Hundreds of Birds Killed in Florida
April 30, 1999
Nearly 800 birds, primarily white pelicans, have died since
pesticide-contaminated farmland was flooded in July 1998 to
create a marsh near Lake Apopka in Florida. Experts fear the
death toll may be even higher since thousands of migratory
birds have fed at the wetland restoration project. State officials
managing the lake, however, say they have no plans to
monitor it for pesticides.
Preliminary tests by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pointed to
organochlorine chemicals as the source of the problem. The
soils in the area are known to have high levels of dieldrin,
DDT and toxaphene. "The birds are preying on fish in ditches
and small pools northeast of the lake," said a Fish and Wildlife
Service official. "The birds become sick and die after eating
the contaminated fish." In addition to white pelicans, bodies of
endangered wood storks, great blue herons, cormorants, egrets
and several bald eagles have also been found.
The Fish and Wildlife Service expressed concern that
mammals, including humans, who have had direct contact
with soils from the area may also be adversely affected. The
agency issued a warning that people should avoid contact with
any sick or dead birds and should avoid eating fish caught in
the area.
The local water management district is in the midst of a
US$100 million project intended to restore Lake Apopka, the
largest body of severely polluted water in Florida. The district
bought about 13,000 acres of farmland that had been drained
by farmers in the 1940s and 50s and planned to flood it so the
land could eventually become part of the lake, as it had been
in previous decades.
The water district flooded the farmland in July, and by late fall
large numbers of migratory birds were attracted to the marsh.
As many as 41,000 birds were in the area at any one time. In
late November, large fish-eating birds began to die. In early
1999 in response to the deaths, the district drained the water
from the farmland back into the lake, and in February the birds
began to leave. Florida state agencies then began receiving
reports from residents in other parts of Florida that white
pelicans were falling out of the sky.
Early in the project, tests indicated that a variety of pesticide
residues were present on the land that was to be flooded, and
some scientists warned that this could result in reproductive
problems in wildlife that came to the area. One study singled
out fish-eating birds as those being most at risk.
A Florida Audubon ornithologist, Gian Basili, has speculated
that birds feeding in flooded farm fields on Lake Apopka may
have been dying for years at levels that were too low to attract
attention. Basili said the recent death might be partly
explained by the sheer numbers of birds that descended on the
area.
Lake Apopka was also in the news several years ago when
researcher Lou Guillette and his colleagues discovered
alligators with reproductive problems such as stunted penises
that stemmed from exposure to pesticides that were dumped
into the lake as the result of an accident.
Sources: The Orlando Sentinel, February 11, February 27,
March 10, March 11, March 12, April 2, and April 12, 1999.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service press release, February 17,
1999.
Contact: PANNA.
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