An alarming number of seabirds are dying on Bay Area beaches. Scientists believe the birds are starving because ocean warming has driven away their food supply.
Volunteers at the International Bird Rescue Center are trying to save dozens of Common Murres. The baby chicks look a little like penguins and roost on the Farallon Islands, and spend their lives at sea.
But this summer, emaciated Murre chicks are turning up on beaches from Marin to Monterey.
Volunteers at the wildlife rescue center said the Common Murre chicks are starving.
"Probably the fish that would normally be where they hunt with their dads are driven away by global warming the warming waters fish prefer to be in cold and so there's no food," said J.D. Bergeron with the International Bird Rescue.
Scientists in Alaska are noticing the same thing. The Marine Mammal Center in Marin County said starving seal and sea lion pups are also beaching themselves.
The fish they would normally eat are not in shallow coastal waters, so the young marine mammals like the chicks are dying from a lack of food.
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The executive director of the International Bird Rescue Center in Fairfield said the fish that sea lions and seabirds feed on are becoming so scarce, the rescue center itself has struggled to find enough to feed their patients.
On Tuesday, President Donal Trump is going to unveil plans that will make it easier to put green house gasses into the atmosphere. The president is proposing that states set their own emission standards on coal-fired power plants -- a move that some said could allow 12 times more green house gasses into the atmosphere compared to the Obama-era rules.
The president's proposal will be subject to a 60-day comment period. The EPA estimates it will affect more than 300 power plants, providing companies with an incentive to keep coal plants in operation.
For more information, visit Bird-Rescue.org.
