Survey monitors animal carcasses for harmful algal bloom toxins and bird flu

For Charles Menadelook, Kawerak’s Subsistence Resources Program Director, two of the biggest food safety concerns for subsistence hunters in the Norton Sound Region are harmful algal blooms and the highly pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI.
These issues put regional food resources at risk by making the animals afflicted with them potentially harmful for humans to consume.
As a subsistence user himself, Menadelook knows first-hand the importance of having healthy game available for harvest.
That’s why this summer, in the absence of any federal research or monitoring of HPAI or HABs in the region, Menadelook conducted carcass surveys almost every day, accumulating a record of his observations of dead or dying animals along the coast of the Bering Sea.
The goal is to have a record of what’s impacting animals in the region, with the hope of these surveys being used as baseline in future research.

Looking for trouble
In 2022 the Bering Sea experienced the one of the largest, most toxic algal blooms observed nationwide. The toxic phytoplankton Alexandrium was discovered in high quantities by researchers on the Norseman II vessel. When the scientists realized the levels of toxins present in the blooms, a public health emergency was called. People in the region were informed to practice caution when subsisting in the waters and report observations of anything unusual with marine mammals and shellfish.
Alexandrium in high quantities is dangerous, it can build in the tissues of clams and crabs, which if consumed by humans can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning. It can also affect other types of animals when they eat prey with high concentrations of Alexandrium.

Another bloom was observed in 2023, though the levels were not that of the unprecedented 2022 bloom, the risk was still there.
HPAI has been known to be in the region for years, infecting not only birds but animals like foxes that eat birds that die from the virus. In 2022 ADF&G reported a a case of a fox that died from rabies and HPAI in Unalakleet.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, human infections of HPAI are rare, but occur when people encounter saliva, mucus and feces of an infected animal and enough virus gets into eyes, nose or mouth. It can also be inhaled. Illnesses that result have ranged from mild to fatal.

We’re alone out here
Part of Menadelook’s job is to travel to different committee meetings throughout the state and advocate for subsistence users. This spring, he was doing just that. With thoughts of HABs and HPAI in mind he worked to push his message of need for more attention in the region to a broader audience.
At one point he ended up in a conversation with a federal coordinator for an agency that managed health and safety of animals related to the region. This prompted a back and forth, where Menadelook expressed a desire to have more federal eyes and ears on the issues impacting subsistence in the region, like HABs and HPAI.
“They don’t realize how often we come into contact with it here,” Medadelook said.
Feeling like his plea for help was unheard he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Do something about it
Menadelook wasn’t the first to think of doing carcass surveys on the beach. Austin Ahmasuk had done the same when employed with Kawerak, combing the beach during the summer, looking for any animal or bird that showed signs of disease.
Menadelook began in June, driving out to the Solomon bridge, checking there then moving to the beach, walking the length of the shore until the Bonanza Channel Bridge. He would also check West Beach, to conclude the daily survey.
“Even though it was tedious, I tried to do the same thing every day,” Menadelook said.
At first action was slow. In June he only found one dead bird and because of its advanced decomposition he surmised it was a winter death. He also found two dead seals in June, both in their first year, weaned, he was able to take samples from one of them.
There are a few requirements a carcass must meet to be able to take viable samples. The National Wildlife Health Center’s website has a list of criteria for accepting samples. The animal must be in “good postmortem condition” meaning the carcass is intact, doesn’t smell too foul, no skin, hair feathers on it and it hasn’t been scavenged.
By July things began picking up. Menadelook started utilizing Kawerak’s side-by-side to speed up the surveys and he was going more frequently, almost daily. Then the first shocking incident occurred.
Walking near the Solomon Shelter Cabin he came upon a flock of dead Short-tailed shearwaters. “I found them all in a row, I think, like five or six, and that startled me,” Menadelook said. “They looked like they just dropped dead.” As he told the story, Menadelook showed a picture he took on his phone of the birds.
Menadelook picked up the samples he could submit and sent them off to the United States Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. There they are analyzed in a laboratory to determine the cause of death.
Results from some of the shearwaters have come back, with the cause of death listed as starvation, Menadelook said.
Days of surveying the beach went on and eventually he’d racked up over 20 dead shearwaters, among other birds. By this point he was surveying from Solomon Bridge to Cape Nome and from Nome to Penny River.
“If I don’t, no one else will,” Menadelook said.
Throughout the summer Menadelook established routines. Certain places he always stopped. At Cape Nome he would stop on his way back to call Gay Sheffield and report any findings from the day.
Sheffield is the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program agent for the Bering Strait Region. She helped Menadelook in the surveys and acted as a resource for getting the carcass samples out to testing sites and reporting information to the proper channels.
On August 7, Menadelook came across a baby beluga whale that appeared to be sick, throwing up and twitching on the beach. He first reported it to Sheffield, and they consulted with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office Of Protected Resources in Anchorage and got the approval to dispatch it.
Menadelook recounted that the beluga was screaming, “it was afraid and confused.”
“All the hair on the back of my neck stood up, every time I would try to touch it, it screamed,” he said.
With the help of Sheffield, they were able to get the beluga sent to a wildlife lab in Anchorage for a full necropsy.
The moment marked a tough one in the job. Menadelook said he went back to the spot for days after to apologize.
“It’s hard, because you go to the beach, it’s no longer a fun place to be. It’s where you see all the death.”
A few weeks later he found another baby beluga right around the same area, also appearing to be sick and disoriented. This time, Menadelook and Sheffield together tried to push it back out to sea, to give it a chance but it wouldn’t move, Menadelook said. It was euthanized and sent out to the lab in Anchorage.
This was an especially puzzling event because there was no sight of either beluga’s mother, “there’s no way that beluga is gonna leave a baby that’s still breathing,’ Menadelook said.
The total of dead marine mammals found this summer was 19, this included the two baby belugas and five adult belugas, also seals, walrus, porpoise and one grey whale. He found 57 dead birds on the beach. Out of the five species identified, the shearwaters were by far the most numbering 34.

Survey season is over
Menadelook conducted his last survey in early October, he is still awaiting the results of many samples he sent to the lab.
This week he is traveling to Anchorage to present his summer findings at the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee Meeting.
He’s eager to bring his findings to a greater audience.
Looking forward, Menadelook is seeking a grant to hire interns for next summer to help with the surveys. More people would help with the consistency and range of the surveys.
He believes that there is so much that could be learned by opening up the observations across the region’s coastline, bringing in the help of volunteers in villages.

This story has been updated with a correction about the entity that approved the beluga whale's dispatch was National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Protected Resources in Anchorage. It was originally stated that the Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife Service approved it. 

It was also initially reported that the belugas were sent for a necropsy to the USGS Wisconsin lab, but it was sent to a wildlife lab in Anchorage