Birds Canada calls on British Columbians to help ID dead seabirds amid marine heat wave

It's a different kind of bird watching.

Birds Canada is asking British Columbians to help monitor dead seabirds found on shorelines to help scientists better identify how certain events, such as climate change and oil spills, affect seabird health. 

While help is needed year-round, conservationists are particularly worried this summer because of a Pacific marine heat wave that could cause mass deaths.

"These marine heat waves result in die-offs of bird populations, especially sea birds," said David Bradley, the B.C. director of Birds Canada.

Pacific marine heat waves generally begin when summer temperatures spike and high Pacific winds slow, quickly heating up the surface temperature of the water.

This particular marine heat wave started forming about 1,600 kilometres off the coast in May but, in recent weeks, has migrated east toward B.C. and Oregon. The affected area of ocean is now about four million square kilometres in size, and over recent weeks, surface temperatures have been up to 5 C higher than usual.

Bradley, speaking to CBC's On The Island Tuesday, said elevated ocean water temperatures prevent nutrient-rich cold water from rising to the surface, which can reduce food supply cause seabirds to starve.

A study published in July using research from Bradley and numerous other scientists along the Pacific coast from California to Alaska looked at approximately 90,000 surveys of dead seabirds and found there were five mass die-offs  (more than 500 kilometres in extent, greater than 10 carcasses per kilometre) between 2014 and 2019 in the northeast Pacific and Bering Sea.

Scientists connected warm ocean events to disease or starvation in those five situations.

"When the heat wave happens, it suppresses that cold water upwelling and that often results in a reduction of food supply and that results, unfortunately, in seabirds dying," said Bradley.

Marine birds that breed in B.C. are of particular concern, including rhinoceros auklets, terns, gulls and ducks.

To contribute to research on seabird mortality, all you need to do is walk the beach once a month and check for seabird carcasses along the shoreline after a high tide. Volunteers will be given a kit from Birds Canada that includes a field guide, gloves and metal tags.

The idea is to try to identify the species and tag it so that it won't be double counted and, if found again, it can be determined how long it was on the beach.

Beached Bird Survey participants are important year-round, but the current heat wave has created an acute need this summer. To join the program, email bcvolunteer@birdscanada.org and identify what beach route you hope to patrol.