El Nino Blamed in Seabird Deaths

Hundreds of thousands of Alaskan seabirds are thought to have starved to death because of El Nino, the Pacific weather phenomenon tilting nature off-balance, U.S. scientists said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said clues all pointed to El Nino in the deaths of seabirds washed ashore from the Gulf of Alaska to the Chukchi Sea this summer. The birds appear to have died because warmer sea temperatures forced their normal food sources--zooplankton and small fish--deeper into the ocean beyond their reach, a Fish and Wildlife Service official said. One fisherman told the agency that he had spotted more dead whales than usual. Like seabirds, whales eat krill.