(Mexico City) The massive strandings of dead birds on the Mexican coast, after similar phenomena in Peru and Chile, would be the “very probable” consequence of “warming of the waters of the Pacific Ocean”, authorities announced on Friday. .
The Ministries of Agriculture and the Environment have, after analysis, “excluded the presence” of the AH5N1 virus responsible for bird flu and determined that the birds were “starved to death”, according to a joint press release.
“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 Niño climatic phenomenon”, it is specified.
According to the ministries, the warming of the surface of the Pacific Ocean is causing fish to sink deeper, preventing birds from hunting them.
The El Niño weather phenomenon, usually associated with rising global temperatures, occurs on average every two to seven years and its effects are already being felt, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced last week in the United States. United.
In Mexico, it is mainly Buller’s Shearwater, a vulnerable species according to the IUCN, which live offshore and breed on islands, which have been found dead, as well as seagulls and pelicans.
These wild birds usually die offshore and are washed ashore by sea currents, according to the same statement stressing that research is continuing.