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Blogmail response on Hafner
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Law, Love and Chocolate
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Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
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Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
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Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
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Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
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OFCCP Report
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Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
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Do IT this week: Layering
Species spends winters in San Francisco Bay. Population is dwindling
By Terence Chea Associated Press
Published on Saturday, Nov 24, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO: Thousands of birds have been found dead or blackened since an oil spill two weeks ago, but no species has been hit harder than the surf scoter, a migratory sea duck that had already seen a precipitous population decline in recent decades.
The spill occurred when a cargo ship struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, releasing nearly 60,000 gallons of toxic shipping fuel into one of North America's most important estuaries. It came during the fall arrival of hundreds of thousands of migratory birds to San Francisco Bay, where a mild climate and abundant food make it a key wintering ground for shorebirds, seabirds and waterfowl.
At least 1,365 birds have been found dead, and more than 1,000 oiled birds have been captured alive and taken to a wildlife center in Solano County to be cleaned and rehabilitated.
Although 27 different species are represented, surf scoters make up about 40 percent of the captured birds and more than 25 percent of the dead ones, said Michael Ziccardi, who heads the Oiled Wildlife Care Network that has been leading the bird rescue effort.
Scoters, which live on the bay and dive for clams, mussels and sand crabs below, have been disproportionately affected because they spend almost all their time in the areas hit hardest by the spill, scientists say.
The stout sea duck breeds in the remote lakes and wetlands of Canada's northern boreal forests and migrates south to spend winters in San Francisco Bay and other points along the Pacific Coast. A smaller population winters on the Atlantic Coast.
Though not listed as threatened or endangered, their population — now estimated at 500,000 worldwide — has declined 50 to 70 percent in the past four decades, experts say. About 25,000 to 30,000 are killed each year by sport hunters in the United States and Canada, mostly on the Atlantic Coast.
''This oil spill just adds insult to injury and creates greater stress on these birds,'' said Elizabeth Murdock, who heads the Golden Gate Audubon Society, which has recruited hundreds of volunteers to help recover oiled birds.
Scientists are trying to understand the surf scoter's steep and steady decline. They believe it might be linked to ecological changes caused by global warming in their breeding grounds in Canada's Northwest Territories, as well as by industrial contaminants in their wintering grounds in urbanized areas like San Francisco Bay.
''They're being hit on both sides of their life cycle,'' said Jeff Wells, a biologist with the Boreal Songbird Initiative and author of Birder's Conservation Handbook. ''It's a major cause for concern. When you see something that drastic, it's telling you something about changes in the environment.''
SAN FRANCISCO: Thousands of birds have been found dead or blackened since an oil spill two weeks ago, but no species has been hit harder than the surf scoter, a migratory sea duck that had already seen a precipitous population decline in recent decades.
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