There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
At least not for the 10 unsuspecting sea gulls scrounging for food around Port Angeles’ Ediz Hook this week.
Unable to resist the french fries placed before them as bait, several gulls found themselves caught in a net set by researchers who are looking for carriers of two diseases that could harm marine life along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound.
Scientists from the University of Washington and the SeaDoc Society, a scientific-based organization that funds research in the North Pacific Ocean, quickly placed each netted bird in a large white box to collect an uncontaminated stool sample.
They also measured and weighed the birds and extracted blood samples before releasing them.
Anne Stoltz, director of development and communications for the SeaDoc Society, said they had a relatively easy time catching sea gulls on Ediz Hook.
“This is the fourth or fifth location we’ve been to [for this study],” Stoltz said.
Also in Port Townsend
In addition to Port Angeles, SeaDoc scientists and volunteers are collecting sea gull data from Port Townsend, Orcas Island, Ferndale and a handful of other shorelines in the Strait and Puget Sound areas.
Once they complete the data collected from the birds, they will compare their findings and search for a bird strain of Giardia and cryptosporidium — two diseases common in birds which might be causing problems to marine life off the coast of California.
Tuesday morning’s Port Angeles field study was performed on the north coast of Ediz Hook about 100 yards from the U.S. Coast Guard Station.
None of the birds appeared injured on being released.
Preemptive science
Joe Gaydos, a wildlife veterinarian and SeaDoc’s regional director and chief scientist, is heading up the current sea gull project.
Assisting Gaydos is Chris Thompson, a University of Washington bird biologist who took micrometer measurements of the gulls’ beaks in the hopes of finding a link to the California shellfish outbreak.
“If we see that the sea gulls do have something to do with that, then the problem needs to be mitigated,” Gaydos said.
“But if they’re not, then we’ll know there’s nothing there.”
Gaydos stressed that researchers haven’t found any infected shellfish beds in Washington.
