Tough times for seabirds

VANITA PRASAD

BIRD WRECK: Myer Cuthbert surveys one of the many dead seabirds on Karekare Beach.

The black sands of west Auckland's beaches are littered with the white feathered bodies of seabirds washed up in the aftermath of last week's storms.

Treacherous winds and big waves proved too much for thousands of prions around New Zealand. The Ornithological Society and the Conservation Department fear its worse than a 2002 storm which led to 2500 birds dying on Muriwai Beach alone. The phenomenon is known as a prion wreck.

Ornithological Society representative Mel Galbraith says the prions have been washed up from Okarito in the South Island to near Kaitaia in the north. The birds are scattered across west Auckland's beaches including Karekare, Piha and Muriwai.

"There's been nothing of this magnitude. It's mind blowing," he says.

On Monday staff from the Conservation Department, Auckland Council and the Ornithological Society will visit Muriwai Beach to collect and analyse the dead seabirds.

Mr Galbraith says collecting the birds is essential to understanding the impact of the bird wreck.

"The numbers are quite important. We need to know how many birds have died to see how it's dented the population."

Conservation Department Auckland biodiversity programme manager Phil Brown says he's received a number of calls about dead prions at west Auckland beaches.

"There are hundreds and hundreds at Karekare," he says.

Waitakere Ranges Protection Society president John Edgar says the prion wreck is devastating.

"In one spot you could count more than 50 birds. Just imagine the number for the entire beach."

Lyn Macdonald of the Bird Rescue Trust says it received more than 200 tired birds during the storm.

"Most of them were prions but we did get a giant petrel in. An awful lot died because they're not good in captivity."

Ms Macdonald says they were able to release the surviving birds on Sunday.

- © Fairfax NZ News