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Troubled Species

WHOI research associate Andrea Bogomolni and research specialist Michael Moore take a blood sample from a dying eider duck on a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., in the summer of 2007. The researchers are working with Julie Ellis of the Seabird Ecological Assessment Network and other colleagues to figure out why thousands of sea ducks are dying each year in the region. Yearly die-offs have been recorded since the 1950s, but in recent years, the number of deaths has increased substantially, suggesting that this is something more than a natural cycle at work. (Photo by Jim Canavan, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)