Seabirds

Alaska is a summer home for 50 million seabirds of 38 different species; at least 15 additional species breed elsewhere but return regularly to Alaska to feed.

Most rely entirely on ocean resources — zooplankton, marine invertebrates, and forage fish—for nourishment. NPRB funds research that seeks to understand what controls seabird population trends, at-sea distribution, and factors influencing seabird-fishery interactions.

Other funded research tries to determine how seabirds can reveal marine ecosystem processes, and how they in turn may be impacted by changes in their environment. Seabird research topics are consistent with those outlined in the NPRB Science Plan. (Photo: Todd Warshaw/NPRB)

Research Highlights

Projects 612, 732: Dead birds do tell tales: the story of COASST

(June 2010) The nonprofit Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) studies short and long-term indicators of coastal environmental health in the North Pacific by enlisting the efforts of hundreds of citizens to identify and catalog dead birds on West Coast beaches. This small army of volunteers walking the coastlines has unearthed big news for scientists, who use the data to search for patterns and changes in the ocean.

University of Washington researcher Julia Parrish launched the program in 1998. "I wanted to create a thing that could bring citizens and scientists closer together ... Everybody has a place where they live, or where they like to go. They look at it and see changes ... they really want to know, to find out what is happening. That is what is most important."

NPRB funded Parrish's efforts in 2006 and 2007. Projects 612 and 732 funded the development of COASST-Alaska, enrolling more citizen scientists and significantly extending the geographic range of the program.

COASST-Alaska has successfully implemented beached bird data collection on 43 beaches in Homer, Seward, Sitka, the Pribilof Islands, and the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. It has established partnerships with seven agency, tribal, and non-governmental organizations and included Native communities in data collection. And, the program has demonstrated the use of COASST data in science and natural resource management.

• Read a feature story about the genesis of COASST in the latest issue of Miller-McClune magazine, an online publication that harnesses current academic research with real-time reporting to address pressing social concerns.
• Visit the COASST website to learn more or to get involved.

 

Project 723: Albatross Translocation

Outreach links for Project 723

• (2008) Alaska News Nightly / Alaska Public Radio Network, Short-Tailed Albatross Chicks Get a Fresh Chance Away from Home (audio)
  
• (spring 2009) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species Bulletin published an article highlighting the project.
• (2009) Alaska News Nightly / Alaska Public Radio Network, Albatross Species Making Comeback (audio)
• (2009) Coast Views Magazine (and others) reported sighting of tagged albatross off California
• (2007-present) Japanese media has produced more than 35 newspaper articles (including Japan's top two newspapers and front page coverage), prime time television news stories, and several documentaries describing portions of this work.
• (2007-present) Project updates provided by PIs to regional fishery management organizations and management agencies, and the national and international STAL endangered species recovery teams.
• Project was used as a case study for many lectures in high school and university undergraduate courses.
• Short-tailed albatross recovery was featured in Jane Goodall's newly published book, Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink

 

(Feb 2010) Team moves chicks, plans to mitigate landslide threat

Field team members from the NPRB funded project Increasing Short-tailed Albatross Population Growth and Stability through Translocation of Post Guard Chicks (Project 723) reported the translocation of 15 short-tailed albatross chicks from Torishima Island to Mukojima Island.

Apparently these chicks were removed just in time, because back on Torishima, strong rains on 12-13 February caused a landslide that buried some of the chicks. The crew rescued two live chicks under the sand, but two were found dead and another 6 may have been killed. Some valuable nesting habitat was lost as well.

The albatrosses are being translocated to Mukojima in an attempt to give the small population of this endangered species a chance to recover. The birds are registered by the Japanese government as special natural treasures. Read more about this phase of the project in the Mainichi Daily News (English translation)

(Summer 2009) Translocated albatross spotted off California

Rob Suryan, an investigator on the NPRB funded project Increasing Short-tailed Albatross Population Growth and Stability through Translocation of Post Guard Chicks (Project 723), reports that one of the Short-Tailed Albatross fledglings from the Japanese island of Mukojima was recently off the Monterey Bay-Big Sur coast for about a week. This is one of the birds that was translocated to Mukojima in an attempt to give the small population of this endangered species a chance to recover. Click each image to see larger versions.

The team has been tracking the birds via satellite, and evidence of their travels has been showing up simply as lines on a map. Therefore, it was all the more surprising and exciting to learn of an actual sighting by a group of birders off California. See a larger version of the albatross tracking map at right.

Although the fledgling appears to be molting, it appears that the tracking device should hold on for a while longer, making it possible for the recovery team to follow the progress of this albatross as it ranges far and wide over the Pacific. Albatross photos courtesy Alvaro Jaramillo.

Learn more about the Albatross Recovery Project

 

Project 801: Seasonal variation in marine birds across the North Pacific

(May 2009) Part of Project 801 has been mapping seasonal distributions of various species of albatrosses, kittiwakes, gulls, petrels and shearwaters, throughout a large arc of northern ocean between North America and Asia.

From 2002-2007, researchers surveyed marine birds from a "ship of opportunity" and recorded all observations within 400 m of the vessel along a 7,500-kilometer transect. View Survey Maps