Avian influenza suspected as hundreds of dead birds found on N.B. shores
CBC
Through his binoculars, Lewnanny Richardson scans the Factorie à Bastien beach on New Brunswick's Acadian Peninsula.
The biologist with Nature NB spots what he's looking for a few hundred metres down the shore and adds one more to his total: 350 dead birds since May 25.
"I've been with Nature NB for the last 22 years," Richardson said. "I've never seen that."
It's part of a series of discoveries of dead birds along the shore, from the northeastern city of Bathurst, south to Port Elgin, near Nova Scotia. No hard numbers are available, though an estimated 1,000 of one species have been found in recent weeks.
WATCH | Biologist concerned as hundreds of dead birds wash ashore:
Similar discoveries were made around the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the shores of Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and western Newfoundland.
Avian influenza, or H5N1, is the suspected culprit in New Brunswick. The viral infection also known as bird flu spreads easily among birds and affects wild and domesticated species. The virus spreads by bird secretions and droppings.
Richardson walks the Acadian Peninsula shore as part of a piping plover survey and normally counts 20 dead birds per summer.
On May 25, Richardson and his summer students counted three. Then more. Early on, he logged things like GPS co-ordinates for each one. Now he takes a photo, some basic notes, and keeps counting.
Most of the birds are northern gannets, which aren't normally found in New Brunswick. That's the species Richardson spotted washed up on the beach in the minutes since his colleagues walked the same shoreline.
"That northern gannet just died a couple of minutes ago," Richardson said after getting closer. "It's been washed [up] by the sea, so you can see it's super fresh."
"We're seeing a large-scale mortality event for northern gannets in the Gulf of St. Lawrence," Becky Whittam, manager of the wildlife and habitat section at Environment and Climate Change Canada, said in an interview.
Whittam said an estimated 1,000 gannets have been found dead on New Brunswick's east coast. There have been "thousands" reported around the gulf region.
"Everybody is completely overwhelmed right now with just keeping up with these large scale mortalities," said Megan Jones.
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