The pattern of deposition was found to be different  on different segments of beach.  Carcass densities  were consistantly higher at Gearhart compared to  Del Rey Beach on multiple counts made over 3 weeks.  The results in the figure to the left are based on the  counts per 100m for the three stretches of beach for the week of Dec 1 through Dec 5. Local currents and wind shadowing associated with  Tillamook Head probably contribute to differential deposition of birds, though many more live fulmars were being reported around the head and Seaside Cove, so higher concentration of fulmars generally are probably a factor on Gearhart Beach.

Yearly die-off of fulmars is well documented.  Lewis and Clark found dead fulmars on the beach during their stay
and coastal Native American middens contain large numbers of fulmar bones.   Historical die-offs which appear to
be as severe as the one being seen this year were documented in 1922 and 1976 (Gabrielson and Jewett 1940; Harrington-
Tweit 1979; Stenzel, et al. 1988).   The event this year is accompanied by large numbers of live fulmars feeding
nearshore.  This is most probably the result of unusually warm surface temperatures which have apparently pushed
feed near shore.  Though many hypotheses have been put forward to explain the current die-off including some sort
of poisoning event, excess ingestion of plastics, or some new disease, the two most likely (and interlinked) hypotheses are:

1. The size of the die-off is the same as other years, but the dead and dying birds are close enough to shore that more reach the beach rather than sinking or being eaten by at-sea scavengers.
2. The warm temperatures have compacted the feeding zone increasing competion for limited resources resulting in a higher storm-stress/starvation rate with birds dying close enough to shore to reach the beach before they sink or get eaten by at-sea scavengers.

October 25

November 8

References
Gabrielson, I.N. and S.G. Jewett. 1940. Birds of Oregon. Oregon State College, Corvallis.

Harrington-Tweit, B. 1979. A Seabird Die-off on the Washington Coast in Mid-winter 1976.
Western Birds 10:49-56.

Nevins, H. and J. Harvey. 2003. Preliminary Report: Mortality of Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus
glacialis) in Monterey Bay during winter 2003. Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Stenzel, L.E., G.W. Page, H.R. Carter and D.G.Ainley. 1988. Seabird Mortality in California as Witnessed
through 14 Years of Beached Bird Surveys. Point Reyes Bird Observatory, Stinson Beach, CA

and specific to plastic ingestion:
Franeker, van J.A. & A. Meijboom, 2002.  LITTER NSV, marine litter monitoring by Northern
Fulmars; a pilot study.  Wageningen, Alterra, Green World Research.  Alterra-rapport 401.
72pp. 12 figs.; 9 tables; 43 refs. available online at:
http://www.alterra.nl/publ-prod/rapporten/download/AlterraRapport401.pdf

celata@pacifier.com
last revision 12-5-2003