Global warming kills sea birds en-masse in Alaska

#globalwarming #alaska #murres The remains of nearly 8,000 common murres have turned up on a mile-long section of beach at Whittier, a community on Prince William Sound 60 miles south of Anchorage and Federal scientists have begun an investigation into this incident following the discovery of these dead seabirds in Alaska.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 12 January 2016.

In the opinion of US Geological Survey researcher John Piatt, winter die-offs of murres is not uncommon - it has happened earlier but the numbers at Whittier is unprecedented. Experts feel the birds have starved to death because laboratory tests did not find any parasites or diseases in the carcasses. Warming ocean surface temperatures may have affected the fish that common murres feed on and brought about this mass scale death.
In 2008, an agency study had found that previous die-offs of the species took place when surface temperatures increased by just a few degrees. A former biologist for the USFWS had alerted colleagues after finding the birds in Whittier. The birds were dangerously underweight and emaciated.
Alaska is believed to be home to an estimated 2.8 million breeding common murres in 230 colonies.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

Abhi Shake for industries to boost Bengal’s image (satire)

Rum Mudda reminds Moody about temples (satire)

Lord Shiva’s solution for global warming – go under water (satire)


Beautiful diners get tables near windows or high visibility areas in restaurants

Ahmedabad hosts 13th edition of 'Sattvik' - the pan-India food festival

53-year-old British woman flew 13000-mile in 1942 bi-plane from Farnborough to Sydney


Shah Rukh Khan’s fond wish - to see Ethan Hunt and James Bond in one movie

'Avatar 2', sequel to 'Avatar' of 2009 expected to release in Dcember 2017

Aamir Khan no longer the face of Incredible India


Motorcycle riding gunmen open fire upon tourists as they boarded bus in Cairo

Woman with fake passport in a British Airways flight from Ibiza leads to panic

German police hunting for seven suicide bombers who planned to blow up Munich railway stations