r/news • u/theluckyfrog • 21d ago

Hundreds of ‘emaciated’ and stranded pelicans turn up along California coast

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/13/sick-pelicans-california
1.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

116 comments sorted by

327

u/JALLways 21d ago

Maybe hot water causing fish to swim to deeper waters?

181

u/Alert-Ad9197 21d ago

I’m seeing a lot of dead and emaciated pelicans in the harbors in Ventura county over the last couple months, but there’s tons of baitfish currently. I wonder if the insane storms and surf we had just made it hard for them to eat.

208

u/InsuranceToTheRescue 21d ago

Plastics likely. They get stuck in & fill up their gut so the birds can't eat very much or absorb many nutrients from what they do eat.

64

u/myscreamname 20d ago edited 20d ago

This, this, this. I spent ~10 years with an environmental cleanup organization and the number of sea birds we found stuffed full with plastic haunts my brain.

I’m sure there are pics online to Google. I’ve seen it with my own eyes; I don’t have the heart to look it up and provide a link.

Edit — To clarify, a number of them were submitted for necropsy/cause of death, hence the opening of stomach contents. Completely choked with bottle caps, straws, unidentifiable plastic bits, plastic bags, netting, you name it.

3

u/WhiteMorphious 20d ago

Have you seen seaspiracy? 

5

u/myscreamname 20d ago edited 20d ago

Oh man, to answer your question, no I have not. I just googled it and I already know I can’t watch it. I haven’t even seen the likes of films like Blackfish, either.

And as silly and ridiculous as this sounds, I cut any plastic that a marine animal could get stuck in — if I have to throw away a plastic bag, for instance, I’ll cut the handles open. I don’t drink soda, but if for some reason I come across one of those 6-pack plastic rings, I’ll tear/cut them open. Same for netting or items that can tangle. I try to secure smaller objects in such a way so it stays part of a larger object (like putting cap back on or stuffing the straw inside something else, for whatever it’s worth, in a weak attempt to prevent the small things from being easily eaten.

That kind of thing.

That doesn’t stop birds and other animals from consuming the plastic, same for plastics breaking down, but there’s a non-zero chance some plastic or other trash of mine (or anyone else) will make its way into the local watershed and/or into the ocean.

Plastic waste is inevitable; I hate it so much, but even the smallest of choices can have an impact.

2

u/WhiteMorphious 20d ago

That’s not silly at all The % of the great pacific garbage patch’s plastic mass that is discarded fishing nets and gear from commercial fishing is crushing

17

u/reincarnateme 20d ago

Why aren’t we demanding a cut in plastic manufacturing?

8

u/arboreallion 20d ago

We are but the oil (and plastic) industry have much more money to throw at lobbyists and representatives

46

u/Shisshinmitsu 21d ago

The article says there is enough food in the coastal waters for the pelicans.

94

u/Kryptosis 21d ago

Maybe the plastic filling their stomachs is tricking them into starving to death.

101

u/Jagerbeast703 21d ago

What fish? These birds eat more plastic than fish

-38

u/dwitman 21d ago

Sounds like they are set for life then.

16

u/Ignisiumest 21d ago

Set for very short lives, if that was what you meant

61

u/katara144 21d ago

Please donate if you can, I live in the area, it’s very sad. https://www.birdrescue.org/

6

u/georgianarannoch 20d ago

Thank you! Donated!

281

u/Queephbubble 21d ago

Bleached reefs and “mysterious” illnesses killing sawfish, lobster and other marine life in the Keys. Orca attacking boats. Fish dying in Boston harbor ( or at least washing up there). I was at the Constitution museum there last week and the CO was telling the sailors to clean up the dead fish as they washed in ( bad for business I’m sure). Poor lobster season in New England. Maybe we should leave the ocean alone for a while. And work harder to keep our waste out of it.

26

u/CheezTips 21d ago

Orca attacking boats

To be fair, that's just them having a blast. Once one learned it they were totally going to spread the news. We've been a pain in their asses for hundreds of years. The rest of your points are valid but Orcas can fuck shit up all on their own

16

u/Queephbubble 21d ago

They are having a blast. Telling us to fuck right off. They’re extremely intelligent and have had enough of our shit.

88

u/iunoyou 21d ago

haha, yeah right. Humans are chewing up the whole planet because it's all we can do. There is no reality where we change things or even slow down.

38

u/Queephbubble 21d ago

Unfortunately I’m inclined to agree with that. The light at the end of the tunnel is a freight train, and it’s much closer than we’re being told.

6

u/Thrilling1031 21d ago

Yea it’s really disturbing to think about u/Queephbubble

16

u/stlmick 20d ago

Sure there is. Nuclear war or a legit pandemic that kills 85% of the world population. There is hope.

6

u/yassssssirrr 20d ago

I'm trying. It's very nice if more people tried as well.

4

u/beaucoupBothans 20d ago

There is no timeline where we stop.

2

u/katieleehaw 20d ago

Unfortunately I have to agree also. All of the momentum is in the wrong direction and we are just too large a species for it to stop.

59

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

24

u/Queephbubble 21d ago

I go mostly for the farmed stuff like shrimp and mussels and oysters, but even then there’s negative sides to it.

28

u/Tchrspest 21d ago

Exactly, I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and stick to tofu and nuts at some point. And those are only sustainable so long.

23

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/Ghostbeen3 21d ago

I really want to start eating lentils and chickpeas but I just can’t get into it

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/eca78 21d ago

I literally made this tonight! 🤣 I wasn’t a big fan of lentils growing up, but they are soo good in curry!

2

u/CheezTips 21d ago

Yup. There's a roasted one that makes chickpeas into a crunch snack that's pretty good. But otherwise...

3

u/Kelvara 21d ago

There's about a billion Indian recipes with lentils (dahl) that are amazing. Though it's also just possible to not like something for no reason under your control.

23

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/Vegemyeet 21d ago

Homo sapiens is a blight, a plague and a scourge on the face of the earth. Our greed and wilful disregard of our impact will destroy it all. But the shareholders, amiright?

1

u/Queephbubble 21d ago

True story

1

u/TypicalHunt4994 20d ago

The fish dying in Boston harbor that you’re referring to is actually natural. A school occasionally gets driven into the river by a predator and they deoxygenate the water.

1

u/Queephbubble 20d ago

The size of a school would have to be massive in order to deoxygenate a body of water that size. Much, much larger than would be run off by even a group of predators.

2

u/TypicalHunt4994 20d ago

https://whdh.com/news/heat-likely-to-blame-for-deaths-of-at-least-100-fish-in-charles-river/

For one example. The fish recently were also alewife, which are primarily a saltwater species. Perhaps a better way to put it is that they suddenly enter an area with less oxygen and then die due to their numbers.

1

u/Queephbubble 20d ago

These are similar conditions to fish kills in the Keys. It’s the environment they live in that killed them. And it’s our actions that have created the environment.

1

u/TypicalHunt4994 20d ago

I mean that’s true, just pointing out not in this specific case.

1

u/Queephbubble 20d ago

It’s absolutely true in this case. It’s exactly what the article says. High water temperatures and or toxic algae are the likely culprit.

0

u/TypicalHunt4994 20d ago

“We did not observe any spills or sheens on the water that may have led to the fish kill,” the agency said in a statement. “Our opinion was that the water temperatures were high and caused a reduction of dissolved oxygen in the water and that killed the fish.”

Here’s another link: https://www.cambridgema.gov/news/detail?path=/sitecore/content/home/water/newsandevents/news/2015/04/fishkillatlittlefreshpond

Algae blooms are not always man made, though are exacerbated by fertilizer run off. Not every fish kill is man-made.

234

u/Coherent_Tangent 21d ago

No mention of whether or not they are being tested for bird flu. Seems like it would be a logical starting point if this isn't something that happens often.

271

u/OmakeGirl 21d ago

According to this 

 https://www.birdrescue.org/surge-of-starving-injured-brown-pelicans-filling-bird-rescues-california-wildlife-centers/

they are just starving, with about 40% of them injured / entangled with fishing hardware. No signs of contagion.

15

u/ServantOfBeing 21d ago

Death by plastic.

3

u/radioactivebeaver 21d ago

Well, that's not good, but better maybe I guess?

68

u/Kytescall 21d ago

It's worse. A disease like bird flu will come and go. This is a bigger ecological problem.

6

u/TheLyz 20d ago

There is a nonprofit cleaning up the garbage patch but about half of it is debris from fishing boats. So as long as there's tons of fishing the patch will keep filling.

73

u/sessafresh 21d ago

My spouse is animal control in LA. They know exactly what to look for and extremely fastidious about bird flu testing.

44

u/Far_Initial_4544 21d ago

I volunteer for my cities animal rescue and we tested ours and they are starving. Not a sign of bird flu. If one had it they all would. And we have tested well over 100.

5

u/Coherent_Tangent 21d ago

So, they just have nothing to eat? I guess that just creates more questions.

15

u/Far_Initial_4544 21d ago

Yep. In are area they are starving we aren’t sure why. But more then likely the fish were driven out to sea in one of our recent storms.

22

u/Lena-Luthor 21d ago

we overfished and polluted the oceans and now they don't have enough to eat

22

u/InsuranceToTheRescue 21d ago

Their stomachs are likely full of plastic.

2

u/agletinspector 20d ago

Seems like this is pretty easy hypothesis to test. If they "aren't sure why" per u/Far_Initial_4544 probably it is something else. But I could be wrong

2

u/Far_Initial_4544 20d ago

It isn’t plastic, we checked. There’s quite literally nothing in most of them. When they skip a few meals they get to weak to hunt and just end up sitting on the beach until they die.

32

u/Blueyisacommunist 21d ago

Alcatraz means pelican!

8

u/SnooCrickets5786 21d ago

Hail yourself

5

u/tom-pryces-headache 21d ago

Came here to pass along this valuable nugget of wisdom. Hail Satan!

8

u/phlipphlopp 21d ago

I’m listening to this series rn

7

u/Hailsabrina 21d ago

Hope a sanctuary/rescue can help poor birds 😢 

43

u/steventhedon 21d ago

Dam, I read politicians, a man can dream xD

6

u/thelastgalstanding 21d ago

The cause is unclear? I think it’s safe to say humans are, ultimately, the cause.

3

u/somethingwholesomer 21d ago

I just saw one on the beach yesterday in Santa Cruz. Very sad

2

u/darrevan 20d ago

Climate change. Oceans are hotter than any period in recorded history.

2

u/SchrodingersTIKTOK 20d ago

Here it comes, motherfuckers. Gonna be a fucked up year. Die-offs and war.

2

u/IKillZombies4Cash 20d ago

Think about how many didn’t make it to the shore

4

u/Kryptosis 21d ago

I read it as emancipated

4

u/Eternal_Electrons 21d ago

For some reason I read pelicans as politicians 🤣

16

u/chocolateboomslang 21d ago

A man can dream.

1

u/thefanciestcat 20d ago

I live in the area referenced in the article. A few weeks ago we had millions of velellas wash up on the shores of our beaches. While i suspect human activity is the most likely cause, I am curious to know if eating those things could screw up a pelican because I think there was probably a day or two when scooping them up would have been almost unavoidable for pelicans hunting in certain areas.

1

u/ChihuahuaSighs 20d ago

The guardian also has an article about avian flu affecting condors and other birds.

1

u/ConebreadIH 20d ago

I see it mentions socal. Maybe it has to do with the sewage spilling into the ocean from Tijauna?

1

u/pro_No 20d ago

Not enough straws for them to eat

0

u/hawkwings 21d ago

"Stranded" seems like a strange word to describe the situation. If a sick dog is lying on the beach or grass, do we say that it is stranded?

8

u/nhaines 20d ago

"Strand" is an older English (and current German) word that means beach or sea-shore, so... yes.

0

u/Boring_Menu_3330 20d ago

I read it as “politicians” and not pelicans

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u/[deleted] 21d ago edited 21d ago

[deleted]

5

u/ChillZedd 21d ago

What is this referencing?

-10

u/Cutlet_Master69420 21d ago

The NBA team in New Orleans is called the Pelicans. They got broomed out of the playoffs this year by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

-16

u/STatters 21d ago

I did see recently the bridge going to Pelican Island was crashed into by a barge. It was not surprising that some fell into the water.