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The story…

Dying seabirds mystery

Learn language related to…

death

Need-to-know language…

mass death – large numbers of deaths

emaciated – unusually thin due to illness or lack of food

toxin – poisonous substance than can cause disease or death

starvation – state of not eating or having enough food

make it – survive

Answer this…

What is most likely to be causing the seabirds to die?

Watch the video online: https://bbc.in/3aybdE1

Transcript

Every new tide brings with it further evidence that our seabirds are suffering. Dead gannets, guillemots and razorbills are being found on beaches from northern Scotland down to The Wash [UK].

The Yorkshire coastline is home to half a million birds, and in recent days, some of these have also started to die.

Poppy Rummery, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

We're monitoring seabird populations here at Bempton, and to have this kind of huge scale death of seabirds, we're unsure how that’s going to affect them in the future. With already, sort of, declining populations, to see this mass death is really, really devastating.

Some birds are changing their behaviour, coming inland into rivers. Those that are found dead are emaciated - half the weight they should be.

Paul Murphy, BBC reporter

The investigation into why this is happening is complex because these birds are already being impacted by climate change and industrial activity out at sea. But the strongest line of inquiry so far is that some sort of toxin is infecting the fish that they are eating.

Francis Daunt, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

They're dying of starvation, it seems. And now what we're trying to find out is what's causing them to starve. Toxins are produced by algae or plankton, and when those get at high concentrations, you can get sufficient quantities of toxins produced by these algae into the marine environment, and that can work its way up the food chain.

At least two thousand seabirds are thought to have died along the UK's east coast in recent weeks.

Poppy Rummery, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Even today, we’ve had at least, sort of, four razorbills seen just off the coast here, certainly dead beneath the cliffs, and … ones that are acting strangely as well, so whether or not they make it and, well to the rest of the day, who knows?

Birds are often a barometer of the health of our seas. The unprecedented scale of this ongoing incident will be seen as yet another warning that our climate is changing more quickly than wildlife can adapt.

Did you get it?

What is most likely to be causing the seabirds to die?

The strongest line of inquiry so far is that some sort of toxin is infecting the fish that they are eating.