New research shows the marine heat wave that spread from California to Alaska starting in 2014 caused common murres to starve to death.

Residents of Chevak and Hooper Bay found two species of sea bird either dead or approachable near the mouth of the Kiuqliiviq and Aprun rivers near fish camps. Residents of Hooper Bay also found a dead sea mammal on the beach.

These changes seem to be heralding population spikes and downturns for a number of species like walleye pollock and Pacific cod, and even more pronounced in small, fatty forage species.

On a remote Alaskan sandbar, under the watchful eye of a devoted scientist for more than four decades, climate change is forcing a colony of seabirds into a real-time race: evolve or go extinct.