Help protect sea birds and earn a $1000 reward

Caspian terns, like this one, were killed by a vehicle on the beach. Photo by Mdf, CC-BY 3.0

If you love birds and want to protect them, here’s an opportunity to do just that. It also has the potential to earn you as much as $1000 a week. All you have to do is grab your video camera and head out to the beaches in the Pacific Northwest where reckless drivers are racing along the sand with their cars or off-road vehicles and killing the ocean birds that congregate there.

According to an AP report published in the Seattle Times, Sharnelle Fee of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast (WCNC) says she has found sea birds killed by vehicles nearly every week this summer. The birds she finds are battered and killed by the vehicles and tire tracks run through the carnage. According to the AP report, she feels that the majority of bird carcasses are washed out to sea by the tides without being found or reported.

The WCNC has been posting notices for rewards of up to $1000 for information leading to the arrest of the people responsible for the killing these birds with their vehicles. If you live in the area, grab your video cameras and head down to the beaches and film any vehicles you see speeding along the beaches. It is legal to drive up to 25 Miles per hour on the beaches in Oregon, but the birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Act of 1918, and killing them is a crime punishable by a fine of $15,000 and six months of jail time. Capture a vehicle on tape with the license plate number and the driver visible enough to be identified and you’ll not only be preventing future bird deaths, but potentially earning yourself a nice $1000 cash bonus in the process.

The latest report of dead sea birds occurred near Gearhart Beach in Oregon, where the bodies of eight birds were found. This incident included both Caspian Terns and California Gulls. Earlier this year fifty birds were found killed by a vehicle in a single incident just up the coast in Washington.

If you need the money or want to help protect these beautiful sea birds, get out there and help catch these reckless beach drivers in the act. Remember though, just driving on the beach at a safe speed is legal. If you do catch a driver in the act of breaking the law, however, contact your local police office and provide them with a copy of the tape. It won’t hurt to also send a copy along to the local media to keep the spotlight on until the police take action and to act as a deterrent to other beach drivers who might see a report on the local news or in the papers.

• Slideshow of a Tern breeding colony
  
• Slideshow of a Gull swallowing a Tern whole
  
• Slideshow of other seabirds and whales

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Sources:
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2009786186_webbeachbirds01.html
coastwildlife.org