Tweets, I had heard rumors of this but the big picture is
even worse than I thought. Below is verbatim from the
Anchorage Daily News of 10-22:

A mass die-off of seabirds in Western Alaska and the Chuckchi
Sea this summer apparently was caused by starvation, according
to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It appears the birds
couldn't get enough food because the calm, warm conditions of
El Nino drove their food deeper into the water than the birds
could reach. "We'll never know how many seabirds we lost," said
Vivian Mendenhall, a seabird biologist with the Fish and
Wildlife Service. "But it appears this was one of the largest
seabird die-offs ever recorded." Species affected include
short-tailed shearwaters, black-legged kittiwakes, murres and
other diving species. Up to 500 dead shearwaters were found for
each mile of beach along the Bering Sea, and thousands of dead
birds were reported along both sides of the lower half of the
Alaska Peninsula. The dead birds were also seen in the
Aleutians as far west as Adak. The birds feed on small fish and
shrimplike zooplankton - but the warm waters and the lack of
major storms apparently forced the bird food into deeper,
cooler waters. Healthy populations of all affected species
remain but Alaska could see another round of bird die-offs in
the coming months, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

***************

The Bering Sea was showing signs of stress even before
this, having been under heavy fishing pressure for over a
decade. Seems like Arctic ecosystems tend to have
incredible bounties of a limited number of species, but
they don't bounce back very fast when depleted.

Chris Maack
Anchorage, AK
CMaack at compuserve.com