In addition to the obvious vomiting, symptoms of poisoning with this neurotoxin include "confusion, disorientation, scratching, seizures, coma and even death." "Therefore, we think toxic Pseudo-nitzschia were probably responsible for the odd behavior and death of sooty shearwaters in August 1961," Bargu told Salon. "The upwelling of bottom waters declined at the time, and the inflow of oceanic surface waters increased, probably leading to the development of warm water and low-wind conditions." Not only did this cause the seabirds to stay in California for longer than usual - they breed in the Southern Hemisphere in nations like New Zealand - but it promoted the growth of this neurotoxin at precisely the wrong time. " Pseudo-nitzschia abundance during the summer of 1961 was of the same order of magnitude as that observed during more recent animal stranding events related to domoic acid poisoning," Bargu told Salon by email. As it turns out, there is a neurotoxin called domoic acid that can be produced by a diatom (a form of microalgae), which in turn is part of the diet of animals preyed upon by birds like sooty shearwaters. Sibel Bargu Ates - an oceanography professor and Associate Dean of Academics at Louisiana State University's College of the Coast and Environment - cracked the mystery in a 2011 paper to the scientific journal Nature Geoscience. So what happened? While Hitchcock would never live to discover the truth, Dr. Perhaps it was unsurprising that reporter Wally Trabing closed his account with a quick reference to Hitchcock taking an interest in the then-recent events. Trabing had earlier noted that only one demographic seemed happy: "Cats were drawn to the area and were running about the areas." Yet residents also took pity on the birds, expressing distress at the ones who had died and trying to help those who seemed merely confused. "The smell is terrible," she complained, noting that the birds had vomited fish guts all over her lawn. One oblivious resident was surprised by a swarm of angry birds when she blearily opened her door at 6 AM although she succeeded in keeping them out of her house, she did not manage to do so before they sprayed her residence with their bodily fluids. A teenager was struck by a bird as he left his house. An officer using a sheriff's car nearly crashed as sooty shearwaters plowed into his vehicle. The community was suffused in "an overpowering fishy stench."Įight people reported being bitten by the birds, and it seemed that every resident had a story. Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist. The community was suffused in "an overpowering fishy stench," according to the Sentinel. The birds flew into television lines, caused power outages and littered fish skeletons all over the streets. When residents rushed out of their homes with flashlights so they could better see, the birds savagely swooped toward the light beams. Since sooty shearwaters' diet is fish-based, this meant that partially digested anchovies were sprayed on citizens and property along with the feathers, feces and - even more mysteriously – the corpses of the aggressive avians themselves. In addition to living out a scene that would later become iconic (albeit with pigeons) in the schlocky 2003 sci-fi movie "The Core," the sooty shearwaters had also drenched Capitola in vomit. "Dead and stunned seabirds littered the streets and roads," reported the Santa Cruz Sentinel that very day, and the newspaper wasn't exaggerating. In addition to crashing into buildings, the hundreds and hundreds of birds were tumbling through the air as if they were drunk on a bender. Yet the same aerial skills that made sooty shearwaters into nightmares for fish were suddenly being employed against humans. As their name indicates, sooty shearwaters have a gray-and-brown palette that makes them rather unremarkable visually if a seagull's wings were stretched out, and it rolled around in a chimney or fireplace, it would look something like a sooty shearwater. Although a number of species were involved, the majority of the birds were later identified as sooty shearwaters, which are usually harmless to humans and instead are best known for acrobatically diving into waters for fish. When residents of Capitola woke up that foggy early morning on August 18, 1961, they were greeted by flocks of birds dive-bombing into their houses. The social lives of birds: Turkeys are violent, back-stabby, and class-obsessed
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