The number of dead and dying Common Murres washing ashore along Oregon's beaches has increased dramatically during the last week. Murres floating ashore near Newport are approaching record numbers, according to Robert Loeffel and his assistants, who have been conducting year-round beach mortality transects on 4.6 miles of beach just south of Newport for the past 28 years. Robert Loeffel, a Newport resident and former Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife employee, has been collecting these data on a volunteer basis. On Tuesday alone, 67 adult dead murres were recovered. The total for the month of July now stands at 114, just 11 birds shy of the July record of 125 recorded during the major El Nino event in 1983. The July record will likely be surpassed later this week when their surveys resume.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists conducted a boat survey between Newport and Depoe Bay on July 25, 2005, during which they observed numerous dead and stressed murres along the shore and out to 10-15 miles offshore. A report of dead common murres on the beach at Pacific City on Sunday July 24, 2005, indicated a localized rate of approximately of one dead murre every 75 feet. Dead murres on the beach have also been reported at Cannon Beach.

The dieoff appears to involve adult birds and is likely the result of stress due to a lack of food associated with unusually low oceanic productivity along the west coast this year. Unseasonable weather patterns in the spring and summer resulted in a general lack of coastal upwelling, which drives the food chain along the coast. "We are sending dead murre specimens to the U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center on Wednesday to have necropsies performed to determine the exact cause of death," said Roy W. Lowe, Project Leader for the Oregon Coastal National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

The rocks, reefs and islands within Oregon Islands and Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuges are closed to the public to protect nesting habitat for the majority of Oregon's nesting common murres and 11 other seabird species breeding along the Oregon coast. "It is very important to continue to protect breeding sites as the murres and other seabirds face these large scale natural mortality events" said Lowe.