Reading the NYT article written by James Gorman on January 18th, I was perplexed to find the murres in the Northeast Pacific are having such a hard time surviving without hardly any explanation. These seagull looking birds tend to eat animal plankton and small fish close to the surface of the ocean, but it would seem they are starving. To me this indicates either a lack of food available or the presence of a disease, but according to the article, the studies conducted showed no evidence of the latter. This leads me to believe the fish (mostly pollock) are either low in population or have relocated to some where with a climate more suitable for them since the ocean temperatures are warming. The warming could be a cause of El Nino, global warming trends, or a combination. Regardless, I think the trend for the population decrease in the murres is cause for concern because of the predatory animals above them in the food chain that depend on them. With this threat in the food chain, the concern is compounded if the murres predators start to die off without adequate prey. All of these threats are substantial, but what’s most concerning is that the trend for this type of mass death is increasing across the board in other species of animals with little explanation leaving scientists powerless in terms of creating solutions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/science/what-does-it-mean-when-animals-suffer-a-vast-die-off.html?ref=earth

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150123-seabirds-mass-die-off-auklet-california-animals-environment/