Friday, August 27, 2010

Flock of (Dead) Seagulls

Environmental Survey Reveals "Dead Bird Island"

On Thursday, August 19, 2010 LEAN/LMRKwent on a sampling trip into Terrebonne Bay… accompanied by Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of Jacques Cousteau…

What we encountered [Modoto Island] stunned us all. The ground was littered with… [s]o many dead birds that we aren’t sure how many were out there, many dozens of dead birds just in the small area which we surveyed on the island… [in] various states of decay, from scattered bones to a tern that couldn’t have been dead for more than a day and everything in between, that this is an ongoing situation.

We also saw a juvenile gull that was in distress. It could hardly walk and was very unsteady… By the time we finished our sampling and were ready to leave the island the bird had died.


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