27 July 2018 Unsolved Mystery

Detective style

Today's schedule was a change of pace. No cliffs, no climbing, no auklet hunting among the rock crevasses and no productivity counts. Instead, we went beachcombing to gather clues for an unsolved mystery, detective style.

This is a mystery not restrained to St. Lawrence Island. Rather, it's a conundrum to be solved throughout the Bering Sea, particularly in the Bering Strait region.

We are in the midst of a murre die-off, and multiple international research teams are trying to determine why thick-billed murres (and some common murres) are washing ashore in alarmingly high numbers.

Our task today was to comb local beaches to collect "clues" from murres we find. Samples include wing feathers and throat feathers, since each differs according to molt schedules and the season in which they grow. Throat feathers grow before the breeding season, while wing feathers grow mostly in the autumn, after breeding and before the birds migrate.

Feather analysis reveals what types of food they've been eating, whether they've been stressed, their nutritional state, and even in which season the death occurred. Researchers can then compare findings with previous years, to determine whether more deaths occurred just before breeding season, or during the winter.

All that from a couple of key feathers. Onward to collect more clues.

Today's Tweet

A mystery in the Bering Sea, thick-billed murres dying in record numbers. Why? Here's to gathering clues. With nature and technology, detectives we shall be. #ResearchIsNotBoring