Environmental study finds shorebird eggs damaged after SpaceX launch

Snests of upland birds were damaged by Starship launch from SpaceX on June 6 from Boca Chica, with shorebird nesting activity in general decline since the company began testing and launching missiles at the site, according to a newly released report by the Coast Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, or CBBEP.

Team members with the nonprofit conduct weekly shorebird surveys of nesting shorebirds at several subsites in Boca Chica during the shorebird breeding season, roughly March through August. Monitoring for the 2024 season began on February 23. What CBBEP calls the South Launch subsite, contained entirely within Boca Chica State Park, has been monitored since the 2021 nesting season, according to the group.

The site is a large, open sand flat directly south of SpaceX’s orbital launch pad at Boca Chica. The sediments in the area consist mainly of fine silt, clay and sand interspersed with shell fragments, with no natural lithic (stone) material, although previous releases have spread gravel, concrete, metal, plastic, rubber and other materials of sizes different. across a large area of ​​habitat on the surrounding conservation lands.”

to the company first orbital test flight from Boca Chicaon April 20, 2023, destroyed the launch pad and sent chunks of concrete flying for hundreds of feet in all directions.

“While large sections of concrete debris have since been removed, smaller debris remains widespread,” the report noted.

To document the immediate impact of a single release, the CBBEP team conducted monitoring in the hours immediately before and after the June 6 launch. The report summarizes those findings. The nests being monitored belonged to species including lesser terns, snowy plovers and Wilson’s terns.

The team visited the South Launch site on June 5 and recorded GPS locations and nest status for five snowy owls, one Wilson’s plover nest and a “scattered colony of 11 smaller nests.” All nests were about 0.16 and 0.26 miles from the edge of the launch pad. Also, two Bushnell game cameras were placed near the nests to document disturbances on site during launch.

After departure, on June 6, the team returned to check the six nests, as well as three randomly selected nests, recording the number of eggs in each of the nine monitored nests and inspecting them for damage. What they found, according to the report, was that all nine nests were either missing eggs, had damaged eggs, or both. All three nests of sterile ones, which in the “full clutch” on June 5 would have two eggs each, were found to have at least one damaged egg.

“Of 22 eggs within nine nests that were checked … only five eggs total within four individual nests were found to be intact and still viable after release,” CBBEP said. “All other eggs were missing or deemed too damaged to be viable. Cracks/holes in the eggs ranged from relatively small cracks (or) to fully penetrated pea-sized holes. Bloody contents of the eggs were found on some external parts of the eggs near the holes inside them.”

Of the nine nests the team directly observed, five had damaged eggs “consistent with impact with small objects such as pea-sized concrete/rock debris associated with the release,” the report said, adding that “this harm is not consistent with any predatory interaction in our experience.”

The explosion also destroyed the lens of one of the cameras.

Sharon Wilcox, senior Texas representative for the national group Defenders of Wildlife, said the CBBEP report confirms conservationists’ fears about the impact on wildlife from SpaceX’s testing activities in Boca Chica.

“This report is the best documentation that exists of the impacts that experimental missiles are having on wildlife in Boca Chica,” she said. “The impacts noted in this report are alarming: the threat of fire, a growing shell debris field and damage to shorebird nests.

“As launch activity increases, so will degradation to unique habitats and wildlife. These findings demonstrate once again that the environmental assessment under which SpaceX operates is inadequate and requires a full environmental impact statement.”