Considering the timing, it is pretty ridiculous to assert that each case is entirely separate. Add to this the fact that many of the areas are those that have shown increasingly extreme weather patterns. And NPR is a highly suspect source, given the list of corporate sponsors they have involved in every aspect of environmental destruction.
My personal guess is that it has something to do with climate change induced weather patterns, which are also highly suspected of being responsible for much of the increased precipitation in some areas. You have those hot and cold zones coming together to make crazy winds, or quickly change the temperature of areas of ocean, and that can really mess up the wildlife. To complicate the issue more, I’ve read a couple stories about birds being analyzed and researchers finding their insides “mashed up” (I’ll try to find the links later, they’re on my Facebook and I’m on a work computer).
Of course, it could just be a great way to draw attention to the fact that industry of various sorts (as well as military) have often been involved in lots of massive die offs of wildlife. A week or two ago I posted a link on a thread here about a single factory that kills an estimated 60 billion fish a year with pollutants (and that’s not counting the deaths of animals, humans included, starving because they have no fish to eat, or getting poisoned by the fish that survive, and the rampant ecosystem destruction caused by all of this).
@Winters In some cases even the seagulls won’t touch the dead fish. Nobody is getting a meal out of these. Something is up.