MASS bird deaths on the Mexican coast, following similar phenomena in Peru and Chile, are “most probably” due to warming waters of the Pacific Ocean, authorities said yesterday.

Mexico’s agriculture and environment ministries “excluded the presence” of the AH5N1 virus responsible for bird flu and deemed the birds had starved to death.

“The most probable cause of this epidemiological event is the warming of the waters of the Pacific Ocean, due to the effects of the El Nino phenomenon,” they said in a joint statement.

The ministries said the warming of the surface of the ocean is causing fish to dive deeper, preventing birds from hunting them.

The El Nino phenomenon, generally associated with a rise in global temperatures, occurs every two to seven years on average and its effects are already being felt, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last week. 

In Mexico, the deaths have mainly been among seagulls, pelicans, and the vulnerable Buller’s shearwaters, which live offshore and breed on islands. 

These wild birds usually die offshore and are washed ashore by ocean currents, said the same statement, which said research is ongoing. – AFP, June 17, 2023.