WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shocked by a "catastrophe'' that is wiping out frog populations worldwide, a government committee met Wednesday to discuss what to do about it -- and whether humans are also in danger.

``All amphibian biologists are now convinced that something unusual and catastrophic is happening to amphibians,'' Ron Heyer of the Smithsonian Institution told reporters.

This consensus was needed before the government could really act, he said. It has decided to work fast.

The committee, commissioned by the Interior Department, includes officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Health and Human Services Department, the National Institutes of Health, other agencies and environmental groups.

Bill Brown, scientific adviser to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, said President Clinton proposed adding $8.1 million next year to the Interior Department's budget for studying amphibian decline -- a huge increase in the $1 million now allocated.

Although the United States has lost just one amphibian species to extinction -- the Las Vegas frog -- entire species have been wiped out in Costa Rica and Australia. And whole populations have disappeared in the United States, Puerto Rico and central America.

Heyer said possible factors include ultraviolet radiation allowed through by the thinning ozone layer, climate change, and chemicals called endocrine disruptors because they mimic the effects of hormones on the body.

Such chemicals can cause deformities and interfere with reproduction.

``We also think the amphibians are telling us humans something has happened to the habitat we share with the frogs,'' Heyer said. ``We need to act on the early warning the amphibians are giving.''

The decline in the United States first hit headlines when schoolchildren in Minnesota started bringing home horribly deformed frogs. But when scientists started looking, they found frogs were disappearing.

``In some sites we are actually witnessing the decline as we try to study it,'' said Gary Fellers, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

He said one California species, the mountain yellow-legged frog, is a good example. ``Over a 10- or 12-year period this frog has rapidly declined,'' he said.

``Even at sites where we do find frogs, we find four or six or eight individuals.'' There used to be hundreds.

There are a number of possible causes, said Fellers, who stressed that scientists are just starting to sort them out.

``The most significant, we believe, is airborne contaminants -- pesticides and herbicides that are used in huge quantities in central California,'' he said.

Prevailing winds blow the chemicals into the Sierra Nevada mountains. Those areas that get the most winds from the agricultural valleys have the fewest frogs, Fellers said.

``We have not yet demonstrated that the contaminants have caused the decline. But ... those areas with the most contaminants are the areas with the fewest frogs,'' he said.

Other possible causes are the introduction of fish into lakes where they do not naturally occur. ``They eat frogs and they eat tadpoles,'' Fellers said. It is also possible that disease is playing a role, he said.
Other scientists have identified a fungus that kills some frogs.

The researchers are reluctant to blame any specific chemicals. Not only has cause and effect not been proved, but many different chemicals are involved.

Sam Droegge, also a research biologist at the USGS, said citizens can help ``They can actually help us in terms of collecting data,'' he said.
The Interior Department, an environmental group and a children's television have set up an Internet site -- http://www.frogweb.gov -- to commission schoolchildren as a nationwide ``frog force.'' The site asks U.S. and Canadian residents to report sightings of normal and malformed amphibians encountered during outdoor activities.
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