Dead Sardines and Penguins

[returnofsid]

2 weeks ago, approximately 1500 dead penguins washed up on the shore of a city in Chile. Today, approximately 30 TONS of dead sardines washed up on the same beaches. Any thoughts? It would seem to me that the Sardines are a natural food of the Penguins. For now, no one has been able to come up with a cause of either of these mass die offs. It would be my guess that it's somehow related to the Sardines and the Penguins feeding on the Sardines. Anyone else??

 

[Michael7979]

What about an environmental cause? poisoning of some kind? Illegal dumping off-shore?

Would be interested in seeing what they find.

 

[dailydriven911]

Sid do you have a link?

 

[returnofsid]

Pollution has been ruled out as a cause of the mass deaths of the penguins. Here's a link I found about the Penguins, today. I'm having trouble finding the main story that I'd read yesterday, that gave a lot more details.
http://www.earthweek.com/2009/ew090403/ew090403b.html

Here's another
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80609560/

 

[gotfish]

Some sort of protozoa? I'd imagine it started off with something the plankton eats which was then eaten by the sardines which were eaten by penguins. That's just a SWAG on my part though.

 

[Workaholic]

Some sort of protozoa? I'd imagine it started off with something the plankton eats which was then eaten by the sardines which were eaten by penguins. That's just a SWAG on my part though.

I think that is a definite possibility. For an example that was the big issue with larger predator birds in the USA. such as the bald eagle. Toxins were building up in the salmon which compounded in the birds making them sick, infertile or die.

Tom