What Dead Seabirds Are Trying to Tell Us About the Pacific Ocean

0:00 Thousands of seabirds are dying along California's coast, but the birds aren't actually the story. They're warning us that something much bigger is happening beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekly ocean news update. If you care about staying informed on the ocean every single weekday, Monday to Friday, hit that follow button right now on your podcast app so you don't miss tomorrow's story. Today, we're answering one question. Why are seabirds starving and what does their struggle tell us about the future of our oceans, especially with an impending super El Niño coming into play? Now, if you've watched a pelican glide just above the waves or seen cormorants diving for fish, it's easy to think they make hunting look effortless.

0:42 But right now, off the coast of California, many of those birds can't find enough food to survive. Scientists, volunteers, and wildlife rehabilitation centers are reporting unusually high numbers of starving seabirds washing up on the beaches. Some birds are so weak they walk ashore and die within minutes. Others are turning up far inland, desperately searching for food in lakes and reservoirs instead of the ocean. The images are heartbreaking, and they also tell us something important. These birds are acting like the ocean's warning lights. They're showing us that the Pacific food web is under stress. Every month, teams of scientists and volunteers walk California beaches counting dead seabirds. And it may sound like a strange job.

1:22 I mean, nobody really wants to do that. It's pretty depressing. But these surveys have been happening for decades. The goal isn't to simply count dead birds. It's to detect changes in health of the marine ecosystem before they become impossible to ignore. This year, those surveys have become much more alarming. Researchers are finding large numbers of brown pelicans, loons, grebs, cormorants, and other seabirds that died from starvation. According to marine ornithologist Tammy Russell, some cormorants have been observed walking onto shore and dying within fifteen minutes because they were so weak. That is a terrible thing to watch. So what changed? The answer isn't that the birds suddenly forgot how to walk. The problem is the water.

2:03 A marine heatwave has lingered off parts of California's coast for months. According to scientists, it's one of only three times on record that such a large stretch of coastal water has stayed unusually warm for so long. Several long-term monitoring stations have recorded record-breaking temperatures for more than 40 days. Warm water might not sound like a crisis. It may sound actually quite nice 'cause people like to go in warm water. Marine life often doesn't. California's coastal ecosystem depends on cold, nutrient-rich waters rising from the deep ocean. That process, called upwelling, feeds tiny organisms like plankton and krill. Those organisms feed anchovies and sardines.

2:43 These fish feed seabirds, sea lions, whales, dolphins, and even people through commercial fisheries. When the water stays unusually warm, many of those cold water fish move farther offshore or deeper beneath the surface. The birds can't always follow them. Many seabirds have evolved to feed close to shore or near the surface. If the food disappears, they burn through their energy reserves so quickly. For many species, starvation can happen within just a few days. Here's why this story is bigger than a few starving birds. Seabirds are indicators. Think of them as the ocean's health monitors, like the canary in the coal mine in a way. When they start struggling, it's often because something lower in the food chain has already changed.

3:25 They're giving us an early warning. Imagine removing the foundation from a building. The roof doesn't just collapse immediately. The crack appears first, and that's what we're seeing right now, the cracks. If forage fish like sardines and anchovies become harder to find, the impacts spread throughout the ecosystem. Whales have to work harder to find food. Sea lions have to travel farther. Fish populations will shift. Commercial fisheries will become less predictable. Entire coastal economies can feel the effects. And there's another concern. Scientists say that this marine heatwave may become even more disruptive because it's now overlapping with a newly formed El Niño, which might be a super El Niño. Last month, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, confirmed that El Niño has developed and forecasters expect it to strengthen considerably.

4:12 El Niño naturally warms part of the Pacific Ocean. When that natural warming is already added to unusually warm ocean waters, marine ecosystems face even greater stress. We've seen this before. Many listeners may remember the Blob, the massive marine heatwave that stretched across the Northeast Pacific between twenty thirteen and twenty sixteen. I covered it quite regularly during those times when I had the podcast going. That event triggered the one of the largest seabird die-offs ever recorded. Years later, scientists estimated that more than four million common murres died during that event, and some populations are still recovering today. That's why researchers are paying such close attention now. They don't want history to repeat itself.

4:53 The honest answer is that scientists don't yet know how severe this event will become. Not every dead seabird is dying because of the marine heatwave. Young birds naturally experience high mortality after leaving the nests. Researchers are also testing birds for diseases like avian influenza, and looking for other contributing factors. But the timing is difficult to ignore. The increase in starving birds lines up closely with one of the longest-lasting marine heatwaves ever recorded along California's coast. Scientists will continue to monitor ocean temperatures. They'll track fish movements. They'll analyze seabird populations, and they'll compare today's observations with decades of historical records. Those long-term monitoring programs are incredibly valuable. Without them, this story might simply look like a few unfortunate birds on the beach.

5:37 Instead, scientists can place today's observations into a much bigger picture. Another important point is what we see on the beach is only part of the story. Most birds that die at sea never get washed ashore. It's almost like when we see the North Atlantic right whales, when we see an entangled whale that washes up to shore. A lot of those whales we don't actually see because they ended up drowning and they end up dying at sea, and we never end up seeing them. The same thing is happening with these seabirds. That means the birds people are finding likely represent only a small fraction of the actual mortality happening offshore. It's a reminder that the ocean often hides its problems. We usually don't notice them until it's impossible to ignore. The encouraging news is that these stories like this help scientists improve forecasting, understand the ecosystem responses, and prepare conservation managers for future marine heatwaves.

6:22 The better we understand these events, the better we can adapt fisheries management, protect critical habitats, and strengthen the resilience of marine ecosystems. The starving seabirds along California's coast aren't just victims of a changing oceans. They're messengers. They're showing us what happens when warming waters reshape entire food webs from the bottom up. If we pay attention to those signals today, we'll be prepared for the changes that are still ahead. The problem is, is our governments, are they paying attention? Yesterday, I just talked about how Canada will not meet its targets for being under forty to forty-five percent under the two thousand and five greenhouse gases, and that's above those targets, and that's just not acceptable.

7:03 But we have to change things because politically, the world is changing from an economic standpoint, and that's affecting our environmental policies. And now here we have messengers along the California coast, and it's not just about the US getting the messengers It's about the entire world getting the message that things are shifting in the ocean. Food is going elsewhere for certain predators. Those predators have to travel farther, and those predators are dying because of it, and it's going to change our ecosystems to a point where it's going to affect us. If we don't act now or tomorrow or the day after or even yesterday, then we are in trouble in the future. It just makes sure that we are going to see the effect every time we ignore something like this sooner and sooner and sooner.

7:43 But that's the message for today, is like we have to figure out what we are going to do with this message. We have to make sure that our political representatives figure out what to do with this message, and we have to tell them what we want. We have to tell them what you want. If you're listening to this and you want your government representative to change its mind or focus on the environment and the economy together, then we're in for a better future, and that's what we need to look at. So I'm not trying to say which party to support. What I say is support environment and economic policies together so that we can actually see a better planet in the future. That's it for today's episode. Hit me up with any questions or comments or anything like that. Social media site links are in the show notes. Also in the show notes is a link to support the work that I do here on the podcast, on YouTube, on TikTok, on Instagram, and all the Facebook and all the social media.

8:31 I put out a lot of content, and if you wanna support that content, a few people ask me for links to support. You can do that at my Patreon. Go to speakupforblue.com/patreon. That's speakupforblue.com/patreon. I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.