Dutch probe mass seabird death mystery

Yahoo – AFP, February 6, 2019

High winds and stormy winter seas could affect guillemots' feeding patterns,
experts said (AFP Photo/OLI SCARFF)

The Hague (AFP) - Dutch scientists said Wednesday they are baffled after 20,000 dead or dying guillemots washed up on North Sea beaches in a phenomenon not seen for decades.

The fish-eating seabirds have been washing up between the northern Wadden Islands and southwestern Zeeland -- all showing symptoms of severe starvation, a marine biologist said.

"What's killing them though is the million-dollar question," Mardik Leopold, a maritime researcher for Wageningen University, told AFP.

"And we still don't know what the answer is. It's an alarming situation," he added.

"The last time we saw high mortality rates like this was in the 1980s and 1990s."

A number of questions are puzzling scientists, he said.

The bird deaths are confined only to Dutch shores -- nothing has been reported in Belgium or Germany.

High winds and stormy winter seas also could affect the birds' feeding patterns on herring and sprat as they become too fatigued to eat, Leopold said.

"But again, why are the deaths only localised to the Netherlands? Surely we're not the only place experiencing winter weather?" said Leopold.

Dutch media have raised the question of whether the deaths may be linked to a recent container spill, littering the Dutch and German coast lines with debris, including plastic toys, polystyrene, shoes and at least one bag with a dangerous powder identified by authorities as "organic peroxide."

But Leopold said an initial autopsy on a small number of birds showed "no plastic" in their stomachs.

Similarly, if the birds were affected by a chemical, other animals would also have shown symptoms, the marine biologist said.

"The birds were not covered in oil either," he added.

Dutch authorities said Wednesday they had been told by the MSC shipping company that at least 341 containers were lost off the MSC Zoe as it was battling a storm last month.

Scientists are now planning a mass autopsy of hundreds of dead birds next week, hoping to shed more light on the mystery.

However, the species is not threatened with extinction. Some two million guillemots live in the North Sea, the NOS public broadcaster said.

Related Articles:

Earth's Magnetic Field Is Up To Some Seriously Weird Stuff And No One Knows Why

Falling Birds & Death Fish (Water Cycle - New Mini Ice Age) - (“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why) - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"... The second thing the melting ice caps give you is about ecology. I'll give you this prediction in a moment. There is a Human 3D paradigm that says everything gets "used" and then goes away. But nature doesn't work that way, and our prediction is going to go against everything you have been told. I'm going to give you a parable and the prediction in a moment, but before that, I'm going to give you the explanation of the birds and the fish.

In the last few weeks, fish have been washing up dead in certain lakes by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Birds have been falling from the sky. I'm going to make a statement way in advance of what science is going to tell you. All of it can be traced to the water cycle - all of it. It's always about the weather, a cycle of weather you've not seen before. Do you remember a few years ago when whales were beaching themselves? Did you notice that this attribute stopped? But while they were beaching themselves every year, many Human Beings were in fear, saying, "It's the end of the world. They're committing suicide."

The whales beached themselves because the magnetics of the earth shifted so greatly that their navigational system [the magnetite in their biology, which is their migration compass] steered them right into the land. The land didn't move; the magnetics did. Therefore, you might say their internal inherited migration map was flawed. The reason it's not happening now is because the calves, the generation beyond the one that beached themselves, figured it out and rewrote the maps. Nature [Gaia] does this. So the next generation didn't repeat it. Instead, it realigned itself to the migratory lay lines and now whales don't beach themselves nearly as often.

The magnetics of the planet continue to shift and the birds are unaware. Like the whales, many of the birds have migrated themselves right into a high place in the atmosphere, which pummeled them to death by freezing rain and hail. Then they fall from the sky. It's the weather cycle. Will they continue to do this? Some will, for awhile, and then they will figure it out and recalibrate. That's what nature does.

You might say, "Well, nature's way is severe." It is not severe. It is a positive learning system that allows generations of birds to be around next time. The few deaths allow for the many to continue their life cycle and their lineage on the earth.

I want you to analyze the fish that have washed up. Let science reveal this as well. I want you to analyze the fish. They have something in common. They're all juveniles. And why is that? What do you know about the water cycle? What do you know about cold water and the life cycle of certain fish and their habits of reproduction? I will tell you the layers of water are changing in temperature and that is going to change the life cycle of the oceans and lakes. The juvenile fish are the most susceptible to death by becoming too cold, especially the ones of the kind that washed up dead. By the tens of thousands, the cold killed them. It is the water cycle. Will it continue? For awhile, until they acclimate, until they recalibrate for the cold - and they will. Nature does that.  ...."