Nets Blamed in Death of Loons
Over 60 birds and a dolphin washed ashore
On the ocean beach in Montauk
 Russell Drumm
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(12/11/2008) The carcasses of more than 60 red-throated and common loons washed up along a stretch of beach in Montauk this week, 15 on Tuesday alone. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the State Department of Environmental Conservation are investigating the possibility that the diving birds were caught in a gill net.
A striped dolphin also came ashore at Ditch Plain. It was alive, but had to be put down. Several authorities said fishing gear was not suspected in the dolphin’s demise, although others were not so sure.
Kim Durham, a biologist with the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, said there did not seem to be a correlation between the deaths of the large diving birds and the dolphin.
“It was in poor condition,” she said of the latter. “We euthanized it on the beach.”
“I did a necropsy on Saturday and found it was an immature male, but there was nothing significant, some squid in its stomach, but it had not been eating, thin. There was no sign of markings from fishing gear, and no lesions in the stomach or G.I. tract,” Ms. Durham said.
Bill Fonda, a D.E.C. spokesman, said that four loons were brought in on Friday along with a complaint, which was being investigated, that gill nets might have been to blame. Other loons were taken to a lab at the Museum of Natural History in New York City that is operated by Seanet, a group affiliated with Tufts University in Massachusetts. Seanet monitors the health and behavior of sea birds from Maine to New Jersey.
“We suspect they were drowned in gill nets,” said John Neal of the Fish and Wildlife Service office in Valley Stream. Commercial fishermen often use the nets to catch striped bass.
“They’re diving birds,” Mr. Neal said on Tuesday. “There are other types of diving waterfowl, but this was just loons involved. We were surprised by the number. They were red-throated for the most part.”
Red-throated loons are smaller than the common variety. They summer in northern Canada and move south with the cold in winter. They feed on small fish, which they pursue underwater sometimes for great distances. Their feeding pattern makes them vulnerable to gill nets, Mr. Neal said.
“These birds were healthy,” said Peg Hart, the Seanet biologist who did the majority of the loon necropsies. “Their only problem was fluid and blood in their lungs, which means they drowned. They had fully formed fish in their throats, which means they were feeding and got caught in a net. Abrasions on their wings and feet suggest entanglement.”
Ms. Hart said tissue was being studied to rule out any other explanation for the loons’ deaths. Ms. Hart said a gannet had also been killed, and that she thought the striped dolphin might also have been a victim. “The area was from Napeague east to Ditch Plain,” Ms. Hart said.
If gill nets are responsible, she said, it is important for fishery and wildlife managers to put their heads together. Overnight sets of gill nets are very dangerous to feeding sea birds, she said, that appear this time of year on their migration.
“If they tighten up the season, if this was October, they wouldn’t have this bycatch problem,” she said. The commercial striped bass season ends Monday.
“We’re going to have to sit down with [federal managers] and make recommendations and talk about fishing practices,” Ms. Hart said. “We know fishermen have to make a living, but these are migratory birds and protected by federal law.”