Unalaska, AK – An unusually large number of dead shearwaters washed up on Front Beach in Unalaska today. Local observers have found about 25 of the seabirds as of Wednesday afternoon, and expect to find more. Reid Brewer of the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Marine Advisory Program was on the beach Wednesday afternoon, collecting data on the shearwaters' locations and physical characteristics in hopes of determining the cause of the die-off.

Shearwaters migrate long distances, with some species arriving in Alaska from as far away as Australia and the Falkland Islands. Occasionally die-offs happen as a result of gales or food shortages along the way. Die-offs of this scale have happened twice in the last decade in Unalaska.