Hundreds Of Seabirds Wash Up In Britain, Dead From Starvation

[hatrack]

"Conservationists have expressed alarm at the death of hundreds of one of Britain's most distinctive seabirds, found washed up on the east coast of Scotland. The bodies of around 1,000 shags, thought to have died from malnutrition, have been found during a recent count on beaches. Environmentalists say they are likely to only be the tip of the iceberg, with countless others dying at sea.

The UK has almost half of the world's population of shags, also known as the green cormorant, with most of the 29,000 birds living around Scotland's coasts. Experts say they can ill afford to lose such significant numbers. Shags have also been turning up in unusual locations across England, apparently looking for food. A flock of 20 of the birds landed in a garden in Norfolk recently, and another was found dead on an island in the Thames.

Mark Grantham, recovery officer for the British Trust for Ornithology, said yesterday that studies of the birds' bodies showed they were suffering from malnutrition. This is thought to have been brought about by the changing cur rents in the North Sea, a situation that may have been exacerbated by global warming.

"Seabirds, including shags, like the flow of cold water into the North Sea which normally comes from the Faroes. It brings large numbers of zoo-plankton called copepods, which in turn feed the sand eels eaten by the shags."

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1441224,00.html

Ed. - This follows the worst breeding season on record for nearly all species of UK seabirds. Reproductive failure was over 90% across the board of species and regions.

[Skip Intro]

1. I'm getting a gut feeling that the earth is in far worse shape than we've

been told or led to believe.

Global warming, ongoing ozone depletion, fish unsafe to eat, great numbers of animals turning up dead - scary.

I was just thinking yesterday, after reading the alert to women and children not to eat fish because of mercury poisoning - isn't that the food chain crumbling there?

And effin' greed-driven oil-pigs in this nation, raping what's left, headlong down the same destructive path??? And their supporters, that flag isn't gonna make one damn difference in all this no matter how hard you wave at the problem...

sheesh, I've never really used the hell in a handbasket saying before, but damn...

Its worse than we think it is, isn't it?

[phantom power]

2. The entire 20th century, we sowed the wind.

The 21st century will be the century of reaping the whirlwind.

[NMDemDist2]

3. i fear it is skip

getting scarier every day isn't it?

[acmejack]

13. Too late!

While we've all been paying attention to "important" things, our planet has been slipping into critical condition. Ironic isn't it, the "Industrial Revolution" is also the beginning of the end for us.

[ewagner]

4. Nature is saying

DAMMIT! PAY ATTENTION!

[hatrack]

5. And we're saying "Piss off! Jacko's on the Tee-Vee!"

:eyes:

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?

[Boomer]

7. This is the truly scary stuff

Put this report together with the coral bleachings, the drop in plankton density, the drop in numbers of all kinds of fish species, and it's a clear picture of an ecosystem in full-scale collapse.

[brokensymmetry]

8. Once upon a time...

There was a Norse colony in Greenland. They burned the trees to create pasture, ripped up the turf for buildings, and generally destroyed their environment.

In the end, between the little ice age and environmental degradation - along with some fights with the Inuit - the Norse colony died off. They ate their newborn calves, right down to the hooves. They ate their dogs. Evidence indicates they ran out of both food and fuel in the end.

Jared Diamond's book, Collapse of Complex Civilizations is a very worthwhile read. And there are parallels...just like this, from Hatrack.

Scary stuff. I think the next generation will despise us.

[kineneb]

10. Closer to home, there were the Anasazi

(I hope that is the correct spelling.) They lived in the southwest desert up in those cliffs, but their civilization collapsed from overuse of a fragile environment. Can happen anywhere, or as the case may be, everywhere.

"Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well." Gives new meaning to the passage. (visualize a globe instead of skull)

[autorank]

9. hatrack, Great post. And now for something else truly frightening!

http://www.icomm.ca/survival/pentagon_climate_change.pdf

This has been around before but always bears repeating. It's the Pentagon Report on what global warming and climate change will mean to our national security. It's mind blowing. Of course, our press gave it a 1 day, back pages run...fools. This should have been non stop news. But, hey, some movie star must have been doing something disgusting that year!

[Robbien]

11. Then there are all the missing butterflies

An article yesterday said the migration of butterflies is down to thirty percent. Two thirds just didn't make it at all.

[Freebird12004]

12. sad news indeed !

I'm grateful to have existed while the planet still had many beautiful living creatures. So many birds have dwindled in numbers or become extinct in my lifetime.

The loss of 66% of a population is horrible news. I missed the article.

[hankthecrank]

14. Currents are the Earths temperatures regulators

In all the studies of carbon dioxide building up in the air. Instead of global warming which happens first you get an ice age. The currents start near the surface near melting ice and are fresh water it sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Flows around the world until some where in the Pacific ocean. As these currents flow around the world they even temperatures out. They also bring minerals that zoo-plankton feed on.

When you get global warming it the great currents are shut down or change. Even if we don't get the ice age, sounds like the flow currents is already changing. Food in the ocean is not the only place that's gong to get short. Putting another log on the fire isn't gong to help! Full blown ice can happen in a very short time.