Florida's Disappeared Birds Mystery Solved

By Deborah Dupré

Exclusive for Before It’s News

A mysterious, intense event recently occurred at Florida’s largest bird refuge that disappeared all 20,000 nesting birds in a single night, leaving unhatched eggs, eery silence, and wildlife officers supposedly wondering why the habitat where birds have gone to breed for decades suddenly turned into a dead zone. One plausible reason exists, one mainstream refuses to report and almost every U.S. congressional leader refuses to discuss: a major, state sponsored group conspired to create this brutal phenomenon.

“Seabirds are particularly good indicators of the health of marine ecosystems,” said Michelle Paleczny, a University of British Columbia master’s student and Sea Around Us project researcher. She and co-authors compiled information on over 500 seabird populations from around the world, representing 19 percent of the global seabird population. They found overall populations declined by 69.6 per cent, approximately 230 million birds in 60 years. Science Journal reports this much.

“When we see this magnitude of seabird decline, we can see there is something wrong with marine ecosystems. It gives us an idea of the overall impact we’re having,” Paleczny said.

Some dramatic, abrupt event however, an impact they are having rather than “we’re” having, caused the breeding pairs of birds of various types to suddenly disappear from Seahorse Key on Florida’s Gulf of Mexico coast, 60 miles soutwest of Gainsville. U.S. Seahorse Key biologist Vic Doig said the birds have been going there for over a century, averaging 10,000 to 20,000 breeding pairs a year – until this spring, according to AP’s article in U.S. News. Seahorse Key is a 150-acre mangrove island, part of Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge established in 1929 to protect nesting birds that then numbered approximately 200,000.

“It’s a dead zone now,” said Doig.

Some of the birds dramatically fled to Snake Key, according to a University of Florida’s Seahorse Key Marine Laboratory website update. Doig, however, says those birds are only a small fraction of the ones once making Seahorse Key their nesting ground. Birds usually nesting — little blue herons, roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, pelicans and others — are gone. Nests in trees are empty, according a U.S.. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) press release reports.

“This is where the largest bird colony on the Gulf Coast of Florida used to be,” stated Doig.

Peter Frederick, a University of Florida wildlife biologist, who has studied Florida’s birds nearly 30 years, adds a key to the disappeared birds: “It’s not uncommon for birds to abandon nests. But, in this case, what’s puzzling is that all of the species did it all at once.”

Biologists tested left-behind bird carcasses for disease or contaminants but found nothing, no telltale signs of new predators. They did find, however, another possible key to the “mystery”: increased night flights over the area by surveillance planes and helicopters (reportedly combating drug-runners). Doig reports that the biologists think disruption from the planes’ noise is a long shot, but that’s where the surveillance aspect ends in recent reports.

“There had to be some intense event that would drive all these birds away,” said Janell Brush, an avian researcher with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, also offering another key to the mystery.

Biologists question whether the new dead zone will have a ripple effect. Many bird species return annually to the same nesting sites. Biologist also don’t know how the disappearance will impact the island’s other animals, such as those relying on those birds to survive.

Scientists recently linked a massive, ongoing dolphin die-off in the Gulf of Mexico with BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. That, however, is not the only fallout from the biggest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history. “Oozing oil is a recurring yet hard-to-control problem on marshes in a bay just south of New Orleans. One day, a patch of the wetland is green and lush. The next it’s drenched in thick, noxious goo,” Science News for Students reported last month. “That surfacing oil is releasing toxic vapors. Biologists caged crickets and floated them in and around the bay’s marsh. They’re dying. Even now, another so-called “mystery.”

“Researchers don’t know what chemical or mix of pollutants is wafting from the oil to kill the crickets. It’s this huge mystery,’ says Linda Hooper-Bùi, environmental scientist at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. If the fumes kill insects, she wonders what they do to people. “It keeps me up at night,” she says.

Corexit dispersant, that makes crude oil 52 times more toxic (carcinogenic) than crude alone in some Gulf of Mexico sealife, has been sprayed over the Gulf for over five years, beginning with BP’s Macondo Well catastrophe. (Read: Aussies Blow Lid Off BP Gulf Oil-Corexit Deaths, ‘Health Catastrophe’ Cover-Up) 2nd Combat Weather Systems Squadron (2 CWSS), Hurlburt Field, FL. still maintains weekly flight plans for dispatch from Gulf Port Air Force Reserve for monitoring and dispersing Corexit, according to one of this author’s reliable military sources on Thursday.

Due to vast amounts of oil still leaking in the Gulf after BP’s catastrophe, plus the Taylor Oil disaster predicted to last a century, plus countless other wells spewing oil into the Gulf any given day, Corexit is still the petrochemical-military-industrial-complex (PMIC) cover-up chemical of choice. Read: Secret Gulf 10-Year Oil Leak Unravels: Judge Refuses to Continue Cover Up) Unless an extraordinary amount of Corexit was sprayed near or on the bird refuge, that, alone would not cause the sudden event. Interviewed scientists say they conducted tests there and found no such extraordinary amount of a chemical. Corexit was not as likely to be applied to disappear birds as another coverup, partially classified information.

Paleczny concludes the cause of vanishing birds globally are human activity and climate change, as Science Weekly reported Thursday: “The dramatic decline is caused by a variety of factors including over-fishing of the fish seabirds rely on for food, birds getting tangled in fishing gear, plastic and oil pollution, introduction of non-native predators to seabird colonies, destruction and changes to seabird habitat, and environmental and ecological changes caused by climate change.”

One woman, however, disagrees with the above-mentioned main possible killers. She not only predicted the sharp decline due to trauma, but also has been beating the drum tirelessly for public support to prevent ecocide. Meet Rosalind Peterson, head of the Agriculture Defense Coalition. Researching volumes of military documents, Peterson revealed the U.S. Navy’s plan to experiment with an onslaught of weapons over a 5-year test period is in progress. Weapons are designed to disrupt and kill. In this case, some are top secret, classified. Nevertheless, scientists refrain from addressing this assault. 

U.S. Navy Weapons Testing in Gulf Of Mexico

The disappeared bird phenomenon directly relates to the notion of empire, the U.S. military’s drive toward it, and manifestation of it on our entire planet. In its stated aim for Full Spectrum Dominance of all land air and sea – including all inhabitants, humans and wildlife. The Navy 5-Year Weapons Testing officially began in 2012, possibly began as early as the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe, and has now been extended to run through 2020. The Navy’s initial 5-year plan was to decimate (“take”) 11.7 million marine creatures — including birds. In 2015, the U.S. Navy escalated warfare testing in the Gulf of Mexico. (See: Gulf news: US Navy planned to massacre millions, 5-yr warfare ‘testing’ (video))

“…In many regions, the Navy plans to increase the number of its exercises or expand the areas in which they may occur, and virtually every coastal state will be affected. Some exercises may occur in the nation’s most biologically sensitive marine habitats, including National Marine Sanctuaries and breeding habitat for the endangered North Atlantic right whale. In all, the Navy anticipates more than 2.3 million takes (significant disruptions in marine mammal foraging, breeding, and other essential behaviors) per year, or 11.7 million takes over the course of a five-year permit…” (See PDF file)

In a March 2014 video, Peterson discusses Navy Warfare Testing escalation, expansion, and where its live-fire warfare experimental testing is occurring today: the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. These tests are being conducted from both sides of Seahorse Key. (See map above.) “Shock & Awe” bomb blasts, sonar use, missile exercises, live-fire weapons testing, lasers, electromagnetic and electronic weapons (EWs), and experimental weapons testing all negatively impact marine life and oceans. The Gulf of Mexico’s entire coastal region is under siege. (See U.S.. Navy Atlantic Fleet Warfare Testing Range (AFTT) Map & Final EIS/OEIS (Nov. 25, 2013); U.S.. Navy Website: http://aftteis.com/)

In media interviews with NOAA representatives regarding Gulf mysteries, such as vanishing birds and dolphins carrying dead fetuses, scientists and officials remain tight-lipped about Navy and Air Force deliberate assaults. NOAA is the government agency that gave permits for the Navy and Air Force experiments. It probably provides its data to the military. NOAA, however, never mentions disastrous impacts it knows its bed-partner, the Pentagon, is having by testing weapons ultimately designed for human impact. (See: NOAA Permits to “harm” marine mammals in AFTT Range 2013-2019)

Reading the text below, consider four key points scientists have made thus far: 1. All the Seahorse Key bird species vanished at once. 2. Surveillance planes have increased night flights over the area. 3. A small fraction of the birds dramatically switched habitat to Snake Key. 4. There had to have been some intense event to drive all the birds away.

With NOAA permits, as planned during the Bush administration and developed during the Obama administration, the Navy is conducting deadly weapons testing off Florida’s Gulf of Mexico coast – including Seahorse Key area. The Navy Warfare Testing Program, according to their E.I.S. documents, “…utilizes mid- and high frequency active sonar sources and explosive detonations.” The plan was to use these sonar and explosive sources during “Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) Tracking Exercises, Mine Avoidance Training, Extended Echo Ranging and Improved Extended Echo Ranging (EER/IEER) events, Missile Exercises, Gunnery Exercises, Bombing Exercises, Sinking Exercises, and Mine Warfare Training…”

If the reader has been led to believe such testing hazards are mainly sonar and other directed energy weaponry (DEWs), that are already being applied to targeted individuals as innocent as Seahorse Key birds, think again. (Read: Microwaving targeted individuals: End rights abuses Barrett tells government)

From the book, Vampire of Macondo:

“You just cannot imagine the number of chemicals that are going to be dumped into the ocean,” Peterson said about the Navy’s plan when interviewed on the Vinny Eastwood Show in New Zealand, “The lighter side of genocide,” as Eastwood calls his program

“Even people of the Gulf were surprised the Obama administration told the Navy to report on reconstruction of the Gulf of Mexico after the oil spill, but the shocking part is that the Navy failed to mention they’re going to be initiating warfare testing in that area for five years,” Peterson said.

Among all the humongous Gulf Operation coincidences, one of the biggest was BP’s “spill” coinciding with the Navy Five Year Weapon Testing Plan in the Gulf. Were the 2 million gallons of deadly chemicals brewing with crude oil part of military “human experimentation” without informed consent?

“I love to have informed consent,” Eastwood interjected. “It allows me to make a decision about whether I’m going to be exterminated.”

The “Navy Warfare Chemical Menu” [6], is now contaminating our air, water, ocean, and soil, according to itsr official documents. Its list of toxic chemicals is as long as it is shocking, as noted in various Navy E.I.S documents: Depleted uranium, red and white phosphorus, cadmium, lead, perchlorate, titanium oxide, atmospheric releases of aluminum oxide (from U.S.. Navy C.A.R.E. Atmospheric Experiments over East Coast of U.S. Chaff releases (aluminum coated fiberglass particulates), and a whole host of chemicals known to be toxic not only to man, but to marine life and fish, are being served on this menu.

“The stack of documents just for the West Coast is two feet high,” Peterson told Dupré in 2012, explaining she was self-taught on this issue. “When I learned what the Navy was up to, my jaw dropped.” (Dupré, Vampire of Macondo, Navy’s chemical and directed energy weapon testing plan for Gulf )

Top secret weapons

Along with the above-listed known arsenal, highly classified weapons systems are being used in the Warfare Experiments, including the Gulf of Mexico, according to Navy documents. NOAA has already approved many of these tests, at least twelve, and they have been well underway since 2012, including off Florida’s Gulf coast, including over land areas. Drones carrying and testing weapons – U.S.. Navy Boardman Range Complex — and surveillance systems are being tested over both land and ocean areas.

Almost all elected representatives are silent when it comes to opposing these disastrous experiments and programs, according to Peterson. Major news media, with only two known exceptions, has not covered this story in the past and is not likely to tell it now, even though the Seahorse Key disaster is making news. The only TV station that has covered the Navy plan to kill millions of sea creatures is KTVU Channel 2 Investigation U.S. Navy Warfare Testing Program on May 18, 2009.

Peterson knows well the halls and offices in Washington D.C.. She has distributed informational flyers and attempted to gain their support to halt the killing of marine birds, mammals.

“The U.S.. Senators and members of the U.S.. House refused to postpone these disastrous “takings” or hold U.S.. Congressional Hearings, while pretending to be ocean and environment friendly in their re-election speeches,” Peterson has stated. “In addition to refusing to be interviewed by the press with regard to this issue (only a few exceptions), all of our elected officials have steadfastly refused to hold U.S.. Congressional hearings in order to protect our marine mammals, fish, birds, endangered species, and human health.”

The U.S.. Congress, NOAA, and U.S. Navy are ignoring Chapter 5 of the April 2010 Report of the National Cancer Institute – President’s Cancer Panel “Exposure to Contaminants and Other Hazards from Military Sources”. We do know that the U.S.. Navy and Air Force are using new forms of toxic chemicals and other contaminants in the Gulf, as it is in other ocean areas in its 5-Year Warfare Testing Experiments. Peterson has lobbied for hearings, saying they should be held by the U.S.. Congress to protect human and ocean and marine mammals health and the coastal fishing industry.

“It is time for all of us to step up and say “NO” to the U.S.. Navy and Air Force War on our oceans,” Peterson had said before the testing began. “With the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill and many areas still struggling with the aftermath, all we need now is to subject this area and the people who live there to another ecological disaster that began this year.

Peterson had sent a clarion call about expanding and initiating warfare testing in more areas the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Pacific and Atlantic. Her research documented it would spell disaster for millions of birds, marine mammals, fish and their habitats. “We do not elect to be the guinea pigs for these experiments or to have our oceans used for massive warfare testing,” she says.

From Vampire of Macondo:

“We have become the guinea pigs for the U.S. military,’ Peterson told Eastwood. “And because they’re testing in so many oceans, this is going to have a worldwide effect. This will hit every country one way or another. This will set off hunger for coastal communities that depend on the oceans for food.”

“We’ve been talking about control of the food supply for some time,” Eastwood replied. “This is so they can go through an orderly extermination in my opinion.”

“Well, it’s an orderly extermination, but it also means people are going to become very sick,” Peterson replied. “I wonder about the U.S. military going to war on the world’s oceans, the food supply of our oceans. They’re ‘testing’ things they’ve already tested. They’re testing things they know already.”

“I really think this is the way to tell the world that we’re a threat and we’re going to control all the oceans,” Peterson told me on the phone about the Navy testing in the Gulf near Macondo Prospect. “The Navy has surrounded the United States, even including Hawaii, down the West Coast, to Panama, the Gulf, and the East Coast. They are in all those areas, and they want more.”

The Navy is marking its territory like a dog. This feral canine, however, is claiming more and more territory each year for control through “Navy exercises”.

“They are expanding some of those testing ranges already,” Peterson said. “…In many regions, the Navy plans to increase the number of its exercises or expand the areas in which they may occur, and virtually every coastal state will be affected. Some exercises may occur in the nation’s most biologically sensitive marine habitats, including National Marine Sanctuaries and breeding habitat for the endangered North Atlantic right
whale.”

The plan before Deepwater Horizon rig explosion was to bomb and fire for five years. The Navy’s request to extend that period, approved with no press coverage, coincided with the 2-year anniversary of BP’s Gulf catastrophe. There would be no public discussion, newspaper coverage or debate this time.

“None of the local officials knew anything at all about the Navy warfare testing in the Gulf,” Rosalind told Dupré. “Clearly public officials along the Gulf don’t know about this.”

How could they know? The Navy never contacted them before starting the warfare testing. They only told Congress, but Congresspersons did not oppose the plan.

“How could they oppose it?” Rosalind asked. “These documents include thousands of pages. Who’s going to stop everything else they are doing and read thousands of pages?”

One person has: Rosalind Peterson.

Information on the military killing millions of animals with secret weapons, the “Navy 5-Year Weapons Testing,” has been available for years. There is no mystery. There is, however, the U.S. Navy and Air Force along with their pal NOAA and a complicit media, elected government officials, and appointed agency heads.

References:

             1. USA TODAY News: “Navy Plans Could Affect More Marine Mammals” Aug. 5, 2010

 2. Many U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Environmental Impact Statements, U.S. Congressional Letters,  and NOAA Documents regarding these 5-Year Warfare Testing programs are located on the website:  http://agriculturedefensecoalition.org/?q=us-navy

 3. NOAA Definition of “TAKE” and a listing of U.S. Navy & Air Force requests for permits to “take”  marine mammals in the Atlantic, Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico.   http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/glossary.htm

 4, NOAA Current Incidental “Take” Permit Requests & Authorizations – NOAA Website:     http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/permits/incidental.htm

  5, Eglin Air Force Base’s NEODS Training Operations LOA to NOAA – Gulf of Mexico:               http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/eglin_neods_loa2009.pdf

  6, Navy’s Gulf of Mexico Range Complex Training Exercises LOA Application & NOAA Approval:  http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/gomex_loa_application.pdf

     7. LOA Issued March 2011:  http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/gomex_loa_issued2011.pdf

8. Reports Atlantic Ranges 2011:   http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/monitoringreport2011_vacapes_chpt_jax_gomex.pdf

  9. Vampire of Macondo, 2012

 10. Meet Navy-NOAA heads killing millions sea animals

 11. Gruesome Gulf dolphin killer mystery

 12. Navy electromagnetic non-lethal weapon bio-effects

Copyright. Deborah Dupré, 2015. All rights reserved.

Author permits copying and reposting title and first paragraph only.

Email: [email protected]