Workers are busy picking up dead birds along some Great Lakes shores to try to slow the spread of a toxin that’s killing wildlife. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Workers are busy picking up dead birds along some Great Lakes shores to try to slow the spread
of a toxin that’s killing wildlife. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
It’s estimated that millions of fish and tens of thousands of birds have died because of a Type-E
botulism outbreak. Ward Stone is the wildlife pathologist for the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation. He says he has crews patrolling the shores of Lakes Erie and
Ontario picking up the carcasses of seagulls, cormorants, and diving ducks who’ve eaten fish with
botulism.
“Because if an eagle comes in and then feeds on one of these carcasses containing this poison,
they in turn become poisoned. So, we think we are saving thousands of birds and mammals as
well like raccoons and skunks and coyotes and even dogs that would feed on carcasses on the
beach.”
Stone believes the botulism outbreak is due to an upset in nature caused by zebra mussels, quagga
mussels, and round goby fish. All three are invasive species believed to have been transported
from foreign ports to the Great Lakes in the ballast water of cargo ships.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.