SanCap Audubon Presents ‘Adrift In A Sea Of Red’ By CROW Director

provided to The Santiva Chronicle

San-Cap Audubon welcomes Dr. Heather Barron, Hospital Director at Sanibel’s Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, as she provides a webinar presentation entitled “Adrift in a Sea of Red: Brevetoxicosis in Seabirds” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27. Dr. Barron’s program will highlight the importance of wild bird health and what CROW is doing locally to insure the welfare of our feathered friends.

Dr. Barron received training in avian and wildlife medicine and surgery through schooling and a residency at the University of Georgia, College of Veterinary Medicine, where she became a tenured Associate Professor on the Zoological Medicine Service. After a decade at UGA, Dr. Barron obtained international experience as Department Head of Clinical Medicine at St. Matthew’s University, School of Veterinary Medicine in the Cayman Islands, where she was also the veterinarian for the Cayman Turtle Farm and Cayman Wildlife Rescue. She is a former president of the Association of Avian Veterinarians, and has lectured and published extensively in the field of wildlife and avian medicine. With over 20 years of experience in practicing and teaching avian and wildlife medicine, she is a board-certified avian specialist and a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

In this lecture, Dr. Barron will discuss how local Red Tide blooms have devastated local fauna, specifically birds. Brevetoxicosis, or red tide poisoning, is a condition resulting from ingestion of toxins produced by Karenia brevis algal blooms. Brevetoxins have been shown to cause mass morbidity and mortality events worldwide in sea birds and have important implications for the health of humans and the environment. These toxins cause neurologic and other signs in affected animals and historically survival rate has been low. Dr. Barron will share how new treatment modalities developed at CROW have shown tremendous promise across species lines for rapid recovery. Join us to learn more about red tide poisoning in birds, current research at CROW, and what you can do to help.

This is the fourth of eight Sanibel-Captiva Audubon lectures. This week’s lecture’s format will be VIRTUAL due to the Omicron variant. To register for our webinar, go to the Programs section of the San-Cap Audubon website up to five days prior to the specific webinar’s scheduled date and click on “JOIN” in that webinar’s description. After registration, a link to that webinar will be emailed to you. Save that link until the day of the lecture as you will need it to join. Each webinar will have a different link. All are always welcome to join.

There is no charge to join the webinars. The typical source of San-Cap Audubon lecture support has been the $10.00 suggested attendee entrance donation for the pre-pandemic live presentations at the Sanibel Community House. It is suggested that webinar attendees donate directly by mail to the address on the web site home page or via PayPal. All donations are much appreciated and after costs are used to promote conservation on Sanibel, Captiva and in Florida. For additional information, call (239) 395-1878 or visit the San-Cap Audubon Web site www.san-capaudubon.org.