Something Is Killing The Seabirds And Swans On Long Boat Key

65 Birds dead, and an expert is very concerned that toxins from dispersants are showing up
in the waters of Long Boat Key.

He has alternative hypothesis as well, which is a bit more ominous: could toxins from the spill be showing up in our area?

Dr. Geoffrey Gardner, a Lakeland swan expert, is facing the challenge of a lifetime. Something is killing the seabirds and swans on Long Boat Key, and he has to find out what it is.

"Our concern is that it may be coming from toxins in the waters, something coming from the dispersants that might have been used for the Gulf oil spill," Gardner told FOX 13 on Thursday.

The birds started getting sick and dying two months after the spill. Gardner is wondering if seabirds may have come in contact with a chemical in the Gulf, then migrated here.

www.myfoxtampabay.com...

He has sent a dead bird body in for testing. I wonder what the results will be, if we will even be told the truth?

reply to post by burntheships


I know some birds died, but I'm not so sure it's the water. I live just north of LBK, on Anna Maria Island, and I know Mote still has it's ROV's out testing 24/7. We had a citizens meeting in Juy here on the island and a rep from Mote was there describing what they were doing to keep abreast of the situation. I swim in the gulf here nearly everyday, fish a couple times a week, and nada. I think it may be something else, but it is odd.

reply to post by adifferentbreed


Odd...yes!

Sea birds and swans sick and dying from a mystery illness has investigators worried tonight. They want to know if the sick birds off longboat key have anything to do with the BP oil spill. If it does that could be bad news for other kinds of area wildlife as well.

What’s attacking the birds and swans on Longboat Key?

Concerns that it’s toxins in the water or dispersant used in oil spill.

Swans started getting sick 2 months after spill and they’re not the only ones dying. So are all kinds of sea birds, gulls, terns and more. Rehabbers are worried because they can’t save these birds like usual. 65 have been lost in a little over a month… you know there’s a problem.

The symptoms are all the same, but could not diagnose the problem.

Why would the birds become weak get paralyzed and just drop dead.

The symptoms and duration are unusual…

It’s a matter of life and death…

Could it mean the dispersants are here?

The expert said that they have had 65 dead birds in the last 6 weeks.
www.floridaoilspilllaw.com...

Test Results from Modato Island, in the area of the Gulf of Mexico. Another area called "Dead Bird Island" now.

Samples were collected along the shore of the island, 10-12 inches deep, under the vegetation matted material washed in by the tide. The soil/sediment sample was contaminated with 48.4 mg/kg of Petroleum Hydrocarbons and 10 Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (0.039 mg/kg).
The internal organs from a gull, found dead, on the island contained 23,302 mg/kg Petroleum Hydrocarbons (2.3%). The Blue Crab and Hermit Crab contained 3,583 mg/kg Petroleum Hydrocarbons and 4 PAHs (0.162 mg/kg).
At the southwest end of Modato Island the sediment/soil was contaminated with higher concentrations of Petroleum Hydrocarbons and Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), 68.3 mg/kg Petroleum Hydrocarbons and 14 Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (0.051 mg/kg).
On the north shoreline of Lake Chien… Fiddler Crab and Snail from this area contained 6,916 mg/kg Petroleum Hydrocarbons and 1 PAH (0.012 mg/kg).
The marsh grass along the shoreline of Lake Chien contained 3,946 mg/kg Petroleum Hydrocarbons and 10 PAHs (0.326 mg/kg).
h/t PrjGulfImpact

lmrk.org...

Google Map Of Area

Google Map To Longboat Key

I'll be working on a similar problem (as a consulting scientist) in two areas in Texas; one for Audubon Texas (before you think I'll be doing anything dramatic, I'm just collecting data and mapping areas of concern so everyone can coordinate efforts.)

One of the big concerns now is that the summer birds are leaving for South America and the winter birds are arriving from up north. The poor quality of habitat (oil contaminated) might not directly kill the birds here but could weaken them so that when spring comes the birds won't make it to the north. It won't be one big kill in one area, but lots of at-risk birds dropping dead as individuals. The folks at the various Audubon societies are VERY worried about this situation (and hopefully my maps and data coordination will help them identify and quickly respond to problem areas.)

The Christmas bird count and other bird counts are going to be very critical -- so anyone interested might join E-bird or join the Cornell Labs bird count and help by putting info out there on the birds you see. That's some of the data I'll be using, so every pair of eyes counts.

I'm supposed to be going with a team to a preserve in East Texas on the 23rd. In addition to making an archaeological survey (we're a multidisciplinary team), I'll also be doing some plant diversity mapping and things like that to see what can be done to improve the habitat at this former ranch. Since they've got cattle on the place, I'm a tad concerned about the grasses.

Originally posted by Byrd

The Christmas bird count and other bird counts are going to be very critical -- so anyone interested might join E-bird or join the Cornell Labs bird count and help by putting info out there on the birds you see. That's some of the data I'll be using, so every pair of eyes counts.

Byrd,

Thank you so much for that information! I will look up e-bird, and will be following your work!
Since this mystery started just months after the spill, it seems most likely realted.

Will you and your team be posting your findings on e-bird?


This video was posted to you tube, from Dr. Gardner about the dead birds on Long Boat Key.

We were kicking this around on the pier with coffee this a.m. We haven't heard anything else about this, and we haven't had any wierd bird deaths here on AMI......I'm gonna call Mote in the morning and see what they have to say about this, they do many many bird rescues here as well, and do have their rovs patrolling 24/7 looking for contaminants. I'll report back what I find.

Originally posted by burntheships

Originally posted by Byrd

The Christmas bird count and other bird counts are going to be very critical -- so anyone interested might join E-bird or join the Cornell Labs bird count and help by putting info out there on the birds you see. That's some of the data I'll be using, so every pair of eyes counts.

Byrd,

Thank you so much for that information! I will look up e-bird, and will be following your work!
Since this mystery started just months after the spill, it seems most likely realted.

Will you and your team be posting your findings on e-bird?

Not on e-bird. This report will be internal to Audubon (the one done with the mapping of the Gulf coast spoil islands) and won't be for awhile. I will be posting my assessment of a park (almost 2,000 acres in Texas) that they want the team to examine. There's some odd business about this... I'm not sure if they want to map the areas that might be sacred to the Caddoes (hence the need for Byrd-the-Anthropologist) or map grasses and vegetation areas with an eye to becoming an Important Birding Area (Not sure this is possible but they can get listed as an "Audubon ranchette project.")

If you're totally fascinated by this, let me know in U2U and I'll send you the link to the blog where I'm doing the preliminary (test of field methods, etc) work for the Texas property. I'll post methods there. Don't expect crazy frequent updates. I should probably do this as a Facebook page or something. Still thinking that through.

I've been thinking I should write some articles for publication on how to do "Citizen science" in such a way that people will pay attention to your reports. Researchers and government groups are starting to pay attention to tweets and so forth -- not in a bad way, but as a way of getting better info. For instance, I'll search Twitter for mentions of the areas I'll be researching and see who spotted what birds or flowers when and put the data points on the map (but not be intrusive and follow the person or otherwise invade their privacy.)