Study Concludes 'Double Whammy' Harms Murrelet ASTORIA, Ore. To
protect the marbled murrelet, logging stopped across wide swaths
of coastal old-growth forests in Oregon. But a new study
indicates the small seabird may have been forced into decline
not just by logging, but also by overfishing. Fleets that hauled
sardines from the West Coast may have forced the murrelet to
rely on poorer quality food, undermining their breeding,
scientists from the University of California at Berkeley say. If
correct, the theory may explain the dwindling of other
populations of coastal birds, a point the researchers are now
beginning to examine. "It looks like a lot of the more
energetically valuable prey are less available to those seabirds
now," said Ben Decker, lead author of the murrelet study which
is to be published this year in the scientific periodical,
Conservation Biology. The study suggests that fishery management
decisions need to consider the effects on other species, the
scientists said. Since 1992, the murrelet h