What nourishes you might also kill you, especially when it comes to fish slime. However, it appears that the almost 50 bald eagles that landed on a truck full of fish waste and started to guzzle were too hungry to remember such wise words. Unfortunately, at least 19 of them died after gorging themselves on the truck full of fish slime, while the others are currently recovering after they have been rescued by Alaska’s Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge’s officials.

The Friday incident seems to have happened because the hungry bald eagles had been attracted by the fish waste from the truck. They swarmed into the back of vehicle and eventually reached the truck and started to gobble the delicious fish waste. In the end the birds became too soiled to fly or to clean themselves; some of them started to succumb to the cold, while others began to simply sink into the fish slime and were crushed. Thus, more than 19 birds died in the first place.

As for the others, the rescue mission included the truck’s contents being dumped onto the floor of the Ocean Beauty Seafoods plant so that the birds could be retrieved. Then the eagles that survived the incident were washed with dish soap and warm water and taken to a heated fish and wildlife warehouse to recover.

The dead eagles are to be shipped to a United States Department of Interior clearinghouse, where Native American groups could request their bodies or their feathers for ceremonial purposes.

The bald eagle is protected under federal law.