{"id":273875,"date":"2026-04-18T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/273875\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T07:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:00:15","slug":"dead-dying-seabirds-continue-to-wash-up-along-san-diego-county-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/273875\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead, dying seabirds continue to wash up along San Diego County coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beachgoers across San Diego County are encountering a troubling and increasingly common sight with\u00a0dead or struggling seabirds<\/a> washing up along the coast from La Jolla to Carlsbad.<\/p>\n

Some birds are so weak, they\u2019re approaching people. It’s behavior wildlife experts say is highly unusual.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cormorants are kind of wandering\u2026 they are starving to death,\u201d said Jeni Smith, a rescue program curator at SeaWorld San Diego.<\/p>\n

Smith says her team has been inundated with calls since mid-February.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeaWorld is receiving calls all day, every day during the night,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

So far, rescue crews have taken in more than 115 birds, primarily Brandt\u2019s cormorants, brown pelicans and common murres. The pace is picking up, with teams now responding to four to five rescues a day, many involving cormorants in critical condition.<\/p>\n

Wildlife officials say starvation appears to be the primary cause, and it may be tied to what\u2019s happening offshore.<\/p>\n

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography have recorded near-record ocean temperatures for months, creating what\u2019s known as a marine heat wave. The warmer water is pushing fish into deeper, cooler areas, making it harder for diving birds to find food.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely hard to see that these animals aren\u2019t able to find their food source,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey\u2019re starving, they are very, very emaciated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rescuers say many of the birds they receive are lethargic, underweight and, in some cases, showing neurological symptoms. Inside SeaWorld\u2019s rescue center, care is intensive. Birds are first stabilized with fluids and a specialized feeding formula described as a \u201cfish milkshake\u201d before gradually transitioning back to solid food.<\/p>\n

Despite the grim trend, there have been small signs of hope.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, SeaWorld teams released five rehabilitated birds, including a brown pelican, back into the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have success and return the animals and they fly away or swim away, it\u2019s a great feeling,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Still, the scale of the die-off is striking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really sad when you\u2019re walking the beaches,\u201d Smith added. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen this amount of deceased animals lying on the beaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rescuers are urging the public to keep their distance from any sick or stranded birds and report them to SeaWorld Rescue’s trained professionals at 1-800-541-SEAL.<\/p>\n

When calling in a report, officials say it\u2019s helpful to provide the animal\u2019s location, type and size, along with details about its behavior and condition. Photos or video can also help rescuers assess the situation before arriving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beachgoers across San Diego County are encountering a troubling and increasingly common sight with\u00a0dead or struggling seabirds washing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[118667,118666,118668,118665,74,84,76,75,40679,16192],"class_list":["post-273875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-brown-pelicans","tag-common-murres","tag-cormorants","tag-jeni-smith","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-scripps-institution-of-oceanography","tag-seaworld-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273875","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=273875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}