{"id":314135,"date":"2026-05-13T19:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/314135\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T19:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:57:10","slug":"something-is-killing-birds-on-local-beaches-and-no-one-knows-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/314135\/","title":{"rendered":"Something is killing birds on local beaches \u2014 and no one knows why"},"content":{"rendered":"

This\u00a0story<\/a>\u00a0first appeared on\u00a0The LA Local<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It started like a typical Sunday afternoon in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

I took my regular African dance class with Ndella Davis-Diassy<\/a>, then had some out-of-this-world barbecue at Chef Memo\u2019s<\/a> before ending my afternoon with a long walk along the coast with a friend.<\/p>\n

As we walked and talked, we saw the usual suspects \u2014 abandoned toothbrushes, deodorant sticks and empty laundry detergent containers blowing like tumbleweeds. The cleaning products dirtying the stretch of sand didn\u2019t make me want to put on my shoes, but the birds did.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIs that a seagull?\u201d I asked. It was dead. A few more steps and we saw a cormorant, one of those black, glossy birds that are always sunbathing with their wings out. Dead. A few more steps. Another seagull. Dead. More steps. Then another cormorant. Along a 1.5-mile stretch, I saw eight dead birds.<\/p>\n

At first, I was sad. Then I was overwhelmed. But eventually, I got curious and decided to look into it.<\/p>\n

Searching for answers<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A dead bird lies on the beach near the Long Beach shore. <\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Megan Tan <\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

For The LA Local<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

Like any good millennial armchair detective, I started my investigation on Reddit<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was shocking to see that something was killing birds all along California beaches, from Orange County to San Diego and up the coast toward Ventura County and beyond. A user in Santa Barbara summed up the situation succinctly, if without proper grammar: \u201cWas at Ellwood Beach yesterday, counted 14 dead birds, spaced about one every 30-40 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was nothing specifically about Long Beach that I could find, though I did learn there\u2019s a bar in Japan called \u201cLittle Long Beach\u201d in the r\/longbeach Reddit community.<\/p>\n

Turning to an older technology, I dialed 310-514-2573, the number for International Bird Rescue<\/a>, a nonprofit organization focused on saving seabirds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I got an answering machine with prerecorded instructions: If you see a bird that needs help, find a box, place the bird in the box, put a cloth over the bird, put the bird in a specific area and do not offer it food or water.<\/p>\n

Next, I called the Long Beach Lifeguards Headquarters and spoke to someone on background \u2014 they weren\u2019t authorized to speak to me \u2014 who told me finding dead birds was nothing new, but the number of dead birds they\u2019re seeing was anything but normal. Then they told me I should talk to the people I called first, International Bird Rescue, because that\u2019s who they called when they found 30 birds dead on the beach one day.<\/p>\n

\u201c30 birds!\u201d I shouted back at them. \u201cI know,\u201d they said quietly. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of dead birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But they didn\u2019t have a clue what was causing it.<\/p>\n

The man with the metal detector<\/p>\n

A few days later, I went back to the scene of the crime \u2014 for lack of a better term \u2014 and saw a man with a metal detector scanning the sand along Long Beach City Beach.<\/p>\n

I noticed a few things: He was built like a wrestler \u2014 tall and dense \u2014 and was wearing camouflage shorts, a matching hat and a white shirt and, this will be important later, he was not carrying a shovel.<\/p>\n

He also told me the dead birds I saw were a drop in the ocean compared to what he\u2019s been seeing lately. \u201cEvery time I go to a beach, I see about 10 dead birds. Maybe that\u2019s natural, but I think it\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he spots the birds, he doesn\u2019t do what I do, which is gasp and move on. He puts on a pair of gloves and buries them with his hands. \u201cYou\u2019ll never know it\u2019s there. Unless your kids start digging in the sand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The man with the metal detector declined to give me his name because he didn\u2019t trust the media. But he did tell me the theory he had about how the birds died.<\/p>\n

Across the ocean, about 2,000 feet in front of us, was an island with a beige concrete tower wrapped in blue lines. He pointed to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one, right in front of us. That\u2019s an oil rig,\u201d he told me. \u201cAll these islands out here that look all pretty are oil rigs.\u201d<\/p>\n

His theory is that oil is being pumped into the ocean and when seabirds dive for food, they get oil all over themselves. That\u2019s why they wind up on the shore.<\/p>\n

The THUMS theory<\/p>\n

The man with the metal detector was pointing at the THUMS Islands, an acronym for Texaco, Humble, Union, Mobil and Shell.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, those five companies leased multiple oil fields together off the coast of Long Beach and produced 150,000 barrels a day at their peak. But recently, production shrunk from 15,000 to 8,000 barrels a day. The city of Long Beach is currently debating<\/a> whether the islands should remain active oil islands or be converted into parks, research centers or boutique resorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese birds were not oiled,\u201d JD Bergeron, the CEO of International Bird Rescue, told me a few days later in a phone interview. Bergeron is based in the Bay Area, but his organization also has a wildlife center in San Pedro.<\/p>\n

Around March 1, Bergeron and his team at International Bird Rescue started receiving four times the usual number of calls from residents across Southern California. They\u2019ve all been about dead birds. He told me their helpline went from 10 calls a day about dead birds to 40.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the numbers start to come in more rapidly, we get nervous,\u201d Bergeron said, adding that his organization is exploring several causes for the uptick in dead birds. But he reiterated that none of the dead birds had been covered in oil.<\/p>\n

The man with the metal detector\u2019s theory didn\u2019t pan out. So I went back to the beach.<\/p>\n

The trash theory<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It started like a typical Sunday afternoon in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know exactly why the birds are dying,\u201d Long Beach resident Adam Novak told me. Novak has been walking the beach almost every day for 15 years. \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s probably eating the trash. It\u2019s pretty dirty out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

I let Novak get on with his day and walked 1.5 miles from Junipero Beach to Rosie\u2019s Dog Beach. I passed the Belmont Pier, the Belmont Plaza Pool and multiple moms with kids buying fruit in plastic containers and individually wrapped ice cream from various futeros and paleteros.<\/p>\n

Along the shoreline, I stepped over every size of trash imaginable, from small salsa containers to an abandoned pair of mismatched white Pumas to a large black suitcase you would definitely have to check on an airplane. At one point, I spotted a dark figure 100 feet away floating in the water and debated whether it was a cute seal bobbing around or a mattress.<\/p>\n

It was a mattress.<\/p>\n

But Novak\u2019s trash theory is not on International Bird Rescue\u2019s list of causes to explore.<\/p>\n

When one of the first carcasses was found this year, Bergeron said they had to rule out the worst-case scenario for the cause of death: bird flu. Bergeron compared bird flu to the COVID-19 pandemic. It\u2019s highly contagious and incurable, and it was the reason egg prices increased<\/a> back in 2024.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, when the bird flu test came back, it was negative. Bergeron and his partners had to go back to the drawing board, but at least they could exhale.<\/p>\n

The freak incident theory\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next theory International Bird Rescue had to rule out was harmful algal blooms called red tide that are caused by fertilizer run off into the ocean. The fish eat the algae, and then the birds eat the fish, potentially causing the birds to die.<\/p>\n

Red tide left a mark<\/a> on a variety of marine animals along the coast in 2025 and was also visibly present<\/a> in Long Beach in 2022. But Bergeron\u2019s team wan\u2019t able to link it directly to the surge in dead birds.<\/p>\n

And there are other isolated accidents that Bergeron and his partners tried to rule out.<\/p>\n

Back in 2021, a colony of about 10,000 beach birds nesting in Bolsa Chica was devastated when a drone crashed<\/a> into them. According to Bergeron, International Bird Rescue was able to save<\/a> 3,300 baby chicks. Many others didn\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n

But so far, they hadn\u2019t found an isolated freak incident like that, which led Bergeron to his strongest theory: The birds are starving because of climate change.<\/p>\n

What we know \u2014 and what we don\u2019t<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

A bird soars near the Long Beach shore. <\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Megan Tan<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

For The LA Local<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

According to the NOAA IEA Program<\/a>, an oceanic heat wave known as \u201cThe Blob\u201d has been present in the Pacific Ocean for the past seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Blob\u201d is a mass of water with elevated temperatures moving around the Pacific Ocean. Fish dislike warm water, so when \u201cThe Blob\u201d moves into specific regions, fish either dive deeper into colder temperatures or move farther away into colder waters.<\/p>\n

Even though Bergeron was hesitant to wholeheartedly point to \u201cThe Blob\u201d as the single contributing factor, he admitted it outweighs all the others. \u201cFrom my perspective, it\u2019s hard to see any version of this in which the temperature of the water is not a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The truth is that there are currently no hard facts explaining what is causing dead birds to wash up along the coast of Long Beach and Southern California. But there is one fact that cannot be ignored: As we head into the summer months, when families and tourists flock to the beaches, the dead birds will be there. Some seen and some buried in the sand.<\/p>\n

Maybe, then, the question isn\u2019t what is causing their deaths, but who is responsible for cleaning them off the beach?<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I had a good answer there,\u201d Bergeron said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that there is necessarily anyone whose responsibility it is to pick up dead birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents who see a dead bird can call City of Long Beach Animal Care Services at 562-570-7387. But someone there told me they consider \u201cdead animal pick-ups an non-emergency.\u201d It may take the city 24 to 72 hours to respond. By then, the tide may have shifted, and who knows where the dead bird will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or they can do what an unassuming retired man with a metal detector does: put on some gloves and dig.<\/p>\n