Experts worried about Ontario birds migrating to Gulf oil spill

Published On Mon Aug 02 2010
HO-DAVID DRINKWATER/CANADIAN PRESS
Maria Babbage The Canadian Press



A beloved Ontario bird that bounced back from endangered status may be flying to its demise when it heads south this fall — straight into the path of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

For centuries the American white pelican has flocked to Ontario’s northwestern shores to breed, seeking refuge in colonies where hundreds or even thousands of birds may gather to lay their eggs.

But experts are worried that many of the awe-inspiring birds — whose wingspans can reach 2 ½ metres — may never make the trip north again.

“It’s a huge concern,” said Matthew Reudink, a post-doctorate fellow at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., who has studied the birds for years.

“We’re very concerned about pelicans as well as lots of other species at well.”

Once considered at risk of extinction in Ontario, the pelicans’ status was improved to “threatened” this year when scientists found new and smaller colonies sprouting up in and around Lake Superior.

“Those new colonies have created a more hopeful scenario for pelicans and that resulted in their downlisting,” said Joe Nocera, a scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

“But they’re at ‘threatened’ — it still doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods yet.”

At last count, about 12,600 mature pelicans spend their summers in Ontario, with the largest colonies in Lake of the Woods and Lake Nipigon, Nocera said.

The birds are a major attraction for tourists, who come from as far away as Great Britain to see them, said Shawn Sas, who runs the HooknBullet Lake Tours in Kenora, Ont., about two hours away from Winnipeg.

‘”Twenty-five, 30 years ago, you’d never see pelicans up this far,” he said.

“They’re beautiful.”

But there are many dangers that await them in the Gulf’s oil-slicked waters.

The pelicans could starve if they can’t find enough to eat in the shallow coastal waters, Nocera said. Oil on their plumage reduces their ability to capture fish and regulate their temperature, causing them to die of hypothermia in the middle of the ocean’s warm waters.

Even if they find enough food to survive and manage to avoid the oil, they could eat fish that were affected by the spill and become contaminated themselves, he said.

If their numbers drop significantly, the birds will likely retreat to their colonies in the United States and abandon their breeding grounds further north in Ontario, said Reudink. And that will likely impact the rest of the food chain.

But there’s not much that can be done to stop them from going to the Gulf.

“The problem there is that it’s an extremely difficult thing to manage,” Nocera said. “You would have to actively discourage pelicans from going to their natural wintering grounds, and I don’t know how that could ever be accomplished.”

The pelicans won’t be making the trip alone. About 118 species of migratory birds in Canada fly to the Gulf region for the winter, including the piping plover — an endangered species, said Garry Donaldson, a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service.

“We’re not quite sure exactly what the impact is yet,” he said.

“We’re definitely concerned, but because the oil isn’t completely covering the entire Gulf — and we don’t know how the birds will react once they get there — we’re not hitting the panic button just yet.”

Some birds may avoid the ecological disaster zone entirely because their migratory paths are so large, he said. They may also abandon the area if they find scarce food supplies.

The U.S. has also come up with a creative solution to lure birds away from the coastline, Donaldson said.

“They’re paying farmers to flood fields and create feeding areas where the birds may go, as opposed to the coast,” he said.

Canadian and American wildlife officials have been working together under a nearly century-old treaty to protect migratory birds, he added.

The Gulf’s coastal waters are a major migratory pathway, which means the impact of the oil spill may be felt in ecosystems thousands of kilometres away, said Reudink.

“Obviously, I have no idea what’s going to happen, but the possibilities are incredibly scary,” he said.

Scientists aren’t the only ones concerned about the impact the spill may have on Canada’s migratory birds. Aboriginal groups who have for centuries hunted ducks, geese and other waterfowl to feed their families are urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama to get involved.

First Nations leaders are “very concerned and frightened” about the possible environmental and health impacts of the oil disaster, which is affecting communities thousands of miles away, said Grand Chief Stan Louttit of the Mushkegowuk Council in Moose Factory, Ont.

“Will there be fewer geese this year because of the oil spill in the Gulf? Will it still be safe for my family and I to eat what we catch?” he wrote in a July 27 letter to Obama and Harper.

“After seeing images of oil-soaked birds and fish in newspapers and on the television, these are the kinds of questions our people are asking, with dread in our hearts.”