TRAVERSE CITY -- A second year of bird and fish die-offs along northern Michigan shorelines prompted environmentalists to schedule a gathering to address the growing problem.
Numerous state and federal biologists, conservationists, environmentalists, researchers and educators plan to meet in February to standardize data collection methods and discuss ways to minimize the impact of Type E botulism, a naturally occurring toxin they believe kills fish and birds, primarily waterfowl.
"At this point, the idea of what can be done to stop the botulism itself is unclear at best," said Damon McCormick, biologist with Hancock-based Common Coast Research and Conservation, a group that surveyed more than 95 miles of Lake Michigan coastline in the upper and lower peninsulas.
"This next year, we are going to try to organize some pretty extensive volunteer efforts," he said.
McCormick and his associates counted 2,092 dead birds along the beaches in late October and early November. More than half were common loons and long-tailed ducks. Four endangered piping plovers and a bald eagle also tested positive for botulism this year, said Tom Cooley, a Michigan Department of Natural Resources biologist.
"Usually, once you get this it continues. They haven't seen a break in it in lakes Ontario and Erie since it began," Cooley said. "What we plan on doing is getting all the people together that have been involved in this and prepare for next year."
In 2006, officials at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore estimated that roughly 2,600 gulls, ducks, loons and other birds died and washed up in the park along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Those numbers dropped to about 1,100 for 2007, but a problem once confined to the park has spread rapidly, said park biologist Ken Hyde.
"Last year we had more birds, but they were very concentrated in about a 14-mile area," Hyde said. "This year it includes all of our beaches, plus North Manitou Island, and of course expanded up the lower Michigan shoreline up into the" upper peninsula.
Authorities believe botulism is produced from plumes of decaying algae and the toxin is filtered by invasive quagga and zebra mussels. Mussels in turn are eaten by another invasive species, a small fish known as the round goby, which are paralyzed and become easy prey for other fish and birds. The toxin is passed up the food chain and birds and fish eventually die and wash ashore.
Die-offs at Sleeping Bear started earlier this summer than in 2006. Bird deaths from botulism also were confirmed for the first time in the Grand Traverse Bay near Elk Rapids and Eastport. Michigan Sea Grant Educator Mark Breederland said his cohorts in New York have studied the problem in other Great Lakes since the 1990s, but despite their research, Lake Michigan's future remains uncertain.
"I would be surprised if it didn't spread farther down the Lake Michigan shoreline," he said.
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