It's called a "wreck". That is the name given to the mass-perishing of sea birds along the east coast, when flocks of shearwaters, exhausted from the staggering 15,000 kilometre annual migration from the North Pacific, plummet down on the beaches of the Hunter, Central Coast and Great Lakes.
It seems that, in the last few days, the birds are appearing again at Tea Gardens after locals and visitors to the area noticed more than a dozen bodies scattered along the headland and about the surf club.
Tea Gardens Hawks Nest Surf Life Saving club secretary Kerrie Moore said it was the first time she had seen such an event in her three-year attachment with the club, but a couple of the longer-tenured members could recall migrations of the past few years.
In 2013, as many as three million birds were estimated to have died on the beaches after arriving, starved and spent and unable to take flight again; either perishing on the sand or falling prey to local predatory dingoes and other animals.
A QUT research team led by CSIRO scientist Lauren Roman found the birds had become so starved during the flight that their natural instinct to recognise the krill and small fish that keep them alive had failed. The birds had been eating pumice rocks and plastics in their desperation for food.
Dr Roman's team ultimately concluded that a volcanic eruption in the Kermadec arc north of New Zealand in 2012 had caused a "raft" of pumice to drift along the shearwaters' migration path and the birds, desperate for sustenance, were unable to distinguish between what they should and should not eat resulting in the large-scale death count.
"We don't know what the shearwaters faced as they migrated to Australia. But our results would suggest they couldn't access enough prey to complete their journey," Dr Roman told the CSIRO in 2021.
Though thankfully not as significant since then, Ms Moore and the Tea Gardens veterinarian clinic has assured residents that the migration was in the natural life cycle for the shearwaters and tended to happen annually around the middle of the year.
A vet had treated one juvenile bird in the past few weeks, but advised concerned locals that the best case was to leave the birds as they are and to report any animals in distress to the WIRES wildlife rescue service.
If they're allowed to rest and recuperate, oftentimes the birds are able to eventually take flight again, Ms Moore added, noting that a number had landed in recent weeks on the surf club balcony and around the grounds.
- WIRES: 1300 094 737
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