News Life

The ‘Blob,’ an unprecedented marine heat wave, killed 4 million seabirds

This may be the largest die-off of wildlife, specifically nonfish vertebrates, reported in the modern era

A group of black and white murre seabirds gather on a rock

A group of common murres (Uria aalge) gather in a colony in Alaska. The species suffered catastrophic losses following a marine heat wave in 2015 and 2016.

Sarah Schoen/USGS

By Jake Buehler

The tall, stony coastlines of the northeast Pacific Ocean are much quieter than they were just a decade ago.