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Duncan Wright (via Wikipedia)
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Cassin's Auklet, photographed in the Farallon Islands in 2003.
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Much lower than normal populations of krill in the Pacific is threatening the bird populations in the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, according to an AP story in the Mercury News. Scientist say that changes in west coast climate patterns have reduced the krill populations near the Farallones.
Tiny Cassin’s auklets live much of their lives on the open ocean. But in spring, these gray-and-white relatives of the puffin venture to isolated Pacific outposts like the Farallones to dig deep burrows and lay their eggs.
Adult auklets usually feed their chicks with krill, the minuscule shrimp-like crustaceans that anchor the ocean’s complex food web.
But not this year. Almost none of the 20,000 pairs of Cassin’s auklets nesting in the Farallones will raise a chick that lives more than a few days, a repeat of last year’s unprecedented breeding failure, according to Russ Bradley, a seabird biologist with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory who monitors the birds on the islands.
