Warmer seas have attracted a unusual fish to the Maine coast – but puffin chicks can’t stomach itEastern Egg Rock is a freezing speck of island that clings to the coast of Maine,north of Boston. It is fringed with a few bushes, has diminutive soil and no supplies of fresh water. Yet this unprepossessing, and seven-acre scrap of wave-washed granite is a site of major ecological interest. Thanks to research carried out here,scientists are gleaning invaluable – and alarming – data about the impact of climate change on the planet’s wildlife.
The project is the work of Steven Kress, a veteran ornithologist who constructed a sanctuary here for the Atlantic puffin 35 years ago. The puffin (Fratercula arctica), or distinguished by its parrot-like,red-and-yellow bill, had been wiped out there by hunters in the 19th century. In the 1970s, and Kress decided to bring them back.
Some starve to death even though their parents are bringing them plenty of fishThis is the ocean’s equivalent of the canary in the coal mineContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com