{"id":250767,"date":"2026-04-04T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250767\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T00:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:01:08","slug":"seabirds-are-dying-in-large-numbers-along-california-beaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/250767\/","title":{"rendered":"Seabirds are dying in large numbers along California beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

From\u00a0Mendocino to San Diego, beachgoers have been alarmed recently by large numbers of\u00a0dead seabirds appearing on California\u2019s beaches<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mass mortality event seems to be primarily impacting Brandt\u2019s cormorants and common murres, though California brown pelicans have also been affected, according to the\u00a0California Department of Fish and Wildlife<\/a>. All of the animals are species of aquatic birds native to the northern Pacific Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t even try to fly away. They just feebly made noise,\u201d a woman told the Santa Barbara Independent<\/a> on Saturday after spotting over two dozen dead or dying cormorants near Goleta Beach. \u201cA few were on their stomachs, wings spread [and] gasping for breath\u2026. Heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The birds appear to be suffering from starvation, CDFW wrote. Nearly all examined birds have been emaciated juveniles, some of which also had secondary injuries, parasitism or respiratory infections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was a very reproductive year for these species, meaning there are more juveniles out there, and when there\u2019s more birds, there\u2019s less resources,\u201d CDFW spokesperson Krysten Kellum told SFGATE. \u201cBasically, they\u2019re starving. There\u2019s more competition out there for food.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

CDFW began receiving reports of mass deaths among cormorants and\u00a0murres last fall, the agency wrote. Wildlife rehabilitation centers throughout the state have also reported an increase in\u00a0sick or injured cormorants, murres and pelicans. Testing on examined birds has ruled out avian influenza<\/a>, which was first detected among wild birds in California in 2022 and recently spread to the state\u2019s marine mammal population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though some reports<\/a> point to climate change impacting the birds\u2019 food sources, Kellum said she does not find this year\u2019s mass starvation event to be indicative of anything out of the ordinary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen every year, but we\u2019ve seen this throughout the years,\u201d Kellum said. \u201cIt\u2019s basically just there\u2019s not enough food out there for them, and that\u2019s what it boils down to. It\u2019s nature running its course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything, we wanted to let people know not to panic,\u201d Kellum said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From\u00a0Mendocino to San Diego, beachgoers have been alarmed recently by large numbers of\u00a0dead seabirds appearing on California\u2019s beaches.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,3099,1894,2008,1692],"class_list":{"0":"post-250767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-sfgcalifornia","12":"tag-sfgcentralca","13":"tag-sfgla","14":"tag-sfgnews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}