Volume 27 Number 2

Fall 2000

Dedicated to the Study and Conservation of Pacific Seabirds

and Their Environment

The Pacific Seabird Group (PSG) was fomied in 1972 out

researchers The Group coordinates and stimulates the p jc. ocean seabirds and the marine environment. Group

mer^bem and the general public of conservation issues relating to Pac^c j^^ped twice a year,

meetings are held annually and the PSG publication, restoration after oil spills, seabird/fishenes interactions,

cSactivities include involvement in seabird of critical importance. Although PSG's pnmaiy

and endangered species. Policy statements are issued o j. p jj- Ocean, it is hoped that seabird enthusiasts

area ofinterestisL West Coast of North America and^^^^^^ US Section of the International

in other parts of the world will join and participate m P „ of Nature (lUCN), and. the American Bird

r’ 1 fnr Rird Preservation, the International Union -i a. fctudent undergraduate and graduate); and

Lxt to inside back cover for details and application.

Pacific Seabirds (ISSN 1089-6317) is published ^ at the annual meeting.

Lmbers. including regional seabird those of regional interest. It also contains ^.cte

Pacific Seabirds is an outlet for the results and other topics related to the objectives of PSG. All

and shorter items on seabird consetvafion reaH^^^^^^ be submitted to 'he^^^

materials should be submitted to the Editor „,ay be ordered from the treasurer: please remit $2.^

details).

World Wide Web Site

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET/PacBirds/

Permanent Address

Pacific Seabird Group
Box 179, 4505 University Way NE
Seattle, W A 98105

U AK*'qQS16 USA Telephone (907) 345-7124; Fax (907) 345-
Vivian M. Mendenhall, 4600 Rabbit Creek Rd., Anchorage, AK 995 1 6 USA. Teleph

0686; Email; fasgadair@.att.net.

Associate ®^^® 270 %^**Tele^mne:'^ 778-2240, Facsimile: (202) 778-2201,

Craig S. Harrison, 4001 North 9th Street, Arlington, VA 22203 USA. lelepno

E-mail: charrison@erols.com

Pacific Seabirds Submission conservation

“Marehls frprTnfisS"a^d sim^

PACIFIC SEABIRDS

A Publication of the Pacific Seabird Group

Dedicated to the Study and Conservation of Pacific Seabirds and Their Environment

Volume 27

2000

Number 2

Achievement Award; Malcolm Clarke Coulter. By David C. Duffy and Steven M. Speich

Conservation News — * * *

PSG News — — • — « * • .........

Seabird Tidings

Storm Altei^ Marine Bird Habitats on Alaska’s North Slope
Chinese Crested Terns Discovered

68

69

I *••••»*•**•♦**•••**•***••*••♦•••

Regional Reports
Alaska

Russian Far East
Canada.... — .......

Washington and Oregon
Northern California
Southern California
Pacific Rim ...............

I*.* •*•*•#»»••**••*»•« »•«••*•****

»••*•••***•**«•«■***»•**■

Report of the Treasurer for 2000 By Breck Tyler .

70

74

75
79

84

85
87

90

General Information on the Pacific Seabird Group
Published Symposia

Committees..,.........«.........«.«...."”— •‘***""”**"—"**’

Life Members and Recipients of Awards.....

Membership Application and Order Form ........

»****#**♦##*♦♦•••*••*••••»•♦••*•**•*

Mh*****************************”’" •

92

93

94

95

Executive Council 2000...

•**•*»****•••<

►•*•*»••»**♦*••*

Inside back cover

CONSERVATION NEWS

Craig Harrison

FEDERAL JUDGE CLOSES
HAWAII LONGLINE
FISHERY

In July, Honolulu US District
Judge David Ezra closed the longline
fishery in Hawaii and criticized the
National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) for its "pathetic" efforts to
place observers in the vessels. He said
NMFS had to "play catch-up" because
of its failure to prepare an environ-
mental impact statement on the effects
of long-lining on tuna and swordfish
on endangered leatherback and threat-
ened loggerhead turtles. He ruled that
NMFS had failed to carry out the law
and said his ruling would result in a
"lean, more responsible" long-line in-
dustry. An unintended consequence is
that this ruling also benefits seabirds.

Judge Ezra stated that "unre-
stricted long-line fishing will never
happen again in the Pacific by Ameri-
can-based boats, not because of this
court, but because that is what the law
requires." NMFS and a long-line asso-
ciation had argued that his order, which
includes placing a fisheries observer on
every boat by July 26, would result in
the closure of 95 percent of the fishery
and result in lost revenues of $44 mil-
lion. The judge's modified ruling,
which encompasses about 7 million
square miles of ocean, came about after
two environmental groups sued the
fisheries agency in 1999 for failing to
protect endangered leatherback and
other sea turtles. Ezra ordered 1.5 mil-
lion miles of ocean closed to long-
liners in November 1999.

"The law requires an injunction
where the law has not been followed
and the law has not been followed
here," Ezra said. He also admonished
Hawaii long-liners, saying they can no
longer continue fishing wherever and
whenever they want to. "It will never
again be business as usual because

environmental laws will not tolerate
it," Ezra said.

In response to the ruling, NMFS
imposed stricter longline fishing regu-
lations in three areas around Hawaii.
All longline fishing is prohibited in
Area A, north of the Hawaiian Island
chain. A limited number of sets is al-
lowed in Area B, where observers must
be present on all longline fishing boats
at all times. Tuna fishing but not
swordfiishing is allowed in Area C,
where observers must be aboard 20
percent of the vessels by November.
Swordfishing is more harmful than
tuna fishing because swordfish swim at
shallower depths, similar to the turtles.

Although foreign vessels are not
affected by the closures, the United
States will attempt to impose similar
obligations by international agreement.
In addition, an unintended consequence
of this situation is that many longline
vessels have moved to California ports
and are fishing there, with potential
negative effects on seabirds.

NMFS PROPOSES SEABIRD
BYCATCH RULES FOR
HAWAII LONGLINE
FISHERIES

After four years of focusing on an
education campaign, NMFS proposed
(in July) regulations to limit seabird
by-catch in Hawaii longline fisheries.
Birds of concern in Hawaiian waters
are black-footed, Laysan and Short-
tailed Albatross. Given the recent clo-
sure of longline fisheries due to turtle
concerns, it was presumed that NMFS
would address seabird by-catch respon-
sibly or risk fishery closures again be-
cause of damage they cause to sea-
birds. The two longline fisheries use
different gear. Most seabirds and sea

turtles are caught with swordfish gear.
This gear uses squid as bait; it is set
shallow, which makes bait and hooks
available to birds, and stays shallow
throughout the soak. Tuna gear is set
with a line-shooter so that the bait
(sanma) will sink rapidly and stay deep
throughout the soak. Thus the final
mitigation measures should logically
distinguish between swordfish and tuna
longliners.

NMFS' proposal, which apparently
is backed by the Western Pacific Fish-
eries Management Council, allows
fishermen to "pick any two" mitigation
techniques. The NMFS staff preferred
requiring the most effective combina-
tions of the various alternatives. For
example, vessels that do not use a line-
setting machine could be required to
set at night, use blue-dyed and thawed
bait, and to discharge offal strategically
so as to minimize attraction of birds to
the gear. Other techniques that are effi-
cacious include towing a line with sus-
pended streamers (tori line), or
weighting the branch lines so that
baited hooks sinks quickly and birds
cannot reach diem.

The proposal applies only to ves-
sels that fish above 25" North Latitude,
while the NMFS staff suggested re-
quiring mitigation measures to all
longline fishing North of 23° North
Latitude. The difference of two degrees
essentially excludes about two-thirds
of the fleet from mitigation measures.
The proposed rule is silent on observer
coverage, the absence of which re-
sulted in Judge Ezra’s shut down of the
fishery for sea turtle conservation rea-
sons.

NMFS must prepare an environ-
mental impact statement to evaluate the
impacts of longline fishing on sea tur-
tles by April I, 2001. The scoping
process has begun, but unaccountably
it contains no reference to seabirds.
NMFS apparently has to be dragged

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 62

CONSERVATION NEWS

kicking and screaming into the New
Millennium,

HAWAII CONFERENCE ON
BIOLOGY AND
CONSERVATION OF
PROCELLARIIDS

The Second International Confer-
ence on the Biology and Conservation
of Albatrosses and other Petrels took
place in May in Honolulu. Concerned
about declining populations of many
species, 150 researchers from 17 na-
tions around the world, particularly the
Southern Hemisphere, reviewed the
latest research in long-line fisheries.
John Cooper (BirdLife International,
South Africa) chaired a workshop on
fishery-caused mortality. Introductory
presentations reviewed managing al-
batross interactions with pelagic long-
liners, mitigation for bird loss, F AO
international action plans and other
international guidelines. The workshop
results will be published in Marine
Ornithology. In short, it seems if boats
were to deploy unfrozen blue-dyed
baits at nights with tori poles or other
scaring devices set up, a lot fewer birds
would die. Also, a growing squid fish-
ery using high-powered lights is a
looming international problem.

Mark Rauzon (Marine Endeavors)
chaired another workshop on Island
Restoration and Predator Control,
which reviewed successful and failed
efforts to control predators. A “cook-
book’’ approach to eradication was laid
out. The attendees sounded an alarm
regarding Newell's Shearwater declines
and recommended that the species be
upgraded from threatened to endan-
gered. However, the discovery of a
new colony of Dark-rumped Petrels on
a sea stack off Kaho'olawe was en-
couraging news. It was urged that ship
rats should be eradicated from Tor-
ishima, the major nesting colony for
Short-tailed Albatrosses. Dr. Hiroshi
Hasegawa reported that the Short-tail is
increasing and now numbers over
1,500! But rats plague the island and

seriously undermine breeding of Tris-
tram's Storm-Petrels and Black-footed
Albatrosses

The Western Pacific Fisheries
Management Council sponsored a
Black-footed Albatross population bi-
ology workshop, coordinated by Kathy
Cousins, National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS). Ms. Cousins reported
that the NMFS observer program was
now collecting information on mitiga-
tion methods and bird abundance sur-
rounding Hawaii longline fishing ves-
sels. In addition, NMFS established a
protocol for the collection and report-
ing of bird-bands to the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS). The Council
and NMFS are continuing to work co-
operatively with other fishing nations
to collect information on sea-
bird/fishery interactions and methods
to mitigation such interactions.

Elizabeth Flint (FWS) provided
the most recent albatross population
counts in the Northwestern Hawaii
Islands. Recent counts of albatross
colonies show a decline in the number
of breeding pairs for Black-footed and
especially Laysan Albatrosses. It is not
clear yet whether overall populations
of these species are declining; some
birds may have opted not to breed
during the past few years because of
the recent strong ENSO events.

James Ludwig showed the loca-
tions of seven at-sea Black-footed Al-
batross band returns from an Indone-
sian trawler. The band returns occurred
to the north and north east of the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. From
these band returns, Ludwig estimated
that this one trawler could have inci-
dentally caught up to 335 albatrosses in
a single trip. Melanie Steinkamp re-
ported on the findings of the Hawaiian
Islands and Trust Territories Region of
North America Colonial Water Bird
Conservation Plan. She stated that she
is working to standardize the data col-
lection methods for each breeding site.

Nancy Hoffman (USFWS, Mid-
way) updated the participants on Mid-
way Island's long-term monitoring
program and identification of moni-
toring needs, which is being conducted
in cooperation with Peter Pyle. J.

Croxall offered to send details of the
databases operated by the British Ant-
arctic Survey for maintaining the cap-
ture-mark-recapture programs and re-
cording of biological characteristics of
the three albatross species.

Hiroshi Hasegawa reported on the
Black-footed Albatross population on
Torishima. The original colony of this
species on Torishima has declined
from 691 breeding pairs to 569 breed-
ing pairs. However, the new colony on
the opposite side of the island (estab-
lished in 1989) has increased by 55
breeding pairs. It is unclear whether the
increase in breeding pairs in the new
colony is due to immigration from the
original colony or if these are new
birds.

“Mark Rauzon, Marine Endeav-
ors

FWS AND NFS SPONSOR
"RAT SUMMIT”

In July, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and National Park Service
hosted a rodent control/eradication
meeting in San Francisco. The formal
workshop title was "Protecting Island
Ecosystems: Management of Non-
Native Rodents." The conference
brought together a wide range of inter-
ests, individuals, and agencies to learn
more about the use of rodenticides for
conservation of island ecosystems.

The conference was attended by
about 40 invited participants, including
representatives from EPA, manufactur-
ers of rodenticides, and a wide variety
of state and federal agencies with
wildlife protection mandates. The three
day meeting focused on presentations
concerning the complexities and regu-
latory requirements that arise in the use
of rodenticides for conservation, and
discussed a unified approach that will
allow use of rodenticides where no
other practical or effective conserva-
tion tool is available.

Extremely informative talks were
given by Dr. Bruce Colvin (Bechtel
Corporation), Bill Erickson (EPA), Bill

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 63

CONSERVATION NEWS

Jacobs (EPA) and Dr. Earl Campbell
(U.S. Department of Agriculture).
Other presentations discussed rodent
eradication efforts in the US Carib-
bean, and plans to use rodenticides to
eradicate or control rodents at a variety
of other locations under United States
jurisdiction. The group visited Alcatraz
Island, where rat control efforts are
underway and an eradication is being
contemplated. Other planned opera-
tions include mouse eradication from
the Farallon Islands, rat eradication
from Anacapa Island, and eradication
plans for a variety of locations in the
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife
Refuge. Special attention was given to
the critical need for toxicant use in
Hawaii, where many bird species are
on the brink of extinction and intro-
duced rodents are a primary threat to
their continued existence.

The conference epded with a panel
and group discussion about the chal-
lenges facing rodent eradication and
control efforts for conservation pur-
poses. Significant hurdles include (1)
EPA registration for formulations and
use patterns (e.g., aerial dispersal) of
rodenticides that do not currently have
EPA approval; (2) public concern
about toxicity and health concerns and
secondary poisoning; and (3) compli-
ance with a variety of other federal and
state regulations (e.g.. National Envi-
ronmental Policy Act, Endangered
Species Act, Federal Insecticide Fungi-
cide and Rodenticide Act, and the Mi-
gratory Bird Treaty Act).

At the end of the conference, the
only consensus that was reached was
that ail parties will stay in close com-
munication and continue to investigate
how best to allow rodenticide use, un-
der very controlled circumstances, for
conservation purposes. There are con-
cerns about secondary poisoning of
birds, and the need for any project to
do everything possible to minimize
non-target impacts. Any such activities
in the United States must ensure that
reasonable and prudent methods are
employed, and to avoid unnecessary
rodenticide use for island conservation
purposes.

-Bill Everett, Endangered Spe-
cies Recovery Council

HISTORIC

CONSERVATION FUNDING
BILL NOT ENACTED

Despite widespread bipartisan
support in Congress, the Conservation
and Reinvestment Act (CARA), which
would have provided the largest infu-
sion of federal conservation funds in
history, was not enacted. Instead, a
relatively meager one-year appropria-
tion of $50 million seems on the verge
of approval at press time [late Novem-
ber 2000]

An unprecedented national coali-
tion of up to 10,000 organizations,
businesses and elected officials sup-
ported securing permanent conserva-
tion funding through this legislation.
The House of Representatives over-
whelmingly passed it in May by a 3-1
margin. All 50 governors voiced sup-
port for these bills or their concepts
and worked to move this legislation
through Congress. Conservative west-
ern senators and the Clinton admini-
stration’s desire not to offend the more
radical environmental groups appar-
ently derailed the legislation.

The bill would have provided $40
billion over the next 15 years, most of
which would have gone to state and
local conservation programs. Of par-
ticular interest to PSG membeis is the
$350 million per year that would have
been set aside for state-based wildlife
conservation, education and recreation
with an emphasis on preventing species
from becoming endangered. In addi-
tion, this bill would have provided reli-
able funding for the Land and Water
Conservation Fund, which is used for
purchase of wildlife habitat. The Con-
servation and Reinvestment Act would
have reinvested revenues earned from
the depletion of oil and gas reserves on
the outer continental shelf for the pro-
tection and enhancement of our wild-
life and other natural and cultural heri-
tage. This goal could have been

achieved by conserving important
wildlife habitat, conducting field re-
search to design wildlife nrianagement
plans, and working cooperatively with
private landowners in a non-regulatory,
incentive based manner. This would
have been especially important for
non-game wildlife conservation efforts,
which lack a permanent long-term
funding source in most states, which
leads many species to become endan-
gered before a state wildlife manager
has the funds to act on their behalf.

The sponsors of CARA have
vowed to try again in 2001 with the
new Congress and new president.

FWS LISTS SHORT-TAILED
ALBATROSS AS
ENDANGERED IN THE
UNITED STATES

On 31 July 2000, USFWS issued a
final rule that lists the Short-tailed Al-
batross {Phoebastria albatrus) as en-
dangered throughout its range within
the United States. As a result of an
administrative error in the 1970 listing,
the Short-tailed Albatross was listed as
endangered throughout its range, ex-
cept in the United States and US waters
out to 3 miles. Short-tailed Albatrosses
range throughout the North Pacific
Ocean and north into the Bering Sea
during the non-breeding season;
breeding colonies are limited to two
Japanese islands, Torishima and Mi-
nami-kojima. Short-tailed Albatrosses
originally numbering in the millions,
but it was nearly exterminated by har-
vesting for oil and feathers in the early
1900’s. The current population of
breeding-age birds is about 600 indi-
viduals and the worldwide total popu-
lation is about 1,500 individuals. There
are no breeding populations of Short-
tailed Albatrosses in the United States,
but several individuals are regularly
observed during the breeding season on
Midway Atoll. Threats to the species
include destruction of breeding habitat
by landslides caused by monsoon rains
or by volcanic eruption, and genetic
vulnerability due to low population

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 * Fall 2000 • Page 64

CONSERVATION NEWS

size and limited breeding distribution.
Longline fisheries, plastics ingestion,
contaminants, and airplane strikes may
also be factors affecting the species'
conservation.

The extensive literature research
and paperwork required for listing the
species were carried out by Janey
Fadely and Greg Balogh of Ecological
Services, USFWS, Anchorage and
Juneau.

CASPIAN TERNS WIN
AGAIN IN COURT

As reported earlier (Pacific Sea-
birds 27:23, 2000), a Seattle federal
judge enjoined the Army Corps of En-
gineers from hazing terns at Rice Is-
land in the Columbia River in April.
The Corps had been acting at the be-
hest of the National Marine Fisheries
Service. The judge agreed with the
conservation organizations and ruled
that the Corps must comply with the
National Environmental Policy Act and
prepare a full environmental impact
statement before jeopardizing the tern
colony. The Corps immediately filed
an emergency appeal of this decision to
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco, which refused to lift the
stay. The Army Corps of Engineers
again appealed the order, which the 9th
Circuit dismissed as moot in August.
The District Court litigation is still
alive and may be resolved by a final
order soon. The terns will likely win
yet again, and the ruling will establish
law making- it very difficult for the
Corps to haze at Rice Island in subse-
quent years without complying with
the National Environmental Policy Act.

SHOULD EAST SAND
ISLAND BE A NATIONAL
WILDLIFE REFUGE?

East Sand Island, Columbia River
estuary, is one of the biggest seabird
colonies in the Lower 48. PSG has

asked USFWS to acquire it as a na-
tional wildlife refuge. It contains the
following:

• Brandt's Cormorant: 40 pairs on
pilings. Use of artificial structures for
nesting is very rare, and this is the only
estuarine breeding location for this
species.

• Brown Pelicans: FWS counted
1,200 roosting pelicans during a 1998
aerial survey, and 2,000 may be present
at times.

• Double-crested Cormorant: On
June 11, 1989, Douglas Bell recorded
91 nests in this relatively new colony.
In 1999 7,000 pairs nested here, mak-
ing this by far die largest breeding col-
ony on the West Coast of North
America (Alaska to Mexico). The next
largest colony on the West Coast in-
cludes three sites in Mexico, each
containing 1,500 pairs.

• Western/Glaucous-winged Gulls:
The gull colony on East Sand Island
also has increased tremendously in the
last decade. On June 1 1, 1989, Douglas
Bell recorded 880 pairs of West-
ern/Glaucous-winged Gulls. Approxi-
mately 7,000 nesting pairs were present
in 1999. Sand Island now is the sec-
ond-largest Western or Glaucous-
winged Gull colony on the US West
Coast, the only larger one being on
Southeast Farallon Island, California.
(Both species nest and there are many
hybrids).

• Caspian Terns: Roby et. al. re-
ported 1,400 pairs nesting in 1999. In
2000, about 8,000 birds nested there,
most having moved from nearby Rice
Island, to make it the largest Caspian
Tern colony on earth.

PSG ENDORSES
RESTORATION PLAN FOR
THE AMERICAN TRADER
OIL SPILL

PSG wrote comments in July that
generally supported the draft restora-
tion plan for seabirds injured by the
American Trader oil spill off
Huntington Beach, California. The

trustees proposed spending about $2.9
million for the following projects:

1. Creation, enhancement and
protection of Brown Pelican communal
roost sites,

2. Seabird nesting habitat restora-
tion at Anacapa Island,

3. Public education and awareness,
and

4. International efforts for Brown
Pelicans (educational and protection
activities, eradication of exotics on
Baja islands, monitoring of popula-
tions).

PSG applauded the trustee agen-
cies' decision to allow funds to be spent
in Mexico to restore Brown Pelicans,
which will have very high value for the
damaged pelican population. PSG
commended the agencies for applying
sound ecological principles in their
consideration of projects, and noted
that in other restoration plans the trus-
tee agencies insisted that restoration
funds be used only at the location
where the injuries took place.

PSG also endorsed competitive
bidding for all projects. Sole-source
contracts often cost much more for less
return (and thus less benefit to sea-
birds) than competitively bid contracts.
Moreover, there is a public perception
that it is unseemly to award contracts
without competitive bidding, especially
to the same individuals or entities that
represented the government as experts
in the settlement negotiations. The
practice therefore tends to taint the
entire restoration process.

CALIFORNIA FISH AND
GAME RESTRICTS
GILLNET FISHERY

In September, California Depart-
ment of Fish and Game Director Rob-
ert C. Hight ordered the halibut gillnet
fishery closed in shallow waters near
Monterey Bay and Morro Bay. The
closures prohibit the use of gill or
trammel nets in ocean waters that are
60 fathoms or less in depth, in an area
extending from Point Reyes in Marin

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 65

CONSERVATION NEWS

County to Yankee Point in Monterey
County. Also closed is an area of water
60 fathoms or less in depth from Point
Arguello to Point Sal in Santa Barbara
County. The order is in effect for 120
days and may be extended.

The director determined that as a
direct result of the use of gill nets,
there is the danger of irreparable injury
to, or mortality in, the common murre
population. Murres are dying in gill-
nets at a rate of 5,000 per year; this is
threatening the viability of the popula-
tion. Director Might also determined
that, as a direct result of the use of gill
nets, the recovery of the southern sea
otter as a protected species is impaired.

OREGON BEACHED BIRD
SURVEY RESULTS

The twenty-second year of surveys
on the portion of beach between Bea-
ver Creek and Henderson Creek in
Lincoln County, Oregon has been
completed by Sara Brown, Laimons
Osis, Shirley Loeffel and Bob Loeffel.
The surveys were conducted at inter-
vals of eight days or less, except for
one 10-day period for the north part of
the beach. The survey was intensified
to daily observations from late Febru-

ary through March as part of the New
Carissa oil spill evaluation.

Murre chicks were the most nu-
merous birds found dead, as usual. The
occurrence of murre chicks (393)
reached near average numbers, proba-
bly due to improved production of
chicks over 1998 (thus greater numbers
were available to succumb). Birds
other than murre chicks totaled 392 in
1999, well below the average (469) for
the first 20 years of the survey. Adult
murres (77) and Northern Fulmare (45)
were found in greatest numbers. About
half of the murre moralities were found
in July and August, coincident with
heavy murre chick mortality.

Cassin’s Auklets were almost ab-
sent. Four were found, which equals
the lowest count on record and is far
below the 20-year average of 89. Adult
Rhinoceros Auklet mortality was espe-
cially notable in March (13) and De-
cember (12), when for several weeks
they were common in the collection.
Interestingly, both of the Rhinoceros
Auklet peaks occurred shortly after oil
spills- the New Carissa' s second
grounding in March, and the Blue
Heather sinking in December.

Other notable findings include: 8
Common Loons in February, which is
more than were found in February
counts for the previous 2 1 years com-

bined; 5 Black-footed and 1 Laysan
Albatross; an unusual number of Fork-
tailed Storm-Petrels (37); two Parakeet
Auklets; and, for the first time a Tur-
key Vulture and an American Coot.

-Robert Loeffel, Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife, Retired

CONGRESS ENACTS
NEOTROPICAL
MIGRATORY BIRD
CONSERVATION ACT

In July, Congress enacted the
Neotropical Migratory Bird Conserva-
tion Act by a wide margin. The act
authorizes $5 million annually to be
spent on grants through 2005, 75% of
which must be spent outside the United
States. President Clinton’s FY 2001
Department of Interior budget unfortu-
nately does not include any funding for
the act. This statute is reminiscent of
the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act
of 1980, a matching grant program for
non-game projects, which still has
never been funded.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 66

TWENTY-EIGHTH
ANNUAL MEETING OF
THE PACIFIC SEABIRD
GROUP, FEBRUARY 2001

The Pacific Seabird Group will
hold its 28th Annual Meeting on 7-1 1
February 2001 at the Radisson Kauai
Beach Resort in Lihue, Hawaii. The
meeting will feature a half-day sympo-
sium on the seabirds of Japan, a work-
shop to discuss the latest draO of the
North American Colonial Waterbird
Conservation Plan, and a full scientific
program.

The symposium on the Biology,
Status, and Conservation of Seabirds in
Japan is being convened by Yutaka
Watanuki, Kim Nelson, and Harry
Carter. Japanese scientists and others
will speak about the species from all
parts of the nation. Papers will be pre-
sented in English, possibly with Japa-
nese translation; the proceedings will
be published in English with Japanese
abstracts.

Field trips to Midway Atoll and a
variety of sites in the main Hawaiian
Islands will be offered before and after
the meeting. Midway supports hun-
dreds of thousands of breeding alba-
trosses and petrels, endangered monk
seals, and a coral lagoon. Trips of both
5 and 8 days will depart on 10 Febru-
ary- There will be one-day trips before

PSG NEWS

and after the meeting to less-distant
birding areas: seabird and waterbird
habitats on Kauai, Haleakala Crater on
Maui, and the slopes of Mauna Kea on
the island of Hawai’i.

For more information about regis-
tering, contact David Duffy, Depart-
ment of Botany, University of Hawai’i
Manoa, 3190 Maile Way, Honolulu, Hi
96822; phone 808-956-8218; e-mail
dduffy@hawaii.edu. For information
regarding the scientific program con-
tact Bill Sydeman at wjsydeman@
prbo.org. Further information also is
available on PSG’s website at
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BlRDNET/-
PacBirds/.

STUDENT TRAVEL
AWARDS, PSG 2001

The Executive Council of the Pa-
cific Seabird Group has provided the
Awards Committee a fixed amount of
money to support travel of several stu-
dents to the next PSG meeting in Li-
hue, Kauai, 7-11 February 2001. We
would like to use the funds as effec-
tively as possible to maximize the
number of student members both at-
tending the meeting and making either
oral or poster presentations. We ask
that students (and their advisors) first

seek travel support through their home
institutions or grant/contract funds, to
the maximum extent possible. This will
allow us to give awards to those stu-
dents who genuinely are in the greatest
need of support.

Eligibility: Any individual who is
a student member of PSG in good
standing in calendar year 2000 and/or
2001, and who is senior (first) author
of an oral or poster presentation at the
PSG meeting in Lihue.

To apply for a travel award, the
student must submit:

1. A copy of the presentation ab-
stract,

2. A brief statement outlining level
of need and of other support, either (a)
pending or (b) already provided by
other funding sources, and

3. The name and contact informa-
tion of the graduate advisory commit-
tee chair.

Applications should be sent as e-
mail text only (no attachments) to Ed
Murphy, PSG Awards Committee, at
ffecm@uaf.edu.

Any student who does not have
access to e-mail may instead mail the
information to: Ed Murphy, PSG
Awards Committee, Institute of Arctic
Biology, University of Alaska Fair-
banks, Fairbanks, AK 99775.

Anticipated maximum award
amount: $500.

Pacific Seabirds * Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 67

SEABIRD TIDINGS

This new section will offer occasional seabird news items that don’t fit anywhere else.

STORM ALTERS MARINE
BIRD HABITATS ON
ALASKA’S NORTH SLOPE

The arctic is usually associated
with extreme weather, but summers on
the northern Alaska coast have been
surprisingly predictable and benign.
However, on 10 August 2000 a violent
windstorm swept across northern
Alaska, reducing birds and biologists
to survival mode and reshaping
coastlines.

An extreme low-pressure system
passing north of the state produced
sustained winds of 55 mph at Barrow
for over 24 h, with gusts of 70 mph.
Paul Flint of USGS in Anchorage
estimates that waves in the Beaufort
Sea reached 20 ft. Following the storm,
temperatures were subnormal for 3
days (maximum 33’ F, compared with
a mean for August in Barrow of 38’).
An inch and a half of snow fell, with
drifts as high as 8 inches. Major storms
and storm surges typically hit the
North Slope in fall and winter, when
sea ice moderates the waves and most
birds are long gone.

Paul Flint’s group was studying
seaduck productivity and dispersion on
Ftaxman Island and in Simpson
Lagoon. Thanks to a storm warning
from the weather service in Barrow,
the Flaxman Island crew were able to
beach most of their boats and rescue
telemetry monitoring equipment.
Although some tents were destroyed,
the Flaxman crew was equipped to
continue working. However, their
research ended anyway because their
telemetry reference sites had
disappeared into the sea. Two people
from the Simpson Lagoon crew were

caught away from camp and were
stranded when the storm cut the island
in two. They were rescued by
helicopter. A lone biologist at George
Divoky’s site on Cooper Island
weathered the storm well in her tent,
although she had to spend the entire
time flat on her back because the wind
bowed in the fiberglass poles so they
hit her whenever she sat up. The two
other tents at the camp lost their
integrity and demonstrated why their
outside shell is called a "fly." The wind
knocked down the radio antenna. Since
she had no way to let Barrow know
that the island was still above water
and she was safe. Search and Rescue
sent a helicopter to evacuate her.

The storm hit some islands
heavily. On Flaxman Island, sloping
shores were converted to 10-m-high
cliffs, and one portion of shoreline
retreated 12 m. Low-lying spits and
islands were inundated. Flint has no
precise data on mortality among
Common Eider chicks, which were
around 25 days old at the time, but he
could find only one brood in his study
area after the storm. Habitat change
could have the greatest impact on the
dynamics of this declining population,
however. Barrier islands were swept
clear of driftwood; Flint estimates that
3/4 of the Eiders’ nesting habitat
disappeared. It remains to be seen how
rapidly new logs will accumulate on
the islands.

The Black Guillemot research
colony on Cooper Island may have lost
half its chicks to starvation. At the
onset of the storm there were 70 active
nests (all in manmade boxes), with 1 70
nestlings averaging 16 days of age. The
winds of 10-11 August probably
prevented adults from provisioning the

chicks and restricted their foraging for
themselves. Snow blocked at least
some nest-sites on 12-13 August and
further prevented feeding of chicks.
Two to 4 days without food probably
resulted in the starvation of many
chicks, especially the younger ones in
two-chick-broods. Nestlings that
survived the storm gained weight
rapidly over the next 10 days; the 67
young that fledged were nearly at
normal weights. Breeding habitat at the
Cooper Island colony was little
impacted by the storm. Some nest
boxes were blown over (and away) by
the wind, and 3 were floodod.
However, boxes have survived on the
island since as long ago as 1956,
indicating that the ground is high
enough above sea level to escape all
but the most severe storm surges in the
Beaufort Sea.

Losses to local residents and
businesses were significant. The
National Climate Data Center reports
that houses in villages across the North
Slope suffered $700,000 in damage,
and a $7 million dredge near Barrow
dragged its anchor and crashed onto the
shore.

This anomalous late-summer
storm in northern Alaska demonstrates
the increasing intensity and frequency
of extreme weather associated with
global climate change, and it shows
how these events can affect bird
populations. Storms such as this could
produce much more immediate and
visible impacts than the gradual
elevation of sea and air temperatures
by global warming.

—George Divoky and Vivian
Mendenhall

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 68

SEABIRD TIDINGS - Terns

CHINESE CRESTED TERNS
DISCOVERED

A seabird that was thought to have
become extinct in the 1930s has been
rediscovered in the South China Sea.
Six pairs of Chinese Crested Terns
{Sterna bernsteini) have been spotted
rearing chicks on a tiny islet. A tourist
sent photographs of the terns to the
Wild Bird Federation Taiwan, a part of
Birdlife International. Experts have
confirmed the find. They are keeping
the islet’s location secret to prevent
disturbance of the birds.

Ornithologists say the last
confirmed sighting of the Chinese
Crested Tern was of 2 K specimens

collected off Shandong in 1937.
Possible reasons for the species’
decline include exploitation by passing
fishermen for eggs and plumage,
habitat destruction, and pollution.

“This is a very exciting
discovery,” Dr Ian Nisbet told the
British Broadcasting Corporation. He
said that the Chinese Crested Tern is
one of the least known seabirds in the
world, and possibly the rarest. “It’s
only known from a few specimens . . .
collected mostly along the coast of
China. Obviously there are very heavy
human pressures. . . . Almost nothing
[is] known about the Chinese Crested
Tern, apart from a few specimens in
New Zealand and two recent site
records. So this discovery . . . where

there is some prospect of protecting
them is very pleasing indeed for
conservationists.”

Dr Nesbit said that protecting the
birds would be a challenge. “What we
need are studies to find out what sort of
breeding success, the seabird is having
and what it needs for protection,” he
said. Fishermen are known to visit the
islet looking for birds’ eggs. One idea
that has worked in other areas is to give
local people a vested interest in seeing
the birds stay alive. Fishermen could
take birdwatchers to see the rare
seabirds rather than collecting their
eggs.

—From BBC website

T H O l>6 G Y

u|) -- Pacific Seabjrd .Grobp

a refereW^ and widely bllo^tr^cted . ^
its on seabird biol^i^and conservation^^drld-wide. The
led ASG/PSG n\anagement aintSCX^ increase the speeB^^f
Ications among se^Tmrd researcher by providing rapid
publication in electronic form, as well as producing hard^nropies for
su bs6ribersj.^^

From 20CMwmwards,^Iiarin^o™thology will be aj^ufableTree via the
" web-site:

www.marineo

For'9€|iiii>s.of editorial policies, in
advertising, please s
^ John Cooper jcooper@b<^c^.u

■

hard copy ^HBscri^loifs and
t.gc.ca

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 69

REGIONAL REPORTS

Regional reports summarize seabird work of interest to PSG members. Reports are or-
ganized primarily by location of the work, not by affiliation of the biologist. Alaska and
Russia are summarized separately this year. The Non-Pacific U.S sent no information to
its regional representative.

ALASKA

Summarized by Rob Suryan

GULF OF Alaska

Long-term seabird monitoring in
Southeast Alaska continued under bi-
ologists of the Alaska Maritime Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR). At
Saint Lazaria Island, Leslie Slater and
crew. Erica Sommer, Christy Au-
coin, Rachel Cleaves, and Connie
Adams, monitored nine seabird species
to evaluate population levels, annual
productivity, chick growth, and diets
between early June and early Septem-
ber. Marine habitats were sampled near
Saint Lazaria in July to describe the
fish species that characterize the ma-
rine environment within the foraging
range of seabirds breeding at the col-
ony. This project was part of SMMOCl
(Seabird, Marine Mammal, & Oceano-
graphic Coordinated Investigations)
and was supported by the refuge ves-
sel, M/V Tiglax. Continuing south
from Saint Lazaria, the M/V Tiglax and
crew circumnavigated the Hazy Islands
to count ledge-nesting seabirds. They
then visited Lowrie, Forrester, and Pet-
rel islands in extreme southeast Alaska
to check study plots of burrow-nesting
seabirds (storm-petrels and auklets),
and each island was circumnavigated
to count Pigeon Guillemots. Crew
aboard the M/V Tiglax included Mi-
chael and Tanja Britton, Vernon
Byrd, Claire Caldes, Don Dragoo,
Rebecca Joyce, Doug Palmer, John
Piatt, Deb Rudis, Barry Sampson,
John Tobin, Jeff Williams, and Su-
san Woodward.

Marine bird and mammal surveys
were conducted in Yakutat Bay, Disen-
chantment Bay, Russell Fiord, and Nu-

natak Fiord in June by Shawn Ste-
phensen, Kent Wohl, [U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (USFWS)] a nd Bill
Lucey (USDA Forest Service). This
was the first survey of this type ever
completed in the area; our data will be
used to determine a baseline. The en-
tire shoreline (except for ice-choked
areas of Disenchantment Bay) and 27
coastal-pelagic transects were sur-
veyed. Brad Andres (USFWS) also
surveyed the shoreline for breeding
Black Oystercatchers. A 26 ft alumi-
num boat and 15 ft inflatable were used
for transportation. All seabird colonies
in the area also were inventoried.

Seabird monitoring on East
Amatuli (Barren Islands) was con-
ducted by Arthur Kettle of AMNWR
and his crew.

Biannual marine bird and mammal
surveys in Prince William Sound were
conducted by David Irons and crews
as part of the post-£xxon Valdez Oil
Spill (EVOS) monitoring. Surveys
were conducted in March by Shawn
Stephensen, Julian Fischer, Tracey
Gotthardt, Heather Johnson-
Schuttz, Steve Kendall, Karen Bren-
neman, Greg Spencer, Greg Golet,
Jamie Stitch, Debbie Wong, and
Kent Wohl, and in July by Shawn
Stephensen, Rob Suryan, Bill Os-
trand, Larry Barnes, Jon Nickles,
Becky Howard, Molly Housman, Jeb
Benson, Craig Collins, John
Barnum, Steve Kendall, and Marian
Snively. The data are used to estimate
bird and mammal populations and
trends and to determine whether popu-
lations injured by the oil spill are re-
covering. Both surveys went smoothly,
except for encounters with a few rocks.

Seabird colonies throughout Prince
William Sound and the adjacent coast
were recensused by Shawn Stephen-
sen. Several new colonies were docu-
mented and several old ones had disap-
peared. Data will be used to update the
Alaska Seabird Colony Catalog; some
of these colonies had not been sur-
veyed since 1963!

David Irons continued his long-
term population and productivity
counts of kittiwakes at 27 colonies in
Prince William Sound. Work at the
Shoup Bay kittiwake colony was con-
tinued for the 13“* consecutive year.
Fieldwork was led by Kelsey Sullivan,
a graduate student from Rutgers Uni-
versity with Joanna Burger, and Ally
McKnight with help from several of
Ally’s high school studente, David also
continued monitoring of kittiwake and
cormorant colonies in Chiniak Bay on
Kodiak Island. Steve Kendall, Debbie
Wong, and Jay Johnson conducted
this fieldwork.

Scott Hatch (USGS, Anchorage)
and crews continued research on the
population ecology of seabirds on
Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska.
Hatch, Rick Lanctot, Conrad Field,
and Dale Chorman-Spence visited
Middleton for 10 days in April to con-
tinue structural modifications to the
tower colony of kittiwakes and cormo-
rants. Biological field work was con-
ducted from 8 May to 1 8 August by
Hatch, Verena Gill, and Charla
Sterne (camp leaders) plus six volun-
teers from around and about: Kaspar
Delhey and Pablo Petracci (Argen-
tina), Shaye Folk (Alberta), Jennifer
McGrath (Alaska), Anja Schiller
(Australia), and Anna Trobaugh
(formerly of Minnesota, moving to

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 70

REGIONAL REPORTS - Alaska

Alaska). We continued the supple-
mental feeding experiment with
Black- legged Kittiwakes, and also be-
gan feeding trials with Pelagic Cormo-
rants, which looks promising for the
future. Natural foraging conditions
appeared to be good around Middleton
throughout the summer of 2000, highly
unusual in the last couple of decades
and in complete contrast to the abysmal
conditions and breeding performance
we saw in 1999- Congratulations to
Verena Gil! for completing her mas-
ters degree at the University of Alaska
Anchorage involving supplemental
feeding experiments of kittiwakes a
Middleton Island.

John Piatt’s Cook Inlet Seabird
and Forage Fish Study (ClSeaFFS)
completed another field season with
funding and logistic support from the
uses, EVOS Trustee Council,
USFWS) and University of Alaska
Fairbanks. John and crews also con-
ducted work in Glacier Bay. Con-
gratulations to Mike Litzow for com-
pleting his graduate work at U.C. Santa
Cruz on Pigeon Guillemots in Kache-
mak Bay, Alaska, and to Tom Van
Pelt for completing graduate studies at
the University of Glasgow while
working on Common Murres on Duck
Island in Lower Cook Inlet.

Bob Day of ABR, Inc. continued
his at-sea studies of seabirds in North-
ern Gulf of Alaska with the GLOBEC
project of the National Science Foun-
dation and the National Oceanographic
and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA). This will be his third year of
year-round data collection on seabirds
in the Gulf of Alaska.

The Alaska SeaLife Center in Se-
ward reports a good year with the birds
in the exhibit, according to Michele
Miller, supervisor for Avian Hus-
bandry. They now have 9 Common
Murres (one pair in the collection
hatched a chick this year), 13 Tufted
Puffins, and 13 Pigeon Guillemots (10
from George Divoky’s research work).
We're working hard at increasing the
diversity of the bird collection; hope-
fully during the next year, more species
will be added. We're in the process of
setting up in-house research projects

that will focus on molting and nutri-
tion, to start with, and hopefully pro-
gress into other interesting areas such
as diving physiology, color visualiza-
tion, and some aspects of behavior that
are difficult to study in the “real
world.”

Scott Newman (University of
California at Davis), Scott Hatch
(USGS), and Susan Inglis (Alaska
SeaLife Center) continued their col-
laboration to determine suitable radio
attachment methods (conventional
VHF and satellite transmitters) for
Common Murres using captive sub-
jects maintained at the Alaska SeaLife
Center. Survival, health, and behav-
ioral data from abdominal implants and
external mounts performed in 1999 are
under analysis. In August 2000, they
initiated trials of an alternative tech-
nique — subcutaneous implanta-

tion — using both VHF and satellite
transmitters.

APEX (Alaska Predator
Ecosystem experiment)

APEX is a 5-year study in Prince
William Sound and lower Cook Inlet,
funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Trustee Council (EVOSTC). Personnel
of APEX conducted little fieldwork
this summer, as they were focusing on
data analysis and write-up. Some in-
vestigators will have partial funding in
fiscal year 2001 for continued analyses,
writing, and synthesis. Otherwise, the
project is closing out and the focus of
the EVOSTC will turn to the Gulf Eco-
system Monitoring program for long-
term monitoring of Prince William
Sound and the Gulf of Alaska. David
Duffy continues to coordinate APEX
investigations.

Principal investigators with APEX
include Kathy Kuletz, who continued
data analysis and write-up on work
conducted from 1995-1999 in Prince
William Sound. Kathy is looking at
murrelet distribution and productivity
relative to habitat and forage fish
abundance. Kathy is also working with
other agencies to plan for and monitor
effects on marine birds of projected
increases in recreational use and tour-
ism in Prince William Sound. Con-

gratulations to Kathy on her new job at
USFWS in Anchorage as technical
advisor and liaison on seabird-fisheries
issues in Alaska.

Bill Ostrand of the Sea-
bird/Forage Fish Interactions compo-
nent of APEX spent this year analyzing
data, writing manuscripts, and assem-
bling the final report. Tracey Got-
thardt has taken a position with the
University of Alaska, Anchorage. The
final report on data for 1994-1995 is
now complete, data from the study are
archived, and the report will soon be
available on the Internet as a portion of
the APEX report. On 15 September
Bill took another position with
USFWS; he will continue to be avail-
able at the same address, email, and
phone number.

Greg Golet concluded work with
the Pigeon Guillemot component of
APEX. He recently took a position
with The Nature Conservancy, Chico,
California as an ecologist for their Sac-
ramento River riparian restoration
project.

Rob Suryan, David Irons, Jeb
Benson, and Max Kaufman continued
to analyze data on the mechanisms of
prey limitation and the effect on kitti-
wake foraging, breeding success, and
population dynamics in Prince William
Sound. Rob will be participating in the
synthesis of APEX investigations
through the winter. Jeb will maintain
some contact with the project, but will
primarily focus on engineering studies
at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Max is also maintaining some contact
with the project while moving on to
fiiture work.

David Ainley, Glenn Ford, and
D. Schneider continued modeling
work with the APEX project. Their
work included a foraging model for
kittiwakes in Prince William Sound
and evaluation of a foraging model for
Pigeon Guillemots. They have also
been investigating colony-specific for-
aging ranges of kittiwakes ^ in Prince
William Sound and the effect of com-
petition on colony distribution.

Pacific Seabirds * Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 71

REGIONAL REPORTS - Alaska

Aleutian Islands

Seabird colonies in the Aleutians
were monitored by AMNWR staff.
Greg Thomson and Joe Smith were
on Aiktak Island, Karen Brenneman
and Heather Moore worked on Buldir
Island, Lisa Sharf, Jeff Williams and
Vernon Byrd visited Kasatochi, Koni-
uji, and Ulak, and Dean Kildaw, Cliff
Lascink, Vernon Byrd, and Jeff Wil-
liams monitored Bogoslof Island.

Ian Jones (Atlantic Cooperative
Wildlife Ecology Research Network,
Meihorial University, Newfoundland)
conducted his eleventh year of research
on seabird behavioral ecology and de-
mography at Buldir Island, in collabo-
ration with the Aleutian Island Unit of
AMNWR. The crew consisted of Mar-
tin Renner (in his first field season of
a PhD project on demographic and
sexually selected consequences of
Least Auklet pluntage polymorphism),
Jolene Sutton, Josh Penne, and Jones.

Lucy Vlietstra is working with
George Hunt’s laboratory at the Uni-
versity of California, Irvine (UCI) on
shifts in individual behavior and com-
munity structure among marine birds
during prey fluctuations. She will ex-
amine how shearwaters respond to prey
fluctuations associated with tide
movements at passes in the Aleutian
Islands, using hydroacoustic fish
measurements and bird observations to
compare spatial relationships between
trophic levels.

AMNWR biologists continued ef-
forts to prevent or control the introduc-
tion of predators so as to restore and
preserve seabird nesting habitat. Steve
Ebbert and crews continued fox re-
moval on Tanaga and Little Sitkin is-
lands. Art Sowls was joined by Mark
Rauzon (Marine Endeavors, Oakland,
CA) for a rat reconnaissance on Kiska
Island. '

Bering and Chukchi Seas

Pribilof Island colonies were
monitored by AMNWR staff Tonja
Bittner and Art Sowls on St. Paul Is-
land; and Lori Ness, Nora Rojek and
Kent Sundseth on St George Island.
Art Sowls continued work with the rat
prevention program in the Pribilof Is-

lands. He also has instituted an out-
reach program to the fleet operating in
southwest Alaska to make them aware
of the rat problem.

George Hunt’s lab at UCI group
is funded for new a study of inter-
decadal variation in upper trophic- level
foraging and population ecology at the
Pribilof Islands. This work will be
conducted in collaboration with Vern
Byrd of the US Fish and Wildlife
Service in Homer, Alaska and Beth
Sinclair of the National Marine Mam-
mal Laboiatory in Seattle. Lucy Vliet-
stra will focus on large-scale shifts in
abundance and distribution of seabirds
and their fish prey around the islands
that may be related to shifts in climate
regimes in the Bering Sea.

Hunt’s group has completed field
work on a collaborative study of pro-
duction and shearwater use of the inner
domain and inner frontal region of the
southeastern Bering Sea. Results are
now being written up. Cheryl Baduini
continues the write-up of conclusions
from her portion of the work on the
foraging ecology of short-tailed
shearwaters in the area in 1997-1999;
she received her PhD in Sping 2000.
David Hyrenbach (Scripps Institute of
Oceanography and UCI) is collaborat-
ing with Cheryl Baduini and Jaime
Jahncke in a study of Short-tailed
Shearwater foraging ecology in relation
to the Inner Front in the southeastern
Bering Sea. This research aims to un-
derstand the way frontal variability
affects ecosystem structure in the
southeastern Bering Sea, and how these
changes in the ecosystem influence the
distribution, abundance and foraging
ecology of Short-tailed Shearwaters.
Jahncke joined Hunt’s lab in 1999.

Nikolai Konyukhov (Moscow
Bird Ringing Center) conducted molt
studies on the Least Auklet on St. Paul
Island from 19 May until 23 August.
This species begins to molt during
breeding season. The molt patterns of
different wing feathers have adaptive
value. New feathers are protected by
old ones or full-grown new feathers
while they are growing; at this time
they are soft and could be easily in-
jured during flight and feeding.

Ed Murphy (University of Alaska
Fairbanks) continued woik at Bluff on
Norton Sound. Topics included popu-
lation counts, breeding chronology,
and success of murres and kittiwakes.

The Cape Peirce colony in Bristol
Bay was monitored in 2000 by Rob
MacDonald and staff of Togiak Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge. They recorded
population and productivity of Black-
legged Kittiwakes, Common Murres,
and Pelagic Cormorants. The camp was
opened on 26 April, and seabirds were
monitored from 6 May to 8 September.
In addition, predation and disturbances
to seabirds were recorded and beached
bird surveys were performed. Staff at
Togiak NWR have monitored the
population and breeding performance
of kittiwakes, murres and cormorants
from shore-based plots at Cape Peirce
annually since 1984. The average
number of Black-legged Kittiwake
adults and nests on all plots were low,
although still within the range for the
last 1 0 years. Breeding performance for
Black-legged Kittiwakes was high;
reproductive success and overall pro-
ductivity were more than twice the 10-
year average and were at the high end
of the range. The average number of
Common Murre adults on all plots was
low, although still within the range for
the last 10 years. Breeding perform-
ance for Common Murres was high;
reproductive success was above the 1 0-
year average and was at the high end of
the range. The average numbers of
Pelagic Cormorant adults and nests
were low, although within the range for
the last 10 years. Breeding success of
Pelagic Cormorants was high, with
reproductive success just below the 10-
year average and overall productivity
slightly above the lO-year average.
Both were at the high end of the range.

David Irons and Kent Wohl initi-
ated what they hope will be a long-
term study of seabirds near Savoonga
on St. Lawrence Island. Species in the
study include Least and Crested Auk-
lets, Common and Thick-billed Mur-
res, and Black-legged Kittiwakes.
Fieldwork was led by Adrian Gall as
part of her graduate work at Oregon
State University with Dan Roby.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 72

REGIONAL REPORTS » Alaska

Adrian had help in the field from Vic-
tor Zubakin (Russian Union for Bird
Conservation, Moscov^) and Brian
Milakovic (Toronto). Zubakin also
worked on improving the census meth-
ods for auklets on St. Lawrence Island.

Dave Roseneau continued moni-
toring work at Cape Lisburne in the
Chukchi Sea. Bob Day and John Rose
of the ABR, Inc. Fairbanks office con-
ducted radar studies of migrating eiders
at Barrow, Alaska. Radar was used to
study movements of eiders during pe-
riods of limited visibility in preparation
for an assessment of collision prob-
ability.

Steve Johnson (LGL Ltd., Sidney,
BC) continued his 23-year study of the
distribution and abundance of Old-
squaw in the nearshore coastal zone of
the central Alaska Beaufort Sea; aerial
observations were conducted by Mike
Bentley. LGL also monitored the
abundance and distribution of nesting
Pacific Eiders {Somoteria mollissima
v-nigra) on barrier islands along the
central Alaska Beaufort Sea coast. Mew
LGL projects for 2000-2001 will in-
volve Lynn Noel, Robert Rodrigues
and Johnson. They will work on win-
ter and molting-season surveys of
threatened Steller’s Eiders and other
seaducks and seabirds in the eastern
Aleutian Islands; winter and molting-
season surveys of threatened Steller’s
Eiders and other seaducks and seabirds
in the vicinity of the city of Unalaska,
and aerial surveys and habitat classifi-
cation for Spectacled and Steller’s Ei-
ders in the National Petroleum Reserve
on the North Slope.

Statewide

Vernon Byrd and Becky Howard
completed entry of historic data
throughout AMNWR into the Pacific
Seabird Monitoring Database. Vernon
Byrd, Don Dragoo, and David Irons
produced the third annual report on
status and trends of seabird in Alaska.

Charla Sterne and Scott Hatch
(USGS) continued data entry and man-
agement for the Pacific Seabird Moni-
toring Database. Data for 25 years of
seabird monitoring at the Semidi Is-
lands were entered this year, and an-

other long-term data set is being en-
tered for Middleton Island. Records
submitted previously by numerous
contributors from throughout the Pa-
cific region are under review and revi-
sion. After data entry is complete, the
whole database will be made available
via the Internet with a suitable user
interface. Charla Sterne is learning
Visual Basic and other programming
skills required to write the code for an
on-line data entry system to comple-
ment the data-serving capabilities de-
veloped for us by contractors last year.

Kent Wohl and David Irons con-
tinued their participation in the Cir-
cumpolar Seabird Working Group.
This is a sub-group of CAFF (Conser-
vation of Arctic Flora and Fauna), a
treaty organi 2 ^tion of circumpolar na-
tions. CAFF is considering a monitor-
ing project of focal vertebrate species,
including seabirds (Common and
Thick-billed Murres) in addition to
caribou, Dolly Varden trout, and geese.
Kent has also been coordinating work
and cooperative agreements with Japa-
nese scientists regarding seabirds and
other nongame species. Closer to
home, Kent and David are organizing
another meeting of the Alaska Seabird
Working Group.

Heather Johnson-Schultz re-
cently joined the Nongame Migratory
Bird staff (USFWS) as the Regional
Nongame Migratory Bird Outreach
Biologist. Heather has completed a
new brochure titled "Seabirds and
You” as a partnership effort of FWS
and CAFF. The brochure gives tips on
being good stewards around seabird
nesting colonies to target audiences
such as mariners, fishermen, and pilots.
A poster was developed to accompany
the brochures in areas of high visibil-
ity, such as at the fuel dock in Whittier,
the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward,
and the Alaska Maritime National
Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center in
Homer. Heather also made presenta-
tions on the FWS curriculum for ele-
mentary schools, “Learn About Sea-
birds.” Heather and David Irons visited
Little Diomede Island, a native-owned
island in the Bering Strait, and reached
K-12 grade students, teachers, and

community members. Heather also
conducted programs at the Yukon
Delta National Wildlife Refuge with
refuge education staff, Partners from
the World Wildlife Fund took “Learn
About Seabirds” to the villages of
Gambell and Savoonga on St. Law-
rence Island, another island that is
owned wholly .by Natives.

Heather also worked on establish-
ing a new "Rural Eyes" program to
encourage local community members
to work with USFWS in monitoring
seabird population trends throughout
Alaska. Heather and Shawn Stephen-
sen conducted workshops in Anchor-
age and Dillingham to train interested
villagers in Beached Bird Survey
methods. Villagers are the only visitors
to many remote coastlines, so we need
their reports of seabird dieoffs and the
data and specimens they can collect.
Heather and Shawn reached approxi-
mately 50 people from a variety of
villages within the Bering Sea Ecosys-
tem.

Fishery Issues

Ed Melvin (Washington Sea
Grant) spent a second year studying
methods to reduce seabird bycatch in
the North Pacific longline fisheries. Ed
is collaborating with Julia Parrish and
is assisted by Kim Dietrich and a host
of trained NMFS observers. Gear
modifications that he is evaluating in-
clude weighting the line, deploying the
line underwater through a lining tube,
and flying streamers (tori lines) over
the line as it is being deployed. As with
an earlier coastal gillnet bycatch study
in Puget Sound, preliminary analyses
indicate that both bird abundance and
interaction rate change markedly, both
from year to year and among locations.
Despite this inherent “noise,” gear
modification does appear to make a
difference. Final results will be avail-
able early next year.

Greg Balogh of USFWS Ecologi-
cal Services, Anchorage Field Office
continues seabird conservation efforts
to get deterrent devices into the hands
of longline fishermen. In 2000, they
received over $450,000 for use in
manufacturing and distributing free tori

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 73

REGIONAL REPORTS - Alaska, Russian Far East

lines to every longline vessel owner
that fishes in Alaska and for cost-
sharing the installation of davits (de-
vices used to deploy tori lines on larger
vessels). This money is in addition to
the $404,000 they received for this
same project in 1999. The Pacific
States Marine Fisheries Commission
has been hired to administer the pro-
ject. Hundreds of tori lines have ^en
distributed to fishermen thus far, and
hundreds more will be distributed in
the near future. We are making the
davit installation reimbursement pro-
gram available to an ever-widening
group of vessel owners. Ecological
Services continues to cooperate and
support Ed Melvin’s evaluation of the
effectiveness of seabird deterrent de-
vices (see above). In addition to pro-
viding financial support, Greg partici-
pated in a two-week cruise in the Ber-
ing Sea aboard the F/V Alaska Mist^
during which several different deterrent
device treatments were tested.

Kathy Kuletz has a new job at
USFWS in Anchorage as technical
advisor and liaison to the National Ma-
rine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and
others on seabird-fisheries interactions
in Alaska. Topics include allocation
and bycatch issues and NMFS observ-
ers.

The Short-tailed Albatross was
listed as endangered in the U.S. in July
(see Conservation News).

Kim Rivera of NMFS in Juneau
reported on several additional projects
related to seabird bycatch issues in
Alaska and internationally. NMFS is
preparing a Programmatic Supple-
mental Environmental Impact State-
ment (PSEIS) on the Alaska Ground-
fish fisheries (trawling and longlining
for pollock, rockfish, and other spe-
cies). One purpose of the PSEIS is to
describe the current management re-
gime in Alaska and current knowledge
about the physical, biological, and hu-
man environment in order to assess
impacts to the environment caused by
past and current fishery activities. The
PSEIS is broad in scope, with one of
the alternatives focusing on offering
increased protection to marine mam-
mals and seabirds. NMFS will issue a
draft for public review and comment

sometime in October or November
2000. Visit the NMFS Alaska Region
website at http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/
and watch for news of the availability
of the PSEIS.

NMFS is preparing annual esti-
mates of seabirds taken in the Alaska
groundfish fisheries, 1993-1999. This
updates the 1993-1997 estimates that
were provided at the 1999 PSG Seabird
Bycatch Symposium in Blaine, WA.
We plan to make a NOAA report on
this incidental catch information avail-
able to the public annually. Check the
NMFS Alaska Region Seabird Pro-
gram website at http://www.fakr.noaa.-
gov/protectedresources/seabirds.html
for news when these estimates are
available.

NMFS, USFWS, and the Depart-
ment of State are finalizing a draft Na-
tional Plan of Action for Reducing the
Incidental Catch of Seabirds in
Longline Fisheries. This project is in
response to the International Plan of
Action issued by the Food and Agri-
culture Organization (FAO), which
calls for nations to develop their own
national plans to address longline fish-
eries with seabird bycatch problems.
The Department of State, USFWS, and
NMFS also are involved in an interna-
tional initiative to develop an agree-
ment for the conservation of Southern
Hemisphere albatrosses and petrels.
The initiative notes that these birds
face threats not only from commercial
longline fisheries, but also from pollu-
tion, habitat degradation, etc. The ini-
tiative was first proposed by the gov-
ernment of Australia, under the aus-
pices of the Program for the Conserva-
tion of Migratory Species (CMS, also
known as the Bonn Convention).

RUSSIAN FAR EAST
Summarized by Nikolai Konyuk-
hov

Studies at talan Island in the Sea
of Okhotsk are being supervised by
Alexander Andreev (Chief, Labora-
tory of Ornithology, Institute of Bio-
logical Problem of the North, Ma-
gadan; andreew@online.magadan.su).
Biologists were on the island from 12

June until early September. A census
of Crested Auklets was carried out.
Breeding success and productivity
were determined on monitoring plots
for the Common and Thick-billed
Murre, Black-legged Kittiwake, Tufted
and Homed Puffin, Ancient Murrelet,
and Crested and Parakeet Auklet. Diets
(feeding and food composition) also
were monitored in the Tufted Puffin,
Horned Puffin, and Crested Auklet
during the chick-rearing period. Most
of the mesoplankton species that char-
acterized diet of Crested Auklets in the
early 1990’s had disappeared; so had
the young pollock that were previously
common in the diet of Tufted Puffins.
Elena Golubova (Institute of Biologi-
cal Problems of the North;
ibpn@online.magadan.su) worked on
Talan Island, where she studied the
breeding biology, breeding success,
and feeding of alcids.

A report (in Russian) on studies at
Talan Island in 1999 is available on
floppy disk; the report on this sum-
mer’s studies will be ready in Decem-
ber.

Larisa Zelenskaya (Institute of
Biological Problems of the North;
ibpn@online.magadan.su) studied sea-
birds under conditions of strong an-
thropogenic pressure at Shelikan Island
in June and again in August. She made
counts of the Slaty-backed Gull, Black-
legged Kittiwake, and Pelagic Cormo-
rant, and recorded their feeding be-
havior and breeding success. Larisa
also continued her studies at the Com-
mander Islands (Bering, Ariy Kamen,
and Toporkov Islands) from mid-June
until August. She censused and moni-
tored all seabird species and focused on
feeding of the Glaucous-winged Gull.
She also worked on determining sites
and quotas for harvesting of birds and
eggs by local Aleut people.

The seabird colonies of the Kuril
Islands were mapped by Yuri Artuk-
hin (Kamchatka Institute of Ecology
and artukhin@mail.iks.ni). The cruise
began at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy
(Kamchatka Peninsula) and ended at
Korsakov (Sakhalin Island). Studies
were carried out from 17 June until 14
August. Numbers and species compo-

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 * Fall 2000 • Page 74

REGIONAL REPORTS - Russian Far East, Canada

sition at ail colonies were determined.
[According to the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service’s Beringian Seabird Col-
ony Catalog, parts of the Kuriles had
never been surveyed, and some colo-
nies were last visited in 1 963 — ed.]
Victor Zubakin (Russian Union
for Bird Conservation; vic-
tor@zubakin.msk.ru) monitored num-
bers and productivity of alcids and
Black- legged Kitti wakes on St. Law-
rence Island, and Nikolai Konyukhov
(Moscow Bird Ringing Center;
ring@bird.msk.ru) carried out molt
studies of Least Auklets on St. Paul
Island. Details are in the Alaska Re-
port.

CANADA

Summarized by Ken Morgan

British Columbia — Marbled
Murrelets

Alan Burger (University of Victo-
ria) continues research on Marbled
Murrelets. Analyses of habitat use in
various forest types is underway with
Voiker Bahn, Angeline Tillmanns
and Anna Young. At-sea surveys con-
tinue in Barkley Sound with Anne
Stewart, focusing on marine habitat
use and long-term fluctuations in local
populations. Michelle Masselink is
completing her study of Steller’s Jay as
a nest-predator of Marbled Murrelets
and has shown that jays are most
commonly found at forest edges asso-
ciated with clearcuts and roads. Burger
is also supervising Kathy Kuletz's
PhD work on Marbled Murrelets in
Alaska.

Trudy Chatwin (BC Ministry of
Environment, Lands and Parks), Cathy
Conroy, and Voiker Bahn are study-
ing Marbled Murrelet habitat selection
and nesting density in Clayoquot
Sound. They have identified 4 classes
of forest habitat; random trees with
potential nesting platforms in three
habitat types were selected and over
400 trees were climbed. Using GIS
analysis of forest cover maps of Land-
scape Units on Vancouver island,
Connie Milier-Retzer, Monica

Mather and Chatwin have identified
areas of “Suitable Nesting Habitat”.
These areas are being compared with
areas of “Constrained Harvesting” (ar-
eas not for harvesting due to riparian or
terrain considerations) to determine if
setting aside constrained and suitable
Marbled Murrelet habitat will work as
a conservation strategy for Marbled
Murrelets on Vancouver Island.

Fred Cooke of the Centre for
Wildlife Ecology, Simon Fraser Uni-
versity (SFU) notes that the major ac-
tivity with Marbled Murrelets was ra-
dio telemetry studies of two popula-
tions. They continued working on de-
mography and breeding biology of the
Desolation Sound murrelet population
(comprising 4000-6000 individuals),
and they found 29 new active nests,
including the first reported in an alder
tree. More than 200 birds were banded,
including 75 to which radios were at-
tached prior to the breeding season.
These birds were followed throughout
the nesting period, which allowed de-
tailed studies of their movements and
nest success. Late in the season 14 ju-
veniles and 8 adults were radioed in
order to follow post-breeding move-
ments. A new study was initiated at
Clayoquot Sound, to compare nesting
locations of radio marked birds with
areas predicted by a large scale map-
ping project. Although 75 birds were
radio marked only 9 nest sites were
located, mainly because of the earlier
nesting phenology of this population.

The BC Ministry of Environment
and the Canjadian Wildlife Service
(CWS) initiated a study examining the
forest habitat requirements of Marbled
Murrelets in the Queen Charlotte Is-
lands (QCI). The study, funded by For-
est Renewal BC and the World Wild-
life Fund, was carried out by Anne
Harfenist, Irene Manley, and Gary
Kaiser. Murrelet incubation did not
begin until late June/early July and
only 6 of the 50 radio-tagged murrelets
nested. The nesting habitats were de-
scribed at the nest, stand and landscape
levels.

During the past year Paul Jones
continued at-sea monitoring of Mar-
bled Murrelets in Middlepoint Bight.

For the second year in a row, snow
conditions prevented access to murrelet
nesting sites on the Caren Range until
early July. Observations suggested that
birds may have delayed nesting until
late June, as small numbers of juvenile
birds did not appear in Middlepoint
Bight until mid-August. For the tenth
year in a row Murrelet flight feathers
were collected on the shores of the
Bight. Numbers of birds molting in
August 2000 were down over past
years. Jones made presentations to the
BC Provincial Government suggesting
a moratorium on logging on the Bun-
ster Range in the vicinity of Powell
River. He also urged others (including
PSG) to make similar recommenda-
tions.

Since November 1999, Ken
Morgan has been chairing Canada’s
Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team. In
March the team hosted a 2-day work-
shop that brought together the latest
knowledge on the science and man-
agement of Marbled Murrelets in BC.
Along with Doug Bertram and Sean
Boyd (CWS), Dave Mackas and David
Welch of the Department of Fisheries
and Oceans (DFO), and Mike Bentley,
Morgan continued at-sea surveys of
seabirds near Triangle Island.

British Columbia — other marine

BIRDS

John Ryder (SFU) reports that the
Triangle Island research station com-
pleted its seventh year of seabird
monitoring under the direction and
support of the Centre for Wildlife
Ecology, SFU/CWS. Doug Bertram
continued his role as project coordina-
tor and director of research. Ryder
completed his fourth year as camp
manager; Krista Amey assumed this
role from July to August. Mark
Drever spent ten days on Triangle at
the start of the season before heading
off to Frederick Island to lead the field
crew there. Other research assistants
and volunteers included Alison
Agness, Jean-Francois Aublet, Lori
Barjaktarovic, Andrew Lang, April
Hedd, Andrea Lonon, Gregor
Yanega, and Sharilynn Wardrop.

The Triangle crew continued ex-

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 * Fall 2000 • Page 75

REGIONAL REPORTS- Canada

amining phenology, reproductive per-
formance, nestling diet and develop-
ment, provisioning and attendance
patterns of four alcids (Cassin’s Auk-
let, Rhinoceros Auklet, Tufted Puffin
and Common Murre). They also con-
tinued a mark/recapture banding pro-
gram to examine the demography of
Cassin’s and Rhinoceros Auklets. All
four alcid species had excellent breed-
ing success, similar to 1999. The sec-
ond season of a radio-telemetry study
to e;tamine the at-sea foraging ecology
of Cassinis Auklets was conducted
(again supported through the Nestucca
oil spill trust fund and the Canadian
Nature Federation). Transmitters were
affixed to 37 adults at the colony dur-
ing chick rearing period and four aerial
surveys to locate the radioed birds were
conducted by Sean Boyd (CWS) in
June- Auklets were foraging in ap-
proximately the same area as in 1999
but nearer to the continental shelf. A
pilot project to determine the feasibility
of radio-marking Rhinoceros Auklets
using the subcutaneous attachment
technique was conducted. The method
was found to work well; there are plans
to expand this project to examine the
species’ foraging ecology in 2001.
Partners in this collaborative investi-
gation of marine predator/prey rela-
tionships and distribution around Tri-
angle Island include Dave Mackas and
David Welch (DFO), Mike Bentley,
and Ken Morgan (CWS).

Carina Gjerdrum (SFU) contin-
ued her MSc research on Tufted Puf-
fins breeding on Triangle Island. Her
primary objective for 2000 was to ex-
amine the intra-annual variation in pa-
rental effort. She collected data on
nestling growth, fledging behavior,
parental feeding rates and bill load
composition. Additional data were
collected oh egg size, kleptoparasite
activity by Glaucous-winged gulls, and
adult puffin behavior outside the bur-
row during a provisioning event. To
look at the effect nestling mass has on
adult provisioning behavior and nes-
tling fledging behavior, she experi-
mentally increased chick mass by sup-
plementing their diet with sand lance.
For the second consecutive year, the

population of puffins had an estimated
fledging success of 88%, in contrast to
the total reproductive failures experi-
enced between 1994 and 1998.

Louise Blight (Simon Fraser Uni-
versity [SFU]) successfully defended
her MSc thesis in July. Blight studied
Rhinoceros Auklet nest attendance on
Triangle Island (off the northern tip of
Vancouver Island). Using artificial
eggs containing a temperature logger,
she monitored parental incubation be-
havior and egg neglect over two
breeding seasons. In 1998, an El Nino
year, there were significantly more
instances of neglect per breeding pair
than in 1999. In 1999 she experimen-
tally chilled auklet eggs for 48 hours at
7 or 30 days of age, in order to test
developmental effects of lengthy egg
neglect at different stages of incuba-
tion. Results indicated that embryo
survival was not affected by the time
after laying that the simulated neglect
occurred. However, chilled eggs
hatched an average of 2 days later than
non-chilled controls, whether they
were chilled at 7 or 30 days of age.

In January 2000 April Hedd
started a post-doc with Doug Bertram
(Centre for Wildlife Ecology,
SFU/CWS) based at the CWS office in
Delta. Her responsibilities are to help
with the analysis and publication of
long-term seabird monitoring data col-
lected both from Triangle and Freder-
ick Islands. To date her efforts have
focused on Cassin’s Auklets, examin-
ing both how diet and reproductive
performance of this planktivore varies
spatially (within two distinct oceano-
graphic domains) and temporally, with
the goal of understanding the influence
of ocean climate change. BC has wit-
nessed extremely variable ocean cli-
mate conditions within the 1990s, and
this has provided a mechanism for ex-
amining how such changes might be
affecting the reproductive performance
of seabirds off BC’s south coast. Hedd
and Bertram plan to continue with
analysis of provisioning and growth
information, and, in collaboration with
DFO, to investigate Cassin's Auklet
prey selection at sea.

Mark Drever, Jean-Francois
Savard, Kevin Jager and Jennifer
Rock (SFU/CWS) returned to Freder-
ick island, QCl. Work conducted in
1998 suggested that Cassin's Auklets
were experiencing reduced survival
and reproductive performance. How-
ever, this year’s study indicates that the
Cassin’s population has returned to the
pre-97/98 El Nino levels. Burrow
occupancy rate was approximately
80% (-55% during 1998), and fledging
rate was again high in 2000 (nearly
90%). Data collected on survival (using
capture-mark-recapture techniques)
and nestling diet wait to be analysed
Tony Gaston (CWS) reports that
the usual monitoring of Ancient Mur-
relets continued at East Limestone Is-
land (QCl), where Janet Grey ran the
Laskeek Bay Conservation Society
camp, now in its eleventh year. At Reef
Island, 40% of the nest-boxes installed
in 1997 for Ancient Murrelets were
occupied. Stephanie Haziitt (CWS)
banded Black Oystercatchers on East
Limestone Island. Five breeding oys-
tercatchers had been banded on East
Limestone as chicks. On a welcome
note. Pelagic Cormorants bred in
Laskeek Bay for the first time since
1986.

Trudy Chatwin, Tanya Gies-
brecht, Terry Sullivan and Ian Moul
re-inventoried Double-crested and Pe-
lagic Cormorant colonies in the Strait
of Georgia. The last census (conducted
in 1987 by Kees Vermeer and Ken
Morgan) showed that both species
were increasing; however, recent work
points to major declines. Chatwin has
initiated a disturbance-monitoring
project to help determine causes of
colony failures.

Deborah Lacroix (SFU) recently
completed the field portion of a two-
year MSc study on the wintering ecol-
ogy of Surf Scoters in Howe Sound.
Her research consisted of determining
the Surf Scoter's role in shaping the
intertidal communities by investigating
the impact of scoter predation on mus-
sels. Scoter abundance and distribution
patterns were also monitored; these
patterns will be further investigated
using GIS map techniques to determine

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 76

REGIONAL REPORTS- Canada

habitat preference and link foraging
behavior to prey availability.

Ken Morgan (CWS) and Mike
Bentley continued at-sea surveys to
study the distribution of pelagic sea-
birds as related to oceanographic con-
ditions and prey availability, complet-
ing the i offshore survey of a 1,500-
km transect. Bill Sydeman (Pt. Reyes
Bird Observatory), David Hyrenbach
(Scripps Institution) and Morgan are
embarking on a study that will con-
tinue long-term at-sea survey data sets
from the California Current System to
identify biological “hotspots.” Morgan
spent July aboard a Coast Guard vessel
surveying seabirds between Victoria,
BC and Tuktoyaktuk, NWT.

Jen Zamon has taken a post-
doctoral fellowship from the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada (NSERC) to work
at the Pacific Marine Biological Labo-
ratory, DFO, in Nanaimo. She will join
David Welsh in a project on the rela-
tionships between marine productivity
and the survival of salmon in the
northeastern North Pacific Ocean.

Alan Burger and Andrea Law-
rence recently returned from a year
working on tropical seabirds in Sey-
chelles with BirdLife Seychelles and
are writing up the research completed
there.

Gary Kaiser retired from the
CWS in mid-September.

NORTH, EAST, AND INTERIOR
CANADA

Tony Gaston (CWS) and Mark
Hipfner visited Prince Leopold island
(Barrow Strait), as a pilot project for a
reappraisal of seabird status and ecol-
ogy at this important colony. Most sea-
bird populations there appeared un-
changed since the 1970s. They were
joined by Keith Hobson (CWS) who
is continuing his ecosystem studies in
the area, through stable isotope analy-
ses of seabird blood. Uli Steine and
Kerry Woo led teams banding Glau-
cous Gulls and Thick-billed Murres
and monitoring the feeding ecology of
Thick-billed Murres at Coats Island.
This project was disrupted by polar
bears which broke into the cabin over

the winter and later returned to eat
murre eggs on the cliffs. Mercifully,
the summer was cooler than the last
few years and no murres died from
mosquito attacks.

George Hunt’s laboratory (Uni-
versity of California, Irvine) is com-
pleting a study of marine bird use of
the North Water polynya between the
northwest coast of Greenland and
Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High
Arctic. Field work is complete and they
are now writing up. Nina Karnovsky
has recently completed her field work
on seabird foraging dynamics for this
project. She will be working next on
high-arctic seabirds around Svalbard
and Jan Mayen aboard the Polish
oceanographic sailboat Oceania.

Ian Jones’ camp at Gannet Island,
Labrador continued its fifth year of
operation, with PhD student Rosa n a
Paredes doing a comparative study of
auk foraging and diving behavior. MSc
student Brian Veitch investigated
Great Black-backed Gull predation on
other seabird species- Long-term for-
aging and demographic studies of Ra-
zorbills, Common and Thick-billed
Murres and Atlantic Puffins were con-
tinued by Johanne Dussureault,
Mark Button, Bobby Fokidis and
Jones.

Michel Robert (CWS), Francois
Shaffer (CWS), Chapdelaine and
members of Attention Frag’ lies sur-
veyed seabirds in the Magdelen Island,
Gulf of St. Lawrence. The objectives
were to determine the proportions of
Thick-billed and Common Murres
breeding at Bird Rocks and to estimate
the total population of the Razorbill (a
species of high concern in eastern At-
lantic Canada). Provisional estimates
for Thick-billed and Common Murres
are 580 and 3,700 pairs respectively.
The Razorbill population for the whole
archipelago was 1,668 pairs. The
Northern Gannet colony of Bird Rocks
is approximately 16,800 pairs and is
the second largest gannet colony in
North America. In general, seabird
population of the Magdelen Islands are
increasing, except for Common and
Arctic Terns.

Grant Gilchrist (CWS) was busy
working on waterfowl projects in
northern Canada. Gilchrist is leading
research on the survival and reproduc-
tive ecology of Common and King
Eider breeding at East Bay, South-
ampton Island, Nunavut. This project
will generate the first experimental and
behavioral data on the affects of energy
reserves on cider annual fecundity in
the Canadian Arctic. Other components
of the study include the influence of
internal parasites, heavy metal con-
taminants, and Herring Gull and polar
bear predation on adult survival and
annual reproduction. The team found
that most eiders banded at East Bay
winter in southwest Greenland. The
eiders are heavily parasitized and carry
high levels of selenium and cadmium.
Herring Gull predation is greatest dur-
ing egg-laying; however, polar bears,
which visited the colony in four of the
past five summers, have the greatest
impact on annual reproductive success.

Another of Gilchrist’s projects is
looking at winter ecology of Hudson
Bay Eiders in the J^her Islai^
son Bay. Other personnel include Greg
Robertson and Keith Hobson (CWS),
and James Lovvorn (University of
Wyoming). Hudson Bay Eiders (5. m.
sedentaria) winter in open water leads
near the Belcher Islands and off the
west coast of Quebec. Mass dieoffs
occur when large proportions . of the
population are concentrated in open
water leads that sometimes freeze. This
study is examining habitat use, body
condition, benthic communities on the
sea floor of polynyas, and diets of King
and Common Eiders wintering in the
Belcher Island during three consecutive
winters. Winter kill due to heavy sea
ice is a key component of the popula-
tion dynamics of this race. The birds
depend in winter on polynyas and ice
floe edges; polynyas act as temporary
refuges when floe-edge habitat does
not exist. Their diet consists of urchins,
mussels, sea cucumbers, and small
fish. Eiders that forage at polynyas are
heavily constrained by strong tidal cur-
rents, which prevent them from diving
for several hours each day.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 77

REGIONAL REPORTS - Canada

A number of population surveys
have been examining trends in Com-
mon Eiders breeding in northern and
eastern Canada. Jean-Pierre Savard,
Scott Gilliland, Greg Robertson,
Jean-Francois Rail, Gilles Fa-
lardeau, and Gilchrist (all of CWS) are
undertaking surveys of Common Eider
in the eastern Canadian Arctic, where
trend data do not exist for the species.
Trends have varied in other popula-
tions of Common Eiders in northern
Canada. The Hudson Bay population
breeding on Belcher Island has de-
clined by 70% since the late 1980s,
whereas the small Northern Common
Eider population breeding in the Dig-
ges Sound region has remained stable.
On four archipelagos in Ungava Bay,
where 48,000 pairs of Common Eiders
were estimated in 1980, populations on
3 either remained stable or increased
slightly, while the fourth has declined.
The Ungava Bay project was in coop-
eration with the Makivik Society. Her-
ring Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls,
Glaucous Gulls, and Black Guillemots
also were surveyed.

Molting and wintering areas of
Common Eiders that breed in the east-
ern Canadian Arctic and Greenland are
being located by satellite telemetry.
The international project includes Gil-
christ, Flemming Merkel (Greenland
Institute of Nature), Anders Mosbech
(Dept, of Arctic Environment, Den-
mark), and Knud Falk (Omis Consult,
Denmark) implanted satellite trans-
mitters in Common Eiders on their
Canadian nesting grounds and in eiders
captured along the west coast of
Greenland during late winter. Results
to date suggest that there appear to be
two populations of eiders wintering in
the Nuuk area of Greenland: one that
remains to breed in the area and an-
other that migrates to Canada. Of birds
wintering in the Nuuk region that mi-
grated into Canada, breeding sites
ranged widely throughout the high and
low Canadian Arctic.

Several veterinary projects are ex-
amining mortality factors in seabirds
and other waterbirds. Ted Leighton
[Canadian Co-operative Wildlife
Health Centre (CCWHC), Saskatoon)

reports that research is being conducted
by Roser Valarde on the prevalence
and significance of a circovirus found
in association with a small die-off of
nesting gulls in an urban centre. (Con-
tact: CCWHC, and Dept, of Pathobiol-
ogy, Ontario Veterinary College, Uni-
versity of Guelph). Monitoring of epi-
demic diseases on colonies of Double-
crested Cormorants and American
White Pelicans in the boreal forest
zone of Saskatchewan since 1994 has
found regular occurrence in cormorants
of both Newcastle disease (pa-
ramyxovirus 1) and avian cholera (in-
fection with the bacterium Pasteurella
multocida). Each disease has caused
very high mortality among young of
the year. Catherine Soos has com-
pleted two seasons of a three season
study of causes of mortality among
Franklin’s Gulls and the relationship of
such mortality to epidemics of avian
botulism in this and other species in the
same habitat. (Contact: CCWHC and
Dept, of Veterinary Pathology, Univer-
sity of Saskatchewan). Common Loons
and Northern Gannets have received
particular attention during diagnostic
work on causes of death in seabirds of
the Maritimes. Chronic lead poisoning
from ingestion of sinkers from fishing
lines has been identified as an impor-
tant cause of mortality in adult loons.
Mercury contamination and high levels
of intestinal parasitism by small tre-
matodes also were documented. An
experimental study of the effect of a
trematode Cryptocotyle lingua in Dou-
ble-crested Cormorants was recently
completed, in an attempt to develop a
model of this infection in Common
Loons

Mortality of Northern Gannets has
been studied since 1988 through ne-
cropsy of approximately 70 birds.
Some causes of death and disease that
have been identified include entangle-
ment in fishing nets, encephalitis (of
undetermined cause), severe ischemic
pododermatitis and cellulitis (also of
undetermined cause), sarcosporidiosis,
and acute trauma resulting possibly
from collision with the bottom during
feeding dives. (Contact: Pierre-Yves
Daoust; CCWHC, and Atlantic Veteri-

nary College, University of Prince Ed-
ward Island).

Steve Johnson (LGL Ltd., Sid-
ney) continued long-term studies of
waterfowl in Alaskan waters (see the
Alaska report).

Nationwide

Leah de Forest of the Canadian
Nature Federation (CNF) notes that
more than 1200 Important Bird Area
(IBA) sites have been nominated using
internationally agreed-upon criteria.
The IBA program is an international
initiative spearheaded by BirdLife In-
ternational, which seeks to identify and
conserve each nations’s most important
bird habitats. CNF and Bird Studies
Canada are the Canadian co-partners.
Conservation plans for over 100 sites
are now being written at the local level.
Many plans across the country cover
seabird and colonial waterbird sites,
including 30 seabird/seaduck sites in
Newfoundland and Labrador. The IBA
Community Action Fund (IBACAF)
awarded in excess of $165,000 to 47
community projects at IBA sites across
Canada; the deadline for the Spring
2001 IBACAF will be announced on
the IBA web site (http://www.-
ibacanada.com) this fall. For further
information about the IBA program,
contact Leah at Ideforest<gcnf.ca.

Fishery issues

Ken Morgan is working on a
system to obtain seabird bycatch data
from observers on commercial fishing
vessels in BC. He worked with the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
(DFO) and Joanna Smith to set up a
training program for observers and
developed a curriculum, so that the
observers can identify birds in bycatch,
record data, and salvage dead birds for
additional analyses. Ken coordinated
development of a seabird identification
guide for the observers. Partnerships
have been established with DFO and
fishing industry associations. Bob
Milko (CWS), John Chardine (CWS)
and Morgan met with staff of DFO to
push implementation of FAO’s Inter-
national Plan of Action to reduce the

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 78

REGIONAL REPORTS - Canada, Washington & Oregon

bycatch of seabirds in longline fisher-
ies.

Joanna is developing a research
project to examine seabird interactions
with fisheries in BC- She is planning
on starting a PhD in January 2001 to
examine seabird mortality in longline
and net fisheries. Earlier this year,
Smith attended the Conservation of
Arctic Flora and Fauna meeting, held
in Dartmouth, N.S., to discuss seabird
bycatch issues in Arctic countries, ex-
amine directions for future work, and
present the results of the training pro-
gram/curriculum she has developed.
Smith is a member of an informal re-
gional seabird bycatch working group
that has just been formed to address
seabird bycatch issues in BC. Future
plans with the working group include
summarizing the existing seabird by-
catch data and developing educational
and outreach materials.

Population genetics

Vicki Friesen (Queen’s Univer-
sity) and her lab are using molecular
methods to study population and con-
servation genetics of a variety of sea-
birds. They have completed a study of
population differentiation in kitti-
wakes. Gene flow among colonies of
Red-legged Kittiwakes is restricted,
suggesting they should be managed
separately. Atlantic and Pacific popu-
lations of Black-legged Kittiwakes are
distinct, in agreement with current tax-
onomy; gene flow among colonies in
the Atlantic is restricted, whereas Pa-
cific colonies are more homogeneous
(A. Patirana, S. Hatch and J. Char-
dine, unpubl.). They also finished a
genetic study of Common Murres from
throughout the North Atlantic, and
Thick-billed Murres from throughout
the Northern Hemisphere. Partially
analyzed data suggest that Atlantic and
Pacific populations of both species are
genetically distinct, that gene flow oc-
curs within each ocean basin, but that
genetic dines may exist (M. Damus,
unpubl.).

John Piatt (U.S. Geological Sur-
vey) and Friesen continue their mo-
lecular study to aid in the restoration of
murres, guillemots and murrelets to the

Gulf of Alaska after the Exxon Valdez
Oil Spill. These studies are wrapping
up and some preliminary analyses have
been performed. With the assistance of
numerous personnel from the U.S.
Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, and CWS, they col-
lected tissue or blood samples from
Common Murres, Marbled and Kit-
tlitz's Murrelets and Pigeon Guillemots
throughout the North Pacific. They
then compared variation in mitochon-
drial DNA, microsatellites and nuclear
introns. Gene flow in murres is gener-
ally high, and murres from different
regions are genetically similar (T. Birt,
K. Warheit and A. Patirana, unpubl.).
A high proportion of murres sampled
from the Gulf of Alaska represent the
descendants of hybridization between
Common and Thick-billed Murres (A.
Patirana, T. Birt, M. Damus and S.
Leung, unpubl.). Marbled Murrelets
from the Aleutian Islands are geneti-
cally different from those elsewhere,
possibly due to historical variance;
ground- and tree-nesting populations
do not appear to differ (Congdon et al.
2000, Evolution 54: 974). There was
no evidence of hybridization between
Marbled and Kittlitz's Murrelets (N.
Pacheco). Pigeon Guillemots from
different regions are genetically dis-
tinct, and gene flow in guillemots is
highly restricted (V. Poland and G.
Ibarguchi, unpubl.).

Friesen and colleagues compared
Blue-eyed Shags from several colonies
around the subantarctic, and found that
shags from Heard Island are distinct
from those from South Georgia and
Macquarie Island, and probably repre-
sent a separate species (S. Corbett and
N. Brothers, unpubl.) They initiated
population genetic studies of Masked
Boobies; preliminary results indicate
that populations from the Atlantic,
Caribbean, and central and eastern Pa-
cific are genetically distinct and proba-
bly represent cryptic species (T.
Steeves, D. Anderson, E.A. Schrei-
ber, and H. Jones, submitted). And
they initiated a study of Band-rumped
Storm-Petrels; preliminary results indi-
cate that populations breeding during
the spring versus fall in the Atlantic

Islands are reproductively isolated and
probably represent cryptic species (L.
Monteiro, R. Furness, A. Smith, G.
Ibarguchi, and V. Lodha, unpubl.).

WASHINGTON AND
OREGON

Summarized by Roy W. Lowe

Washington— Marbled
Murrelets

Shelley Hall and staff at Olympic
National Park, with assistance from the
Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife (WDFW), conducted weekly
surveys at Heart of the Hills Camp-
ground during the entire Marbled Mur-
relet breeding season. They hope to
document any murrelet use outside of
the traditional protocol survey season.
They selected this site because of con-
sistent high levels of activity over the
past several years. They are analyzing
data from a two-year (1998/1999)
study of murrelet use in pristine and
developed areas within the park. In
addition, they are comparing activity
levels in the park with activity in more
intensively managed areas of the
Olympic Peninsula. Plans for the 2(K)1
survey season include assisting with
inland surveys covering all suitable
murrelet habitat within San Juan Na-
tional Historical Park in the San Juan
Islands of Washington. This will be an
interesting survey project for two rea-
sons: 1) Although murrelets are often
observed on the waters in the San
Juans, no inland surveys have ever
been conducted. 2) The habitat in the
park, although suitable, is not what is
traditionally thought of as murrelet
habitat.

William Ritchie of Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife
(WDFW) discovered and verified the
first active nest to be found in Wash-
ington since 1997, at a site in south-
west Washington. This nest was ex-
pected to fledge during the last week of
August. Ritchie, Deanna Lynch of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) and Tom Kogut (USDA

Pacific Seabirds* Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 79

REGIONAL REPORTS - Washington & Oregon

Forest Service), following information
provided by a biologist surveying for
Spotted Owls, documented murrelet
presence at a site on the Gifford
Pinchot National Forest in Skamania
County. At more than 1 12 km (70 mi),
this is the farthest inland
detection in the state at present, and it
may turn out to be the farthest-inland
site documented in North America.
Additional surveys are planned for next
year.

WDFW personnel continued
conservation work on murrelet
breeding habitat by reviewing Forest
Practice Applications and survey
protocol compliance for sites where
surveys are required under state
regulations. Private timberland owners
are given assistance with interpretation
of protocols and regulations, habitat
assessment, survey design, survey
training, and landscape planning. They
also are helped with survey personnel
for sites involving special or complex
situations, and they get assistance with
survey and habitat data information
management. About 20 WDFW
biologists have contributed to these
activities during the past year.

Ritchie and Shelley Hall (Olympic
National Park) began work on a
statewide cooperative monitoring
survey project involving sites in
different physiographic provinces
under different land management
types. Surveys are being conducted
weekly from late March to mid
September at two nest sites with very
high detection levels to document
activity during the entire breeding
season. Results are expected to be
useful in verifying protocol survey
season recommendations, for managing
projects with possible disturbance
potential in or near suitable habitats,
documenting regional differences in
the timing of murrelet breeding activity
within the state, and may aid in
determining the success of the breeding
effort prior to initiation of the standard
survey season. Discussion with
additional cooperators is ongoing and
in the future may include the
Washington Department of Natural

Resources, US DA Forest Service , and
the Wi I lapa National Wildlife Refuge.

Martin Raphael, Diane Evans
Mack, and Randall Wilk of the
USDA Forest Service’s Pacific
Northwest Research Station in
Olympia, Washington, continued
several collaborative studies on
Marbled Murrelets in Puget Sound and
Hood Canal during 2000. Along with
researchers elsewhere in Washington,
Oregon, and northern California, we
initiated the pilot year of long-term
population monitoring of murrelets
under the Northwest Forest Plan, using
a standardized marine survey design
that was developed over the last several
years. We surveyed the San Juan
Islands to Olympia in Puget Sound,
which represents a portion of Zone I as
defined by USFWS’s Marbled
Murrelet Recovery Plan. Martin
Raphael and Jeff Laake of NOAA
developed an analytical design for the
transect-based survey data using
program DISTANCE coupled with
additional software to estimate mean
density of birds from each target
population in each recovery zone. We
also continued to collect baseline data
on within-season and annual changes
in distributions, densities, and
productivity indices of murrelets in the
San Juan Island archipelago. Numbers
of murrelets observed on systematic
surveys in 2000 were the lowest since
1996 for sampling periods in early
May, early June, late June, and mid-
July. Similarly, numbers of murrelets
observed on Hood Canal transects were
lower in 2000 than 1998 and 1999 for
June and July samples, although higher
in August. Density and productivity
estimates were not available as of this
writing.

In collaboration with Brian
Cooper of ABR, Inc., we conducted a
third year of radar sampling at 10 large
drainages around the Olympic
Peninsula to determine if the level of
murrelet activity can be correlated with
the distribution and landscape
configuration of potentially suitable
nesting habitat defined at a broad scale.
We added simultaneous sampling at a
subset sites to test radar coverage. With

John Marziuff of the University of
Washington (UW), we completed the
fifth and final year of an assessment of
the effects of landscape and stand
features on the predation risk of
artificial murrelet nests on the western
Olympic Peninsula. This study was
also funded by WDNR, Rayonnier
Timber Co., USFWS, and NCASI. Our
focus now is on developing new
models that will relate predicted
occupancy (probability of nesting) and
risk of predation (nesting success) to
habitat features at the stand and
landscape scales.

Work continues on developing a
map of potential murrelet nesting
habitat for Western Washington
Cascades and the Olympic Peninsula.
This habitat map will be derived from a
region-wide vegetation map being
developed by the Forest Service and
Bureau of Land Management in
support of monitoring efforts
throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Washington — other species

The Puget Sound Ambient
Monitoring Program (PSAMP) is a
state and federal interagency effort in
Washington that monitors various
components of the inner marine waters
of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, San Juan
Islands and Georgia Basin, Puget
Sound proper. David Nysewander,
Joe Evenson, Bryan Murphie, and
Tom Cyra are continuing several
monitoring studies associated with the
marine bird component of PSAMP.
Winter aerial surveys of marine birds
and waterfowl were conducted again in
December 1999 and January 2000.
Data and map products in ARC GIS
format for winter and summer surveys
from 1992 through 2000 are available
through the Wildlife Resources Data
Section of WDFW (contact Shelly
Snyder at 360-902-2483). Restricted
funding has led to the discontinuation
of the summer aerial surveys for now,
but the 2000-2001 winter aerial
surveys will be continued, in part due
to concern about the decreasing trends
seen recently for many of the diving
ducks and other key marine species
like Western Grebes.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 80

REGIONAL REPORTS - Washington & Oregon

Pigeon Guillemots were surveyed
at breeding sites for the second year in
May 2000 by WDFW’s PSAMP
program, USFWS, and volunteer
groups. This year the boat-based
surveys used standardized protocol and
timing at all sites. Colonies checked
last year were resurveyed, and a few
missed last year were added, such
those in the western Strait of Juan de
Fuca. The collaborative effort is
expected to last at least a three to five
years.' Contact Joe Evenson at 360-
902-2524 for further information. The
PSAMP team will also participate in a
pilot project during June 2001,
collaborating with a number of ground-
based volunteer observers, which will
evaluate the feasibility of monitoring
great blue herons from aerial surveys
of their marine feeding areas in
northern Puget Sound.

Jen Zamon completed her
doctoral thesis in spring 2000 on the
foraging ecology of marine birds and
seals in Cattle Pass of the San Juan
Islands, Washington.

Julia Parrish’s lab (UW) spent a
busy year in pursuit of both live and
dead birds. For the third year in a row
they studied factors affecting
reproductive phenology and success of
Common Murres nesting at Yaquina
Head in Newport, Oregon (see Oregon
section). Murre population data were
also collected at Tatoosh Island, off the
NW tip of Cape Flattery in WA, for the
tenth consecutive year. The field crew
included Julia Parrish, Andrew
Richards, Valerie Sloane, Colin
French, Nathalie Hamel, Libby
Logerwell, and Jen Szucs. Eagle
pressure is much higher at this colony
than at Yaquina Head and continues to
rise annually. As a result, reproductive
success of all surface nesters, including
murres, cormorants, and gulls, has been
depressed to non-existent. Eagles
frequented many murre nesting areas
early in the season, causing the murres
to abandon their eggs. For pairs
making it through this bottleneck,
however, chick fledging was near
100%. Chicks were fed mostly Pacific
herring and surf smelt.

Eighteen adult murres were radio-
marked in the second year of a study to
determine foraging distribution and the
pattern of dispersal along the outer
coast and into Puget Sound.
Movements were similar to last year;
the majority of tagged birds headed
east down the Strait of Juan de Fuca
and into the Sound. Nathalie Hamel
spent the remainder of the summer and
fall flying Washington’s waters in
search of signals. The project depended
on the able assistance of four wildlife
veterinarians, who volunteered for the
project: Bob Whitney, John

Huckabee, Darlene Deghetto, and
Heidi Zurawka.

Deborah Jaques (USFWS,
Willapa NWR) is continuing her
research on Brown Pelican use of roost
sites in southwest Washington. This is
part of a long-term agreement with the
Washington Dept, of Transportation to
monitor impacts of a highway erosion
control project at the north end of
Willapa Bay. As predicted by some
engineers, a sand island at the mouth of
the bay eroded entirely within two
years of project implementation. The
island was one of the key Brown
Pelican roost sites in the Pacific
Northwest. Overall use of Willapa Bay
by Brown Pelicans decreased in 2000
in response to roost site loss, while use
of roosts in the surrounding estuaries,
the Columbia River (East Sand Island),
and Gray's Harbor (Sand Island)
increased. USFWS is working on
means to protect the remaining critical
roost sites.

Libby Logerwell, who recently
joined the extended lab as a post-doc
under the Pacific Northwest Coastal
Ecosystems Regional Study
(PNCERS), has been applying her
bioenergetic expertise to examine the
effect that piscivorous seabirds have on
the nearshore environment of the
eastern Pacific. Together with Julia
Parrish and assisted by Lia Stamatiou,
Libby has been collecting and collating
data on diets and on at-sea and colony
diversity and abundance for seabirds
from southern California to British
Columbia. Many people have
contributed time and data to this effort.

Back-of-the-envelope calculations
indicate that in the 1990’s seabirds
consumed 220-300 thousand metric
tons offish annually.

During 1999-2000, volunteers hit
the beaches of Washington and Oregon
surveying for beached birds. The
Coastal Observation and Seabird
Survey Team (COASST) program is
run by Todd Hass and Julia Parrish.
With assistance by volunteer
coordinators Mary Sue Brancato and
Valerie Sloane, COASST volunteers
started collecting data in December of
1999. Thirty-two volunteers now
survey 17 beaches from Newport, OR
north to Neah Bay, WA on the outer
coast. In addition, volunteers now
survey Dungeness Spit in the Strait of
Juan de Fuca and five of the San Juan
Islands. COASST Reports ‘99-‘00 was
sent to volunteers and natural resource
agencies in August 2000. You can get
your own copy in PDF format at
http://depts.washington.edu/coasst/, or
a hard copy from COASST, School of
Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, Box
355020, University of Washington,
Seattle, WA 98195-5020; or email
coasst@u.washington.edu. Hass and
Parrish are just finishing Beached
Birds: A COASST Field Guide, due out
in late 2000.

Ed Melvin (Washington Sea
Grant) and Julia Parrish spent a second
year in Alaskan waters studying
methods to reduce seabird bycatch in
the North Pacific longline fisheries (see
Alaska report).

Magellanic Penguins still are the
core research area for Dee Boersma.
She is continuing her work at Punta
Tombo, Argentina and is also working
on New island South in the Falkland
Islands studying the foraging area of
breeding Magellanic, Rockhopper and
Gentoo penguins. In June working with
Patricia Majiuf, and Nigel la
Hillgarth they used satellite tags to
track breeding Humboldt Penguins at
Punta San Juan, Peru.

Oregon— LOWER Columbia
River

The interagency Caspian Tern
Working Group is attempting to move

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 8 1

REGIONAL REPORTS - Washington & Oregon

the large Caspian Tern colony from
Rice Island to East Sand Island (13
miles closer to the ocean)» where it was
hoped they will consume fewer
juvenile salmonids. The Rice Island
colony has been the largest Caspian
Tern colony in the world for several
years, and it has recently become the
object of considerable controversy
because it consumes of millions of
salmonids annually. The Caspian Tern
Working Group includes the National
Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, USFWS, Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
(ODFW), and WDFW. The primary
management action planned by the
Working Group for 2000 was to
completely relocate the Rice Island
colony to East Sand Island.

The effort to relocate the tern
colony is being ^monitored through
research on predation by Caspian
Terns, Double-crested Cormorants, and
Western/Glaucous- winged Gulls on
listed salmonids in the Columbia River
estuary and lower Columbia River.
This year’s research team included
Dan Roby, Ken Collis, David Craig,
Don Lyons, Jessica Adkins, Bobby
Begay, Cindy Anderson, Scott
Anderson, Michelle Antolos, and a
number of seasonal technicians and
volunteers. The team is a joint
endeavor of Oregon State University
(OSU), the Columbia River Inter-
Tribal Fish Commission, and Real
Time Research.

About 1,400 pairs of Caspian
Terns nested on East Sand Island in
1999. Relocation work began in 2000
when about 4 acres of bare-sand
nesting habitat were restored in late
March. Tern decoys, audio playback
systems, fnd selective gull removal
were used to encourage terns to nest
agairi on the site. The U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers hired a crew to haze terns
attempting to nest on Rice Island, but a
temporary restraining order requested
by Seattle Audubon, National
Audubon, American Bird
Conservancy, and Defenders of
Wildlife prevented any disturbance of
the Rice Island tern colony throughout
the 2000 breeding season.

Nevertheless, over 90% of Caspian
Terns shifted from Rice Island to East
Sand Island for nesting. About 9,456
pairs of terns nested at the restored
East Sand Island colony, compared to
only 580 pairs on Rice Island. This
represents about a 10% increase in the
total number of Caspian Terns nesting
in the Columbia River estuary
compared to last year.

Only 90 young were fledged at the
Rice Island tern colony this season,
compared to over 4,000 last season.
Intense predation pressure by
Glaucous-winged/Western Gulls on
tern eggs and chicks was the primary
reason for poor productivity at the Rice
Island colony this year. Gull predation
of tern eggs and chicks was rare on
East Sand Island, however, and nesting
success on was good with over 6,000
young fledged this season. The Rice
Island terns continued to rely mostly
on juvenile salmonids as a food supply
(91% of prey items). The terns nesting
on East Sand Island foraged more in
marine and brackish-water habitats
than did the terns nesting on Rice
Island, and the diet of East Sand Island
terns was 44% salmonids, or less than
half the salmonids that were consumed
by terns nesting on Rice Island.

This year was the first in which we
attempted to place unique
combinations of colored leg bands on
adult and fledgling Caspian Terns.
Over 600 adults and over 400
fledglings were color-banded. If you
sight a color-banded Caspian Tern,
please try to record the color
combination of plastic bands on the
right and left leg, and inform one of the
members of the research crew listed
above.

The interagency Caspian Tern
Working Group will attempt again in
2001 to prevent any nesting by Caspian
Terns on Rice Island. There is pressure
from some agencies that are members
of the Working Group to reduce the
size of the East Sand Island tern colony
in 2001 as well. The only other known
Caspian Tern colony along the coast of
Oregon and Washington in 2000 was a
colony of 600-800 pairs nesting at the
Asarco superfund site near Tacoma,

Washington. Asarco has stated its
intent to prevent any nesting by
Caspian Terns on the TacOma colony
site in 2001. The State of Washington
has no plans to restore or enhance
breeding colonies of Caspian Terns
anywhere in the state.

The Double-crested Cormorant
colony on East Sand Island in the
Columbia River estuary remained
approximately stable this year. This is
still the largest known breeding colony
of the species on the Pacific Coast of
the U.S. and Canada. Because this
cormorant population has consumed
millions of juvenile salmonids in each
of the last three years, pressure is
building from fish managers to reduce
this major seabird colony as well.

Oregon — other areas

In September, David Pitkin and
Eric Nelson (USFWS) conducted an
aerial survey of Brown Pelicans along
the Oregon coast in coordination with a
similar survey conducted by Deborah
Jaques, Nanette Seto and Ulrich
Wilson in Washington. It was found
that use of roosts in the Columbia
River (East Sand Island), among other
places, increased as roost sites were
lost in Willapa Bay (see Washington
section).

Roy Lowe and David Pitkin
(USFWS, Oregon Coast National
Wildlife Refuge Complex) continued
seabird monitoring projects during the
summer of 2000. Aerial photographic
surveys were conducted of all
Common Murre and Brandt's
Cormorant colonies and most Double-
crested Cormorant colonies along the
Oregon coast. The number of murres
present at most colonies along the
Oregon south coast appeared to be high
again this year and chick production
appeared to be good. Along the north
coast things were different due to
intense colony disturbance by Bald
Eagles. From Yaquina Head north the
production of young was low and some
colonies had completely abandonment
nesting attempts by mid-June. Two
new estuarine Double-crested
Cormorant colonies were discovered
again this year including one in

Pacific Seabirds * Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 82

REGIONAL REPORTS - Washington & Oregon

Lincoln County there is no previous
record of nesting by this species.
Pelagic Cormorant nesting attempts at
17 colonies near Newport, were
recorded again this year. The number
of Pelagic Cormorants nesting at these
colonies was the third lowest total
recorded since 1988.

For the third year in a row, Julia
Parrish’s laboratory at UW monitored
reproductive phenology and success of
Common Murres nesting at Yaquina
Head in Newport, OR, as well as the
factors affecting these population
parameters. This year Nathalie Hamel
and Colin French spent April through
mid-July in the lighthouse monitoring
the colony. The year 2000 was the
most successful since they started
monitoring in 1998. More murres
nested at Yaquina than in either
previous year. At the same time, more
eagles frequented the area, and eagle
predation and associated disturbance
was higher. Murre chick diet was
composed of mainly surf smelt and
sandlance. Courtesy of the eagles,
which drop murre carcasses on the
nearby beach, they’ve also begun a
stable isotope study to find out whether
murres really are what they eat,

Jan Hodder and students at the
Oregon Institute of Marine Biology
monitored Pelagic Cormorant nesting
success at the nearby colony on Cape
Arago for the 25th consecutive year.
Productivity was a little above the 25
year mean, but only 13 nests were
constructed (25 year mean = 33). In
addition, they initiated monitoring on a
second Pelagic Cormorant nesting site,
the Coos Bay South Jetty cliffs where
30 nests were built this year.

Kim Nelson of the Oregon
Cooperative Fish and Wildlife
Research Unit at OSU continued her
research on murrelets in Oregon and
Japan. In Oregon, she currently has
three projects ongoing. She continues
her habitat modeling work in western
Oregon with the Coastal Landscape
Analysis and Modeling Study
(CLAMS) and the Effectiveness
Monitoring program. By spring 2001,
she hopes to provide predictive models
of Marbled Murrelet habitat and a

murrelet habitat map for the Coast
Range Province. Model validation will
continue in 2001 and 2002. This
project is being funded by the USDA
Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest
Research Station in Corvallis (in
cooperation with Tom Spies),
USFWS, and the Bureau of Land
Management. Nelson also completed a
project looking at Marbled Murrelet
habitat selection in the Coast Range
using aerial photo interpretation, in
cooperation with Bill Ripple of the
Environmental Remote Sensing
Applications Laboratory at OSU. They
compared forest type and
fragmentation variables at stand and
landscape scales between a set of nest
and random sites. A manuscript is in
preparation. Funding for this project
was provided by the USFWS. A new
project, also funded by the USFWS,
was initiated to begin to look at
murrelet use of sub-optimal habitat.
The key question to be answered in this
“Gray Habitat Project” is whether
murrelets are using even-aged forests
with very few remnant old-growth
trees or other trees with platforms.
Surveys during this first pilot year
yielded only one detection in gray
habitat. Field assistance was provided
by Amy Ellingson and Cheron
Ferland. The project was supervised
by Mandy Wilson.

Kim also continued her research
on Long-billed Murrelets in Japan (see
Pacific Rim report).

The new Monitoring Plan
sampling design was used by Craig
Strong and Terry Carten (Crescent
Coastal Research) to conduct at-sea
surveys of Marbled Murrelets and
other seabirds throughout Oregon from
June through August. Murrelet
abundance appeared similar to recent
years. Indices of fledgling productivity
were relatively high for murrelets and
other alcids, reflecting the strong
upwelling and primary productivity
seen along the west coast in this cool-
water year. A draft report for this year’s
work should be available through
ODFW (Wildlife Division, Portland)
by December.

Two long-term beached-bird
surveys were repeated in Lincoln
County, Oregon. Roy Lowe reports
that the 14th consecutive beached bird
mortality study was conducted from
June through September on 7.1 km of
beach located between Seal Rock and
Alsea Bay. Mortality this year was low
throughout the study period; only one
small pulse of hatching-year murre
chicks washed ashore.

On December 31, 1999, Bob
Loeffel completed the 22nd year of
beached bird mortality surveys on the
Oregon central coast. This survey is
conducted on 4.6 miles of Lincoln
County beach south of Newport,
between Beaver Creek and Henderson
Creek. Assisting Bob on the surveys
again were Shirley Loeffel, Sara
Brown and Laimons Osis. Surveys
were conducted throughout the year at
intervals of 8 days or less. The
following is a summary for calendar
year 1999.

In 1999, 785 birds were recovered
during the surveys of which 393 were
Common Murre chicks. The murre i
chick total is near the 21 -year average,
signaling increased production of - ,
murre chicks for the first time in many
years. Aside from murre chicks,
recoveries were low for the 3rd year in
a row (392, compared with an average
of 469 during the first 20 years of the
survey). The species of greatest
number were adult murres (77) and
Northern Fulmars (45). About half of
adult murre moralities were found in
July and August, coincident with heavy
murre chick mortality. Only 4 C^sin’s
Auklets were found, which equals the
lowest count on record and is far below
the 20-year average (89). Adult
Rhinoceros Auklet mortality was ■
especially notable in March (13) and
December (12). interestingly, both of
these occurrences took place shortly
after oil spills: the New Carissa second
grounding in March and the Blue
Heather sinking in December. Survey
effort was increased to daily
observations from late February
through March as part of the j

Carissa oil spill response. Other ;
findings of note included: 8 Common

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 83

REGIONAL REPORTS - Washington & Oregon, Northern California

Loons in February, which is more than
combined numbers for the previous 21
February counts; 5 Black-footed and 1
Laysan Albatross; an unusual number
of Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels (37); 2
Parakeet Auklets; and, for the first
time, a Turkey Vulture and an
American Coot.

Other beached-bird work in
Oregon was carried out by the
COASST program (see Washington
section).

Maura Naughton was recently
selected to fill the newly created
seabird and shorebird biologist position
in the USFWS regional office in
Portland, Oregon. Maura has previous
experience working with seabirds in
Alaska, Hawai’i and southern
California. Most recently, she served as
the wildlife ^biologist for the
Willamette Valley National Wildlife
Refuges where she completed her
master’s thesis on Dusky Canada
Geese.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Summarized by Kyra Mills

Several projects are continuing on
the Farallon islands and in adjacent
waters. Kyra Mills, Williani
Sydeman, Christine Abraham,
Nadav Nur, Peter Pyle, Jeriy
Nusbaum, Natalia Collier and Adam
Brown of Point Reyes Bird
Observatory (PRBO) are continuing
their long-term monitoring and
ecosystem study on the islands. They
are looking at the effects of climate
variability and change on the
population dynamics, demography and
feeding ecology of 12 species of
seabirds and 5 species of pinnipeds.
The study just completed its 31st year
of data collection, in cooperation with
Joelle Buffa of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.

Jan Roletto (Gulf of the
Farallones National Marine Sanctuary)
and Joe Mortenson of the Farallones
Marine Sanctuary Association (FMSA)
are assessing population indices for

birds and mammals through shoreline
monitoring. They are also involved in
shoreline monitoring of beached birds
and mammals as well as chronic oil
pollution. Cooperators are Leslie
Grella and Maria Brown (FMSA),

A long-term study of the
distribution and abundance of seabirds
in the Gulf of the Farallones is
continuing under Sarah G. Allen
(National Park Service) and D. G.
Ainley (HT Harvey & Associates) The
study, which started in 1985, also
includes assessment and and modeling
of habitat associations. Cooperators are
Hannah Nevins and Carol Keiper
(MLML) Ainley also is working with
Larry Spear (HT Harvey &
Associates) in studying the effects of
disposal of dredged materials on
marine birds and mammal habitat 20
miles west of the Farallon Islands.
Collaborators are the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers and the Tiburon
Environmental Center.

The distribution and relative
abundance of seabirds in Monterey
Bay and the Santa Barbara Channel are
being monitored for the fifth year by
Scott Benson of Moss Landing Marine
Laboratories (MLML) and Don Croll
of the University of California at Santa
Cruz (UCSC), in collaboration with
Baldo Marinovic (UCSC) and James
Harvey (MLML). The project focuses
on abiotic and biotic factors that are
related to seabird distribution. S.
Benson, J. Harvey, and Andrew De
Vogelaere (Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary) are also conducting
a long-term monitoring effort of
beachcast marine birds and mammals
within the Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary. Monitoring began in
1997 and also includes the active
participation of Hannah Nevins
(MLML), Dave Jessup and Melissa
Chechowitz of the California
Department of Fish and Game (CDFG)
Oil Spill Prevention and Response
office.

Recolonization of Devil’s Slide
Rock continues to be successful under
the Common Murre Restoration
Project, with 98 pairs of breeding
murres in 2000. The project, which is

in its 5th year, also includes San Pedro
Rocks and the Castle/Hurricane Point
Complex. Personnel are Mike Parker
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and Humboldt State University (HSU),
Harry Carter and Rick Golightly
(HSU), and Steve Kress (National
Audubon Society), with the help of
Christine Hamilton, Tory Slowik,
Hugh Knechtel, Ingrid Harrald,
Marty Murphy, Holly Gellerman,
and Hannah Nevins (all from HSU
and San Francisco Bay National
Wildlife Refuge Complex). Monitoring
of murres and Brandt’s Cormorants
also continued at the Point Reyes
Headlands.

Karin Forney of the Southwest
Fisheries Science Center, National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is
working with Don Petersen
(Southwest Region, NMFS) to assess
the bycatch of marine birds and
mammals in the halibut set gillnet
fishery in Monterey Bay and adjacent
nearshore waters. This study is part of
a NMFS Observer program and results
indicate that mortality of seabirds,
especially Common Murres, is high.
The mortality estimate of Common
Murres during the 1999 fishing season
was as high as 2,359, and observer data
for January to June 2000 indicate that
581 murres and 2 cormorants were
incidentally killed during 44 observed
days of fishing effort.

Monitoring of populations and
productivity of Marbled Murrelets
from Half Moon Bay to Monterey Bay
is in its sixth year under Ben Becker
and Zach Peery, both Ph.D.
candidates, and professor Steve
Beissinger, all of the University of
California at Berkeley. Additional
aspects of this study include at-sea
murrelet habitat selection relative to
prey distribution and oceanographic
conditions, as well as seasonal and
annual variation s in murrelet diet.

Craig Strong (Crescent Coastal
Research) completed a second year of
at-sea surveys of Marbled Murrelets
along the Mendocino and Sonoma
coast, in cooperation with Lynn
Roberts (USFWS, Areata), Esther
Burkett, Martin Hauan, and Dennis

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 84

REGIONAL REPORTS - Northern California, Southern California

Mclver (CDFG), and Leigh
Detwelller, Sherri Miller, and C.J.
Ralph (USDA Forest Service,
Redwood Sciences Laboratory).
Results, using a recently developed
sampling design under the Northwest
Forest Plan Effectiveness Monitoring
Program, supported earlier survey
findings of very low numbers but
consistent presence of murrelets at
certain locations north of Salt Point
State Park.

Sal Chinnici of the Pacific
Lumber Company (PALCO) and Dave
Bigger (Sustainable Ecosystem
Institute) are leading a study on
monitoring of the Marbled Murrelet as
part of PALCO’s recently approved
Habitat Conservation Plan. Part of this
monitoring is a commitment to
regional murrelet research to be carried
out over a ten-year period. Most of the
research funding and efforts this year
have gone into research on murrelet
numbers and habitat use. Another
Marbled Murrelet study focuses on the
forest occupancy patterns in relation to
timer harvest operations in the Santa
Cruz Mountains (San Mateo County)
and is led by David Suddjian of
Suddjian Biological Consulting
Services in collaboration with Jeff
Davis (UCSC), Laird Henkel
(MLML) and Bryan Mori (Mori
Biological Consulting Services).

Ron LeValley (Mad River
Biologists) and Howard Sakai
(Redwood National Park) have
completed their first year of a two-year
survey effort for Marbled Murrelets in
residual redwood forest stands within
Redwood National Park. Ron also is in
this eighth year of training inland
surveyors.

In the San Francisco Bay area,
Julie Thayer, Ben Saenz and William
Sydeman (ail of PRBO), along with
Daphne Hatch (Golden Gate National
Recreation Area), completed their
fourth consecutive year of monitoring
selected seabird species on Alcatraz
Island. They are establishing baseline
information on the distribution,
abundance, and productivity of
Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants,
Western Gulls, Pigeon Guillemots, and

Black Oystercatchers, and assessing
the extent and effects of disturbance.

Mark Rauzon of Marine
Endeavors is studying Double-crested
Cormorants nesting on the Richmond-
San Rafael Bridge. His collaborators
are Meredith Elliott, Jen Roth, and
Bill Sydeman (PRBO), The season’s
highlight was an 1 8-year old cormorant
that had been banded on the Farallon
Islands, which attempted to breed on
the bridge (but failed). The research is
funded by Caltrans. Rauzon also
worked on predator eradication on
numerous remote islands (see Alaska
and Pacific Rim reports).

Nesting activity of the endangered
California Least Tern colony on
Alameda Point (formerly the Naval Air
Station, Alameda) is being monitored
by Meredith Elliot and William J.
Sydeman (PRBO), in collaboration
with Michael Stroud (Naval Facilities
Engineering Command), Timothy
Burr (Wildlife Biologist, Naval
Facilities Engineering Command), and
Cornell Brown (Facilities Manager,
Alameda Point).

Breeding and foraging ecology of
seven seabird species at Vandenburg
Air Force Base in Lompoc are being
studied by Adam Brown, Dan
Robinette and Natalia Collier (all
from PRBO). The work focuses on
population and breeding dynamics,
foraging dynamics of nearshore
feeding flocks, and diet composition
and feeding rates of Pigeon
Guillemots, The second season of field
work has been completed. Nancy
Read (Head Biologist at Vandenburg)
is a collaborator for this project.

Craig Strong, Deborah Jaques,
and Brad Keitt conducted aerial
Brown Pelican surveys of north and
central California in fall 2000 with
support from CDFG (Paul Kelly, Gill
Spill Prevention and Response
program) and the American Trader
Restoration Council. Combined with
survey coverage by USGS researchers
Harry Carter, BUI Mclver, and
Gerry McChesney, this will provide a
statewide census of the species during
the peak post-breeding dispersal
period.

Scott Newman of the University
of California at Davis, Wildlife Health
Center (UCD/WHC) is evaluating the
post-release survival and behavior of
rehabilitated Common Murres. The
birds were oiled in the Stuyvesant spill
that occurred in Humboldt Bay in
September 1999. Collaborators are
Jonna Mazet (UCD/WHC), Rick
Golightly (HSU), Harry Carter of
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and
HSU. Scott also is evaluating the
biological and behavioral effects of
several different radio-telemetry
attachment techniques on captive
murres. This study is being conducted
on captive murres at the Alaska
SeaLife Center, Seward, Alaska, .along
with Scott Hatch (USGS, Anchorage)
and Susan Ingles (Alaska SeaLife
Center).

David Ainley and Cynthia Tynan
of Coast and Ocean, National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), Seattle are
investigating the life history of salmon
at sea through studies of their ■
competitors and main prey. This study
also focuses on ocean processes that
concentrate prey and allow for more
efficient foraging by upper trophic
level predators. Collaborators include
about 15 other marine scientists,
mostly from the NOAA lab in
Newport, Oregon.

Daniel Costa and postdoctoral
fellow Scott Shaffer (UCSC) are in
the third year of a study on foraging
ecology, energetics, and life history of
albatrosses in the southern Indian
Ocean (see Pacific Rim report).

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Summarized by Pat Mock

Xantus’ Murrelet studies are
continuing at Anacapa Island. Project
leaders are Darrell Whitworth and
Harry Carter (Humboldt State
University), Doug Meekins and Tom
Hamer (Hamer Consulting), Frank
Gress (California Institute of
Environmental Studies), and Sarah
Fangman (Channel Islands National

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 85

REGIONAL REPORTS - Southern California

Marine Sanctuary). Baseline data are
being collected in 2000 in preparation
for proposed rat eradication. Methods
include radar counts of birds attending
potential nesting areas, at-sea captures,
vocalization and spotlight surveys, and
nest monitoring in sea caves. Data are
being compared between Santa Barbara
and Santa Catalina islands.

Julie Thayer, Ben Saenz and
William Sydeman (all from Point
R^yes Bird Observatory), in
conjunction with Gary Strachan (Aho
Nuevo State Reserve, California
Department of Parks and Recreation),
completed their ninth field season
studying the population of Rhinoceros
Auklets on Ario Nuevo Island. The
goals of this project are to assess
population status, reproductive
performance, and food habits of this
recovering species. Management
efforts have involved protection and
enhancement of habitat,
implementation of an Island Research
Protocol, and installation of nest boxes.

Craig Strong and Deborah
Jaques, assisted by Brad Keitt and
Laird Henkel, have been evaluating
Brown Pelican use of roost sites in
southern California to provide updated
information for the development and
implementation of restoration projects
as part of the American Trader oil spill
settlement.

Charlie Collins* seabird projects
center on demographic studies of Black
Skimmers nesting in coastal Southern
California. Some work with Least,
Caspian and Elegant Terns also
continues. An MS thesis on growth of
Elegant Terns is nearing completion
and a study of locally nesting Black-
necked Stilts is starting. Charlie also is
cooperating in studies of the food
habits of locally nesting terns and
skimmers being done by Mike Horn
and his students at California State
University Fullerton. Lots of other
studies are being done on Island Scrub-
Jays and Swifts.

Pat Mock is overseeing surveys of
South Salton Sea wildlife, including
various waterbirds. He is also very
active in regional conservation

planning programs in Southern
California and the Florida Keys.

George Hunt’s laboratory at
University of California, Irvine (UCI)
is completing two major projects on
ecosystem relationships of marine
birds at sea: marine bird use of a
polynya between Greenland and
Ellesmere Island (see Canada report)
and productivity and shearwater
feeding in the Bering Sea (see Alsaka
report). Fieldwork for both of these
studies is complete and we are now in
the write-up phase. Hunt has received
funding for a study of inter-decadal
variation in the ecology of upper
trophic levels at the Pribilof Islands
(see Alaska report). A number of
Hunt’s students are collaborators on
these projects and are involved on
independent studies of their own, as
described below.

Cheryl Baduini received her PhD
from UCI in spring 2000 on the
foraging ecology of shearwateia in the
Bering Sea. She has accepted a
temporary teaching position at the
Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA,
where she will teach marine biology
and continue to write up her research.
Nina Karnovsky has recently
completed fieldwork on seabird
foraging between Canada and
Greenland (see Canada report). She
was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to
continue her work on the at-sea
distribution, abundance and diets of
high arctic seabirds around Svalbard
and Jan Mayen from the Polish
oceanographic sailboat Oceania, She
will be in Poland from January through
August 2001.

Carolina Pickens will be joining
George Hunt’s laboratory as a graduate
student in fall 2000. She has been
working for the Channel island
National Park Seabird Monitoring
Program this spring and summer on
Santa Barbara Island. She has begun to
study Western Gulls, assessing the
status of female-female pairing and
analyzing food habits and post-
fledging survival of banded gull
chicks.

Chris Maranto of Hunt’s lab is
working on the foraging ecology of

Arctic Terns and its effect of
reproductive success on Matinicus
Rock, in the seaward end of Penobscot
Bay, Maine. She is examining how the
choice of an all-fish diet or one that
includes a large proportion of
amphipods may affect reproductive
success.

David Hyrenbach divides his
time between Scripps Institution of
Oceanography and Irvine, has several
areas of research interest. He is
involved in the long-term monitoring
of the California Current avifauna
within the context of the California
Cooperative of Oceanic Fisheries
Investigations (CalCOFl) program.
This research, initiated by Dick Veit,
Peter Pyle and John McGowan, has
revealed long-term shifts in the
composition of marine bird
assemblages off southern California
since the late 1980's. Additional
surveys suggest that the trends
previously documented between 1987-
1994 have continued in recent years.
Namely, despite evidence of a possible
regime shift into 'cold-water'
conditions during 1999, overall bird
abundance and Sooty Shearwater
numbers remain substantially lower
than at the beginning of the time series.
David also is doing a telemetry study
of albatross foraging ecology based at
Tern Island, Hawai’i (see Pacific Rim
report) and is studying the foraging
ecology of Short-tailed Shearwaters in
the southeast Bering Sea (see Alaska
report). A new project will look at
seabird abundance and distribution off
Peru (see Pacific Rim Report).

Lucy Vlietstra’s research focuses
on shifts in individual behavior and
community structure among marine
birds during prey-level fluctuations.
She is currently examining the effects
of ENSO-related prey reductions on
the wintering seabird community of
Monterey Bay, California. Other
projects look at shearwater foraging
ecology at passes in the Aleutian
Islands and shifts in fish and seabird
distributions around the Pribilof
islands (see Alaska report). The first
two studies combine hydroacoustic fish
measurements and bird observations to

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 86

REGIONAL REPORTS - Southern California, Pacific Rim

compare spatial relationships between
trophic levels.

Jen Zamon completed her
doctoral thesis in Spring 2000 on the
foraging ecology of marine birds and
seals in the San Juan Islands,
Washington (see Washington-Oregon
report). She has taken a Canadian post-
doctoral fellowship to work with the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans on
marine productivity and salmon
survival (see Canada report).

An impressive number of agencies
are cooperating in an integrated study
of the at-sea distribution and
movements of Cassin’s Auklets. The
project leader is Josh Adams of Moss
Landing Marine Laboratories
(MLML). Principal investigators are
John Takekawa and Dennis
Orthmeyer (U.S. Geological Survey)
and Harry Carter and Rick Golightly
of Humboldt State University (HSU).
Collaborators include Tom Keeney
and Steve Schwarz (U.S. Navy), Paul
Kelly (CDFG), Sarah Fangman
(Channel islands National Marine
Sanctuary), Paige Martin (Channel
Islands National Park), and Jim
Harvey (MLML). During 1999-2001
of at-sea distribution and movements
of Auklets from two colonies, Prince
Island and Scorpion Rock, are being
studied during 1999-2001, using radio
telemetry and boat surveys. Data are
being collected on oceanography, diet,
prey abundance and distribution, and
breeding phenology and success.

Another interagency study is doing
at-sea surveys and coastal counts of all
seabird species in the Southern
California Bight, including the Channel
Islands and mainland. Gerry
McChesney (HSU) is the Project
Leader; key staff include Bill Mclver,
John Mason, and Phil Capitolo, all of
HSU. Principal Investigators are
Dennis Orthmeyer and John
Takekawa (U.S. Geological Survey)
and Harry Carter and Rick Golightly
(HSU). Collaborators include Mike
McCrary and Mark Pierson
(Minerals Management Service), Tom
Keeney and Steve Schwarz (U.S.
Navy), and Paul Kelly (CDFG). Aerial
photographic surveys also are being

conducted for breeding colonies of
Brandt’s and Double-crested
Cormorants and for Brown Pelican
roosts. Data on seasonal movements
will be integrated with data on prey
and oceanography.

Judith Hand has concerned
herself recently with the behavior of
organisms at a higher level than
seabirds (if that’s possible). Her first
novel, “Voice of the Goddess,” will be
published officially in February and
will be available via Amazon.com by
November 2000. It's an epic about the
Minoan civilization in 1600 BC.

PACIFIC RIM

Summarized by Katie Swift

Main Hawaiian Islands

Bob Day (Alaska Biological
Resources, Fairbanks) worked on radar
monitoring of Dark-rumped Petrels and
Newell’s Shearwater populations on
Kauai, in collaboration with Brian
Cooper and Todd Mabee of the ABR,
Inc. Oregon office. They began this
work in 1993. David Duffy (Pacific
Cooperative Studies Unit, Department
of Botany, University of Hawai’i
Manoa) helped arrange logistics for
this study. David also helped the Park
Service in Hawai’i start an inventory
process that will include seabirds.

Dave Smith of the Hawaii
Division of Forestry and Wildlife
(DOFAW) assessed the effects of feral
cat predation on survival and nesting of
wedge-tailed shearwaters at
Malaekahana State Park on Oahu
during the summer of 2000. A feral cat
feeding colony is located inside the
park. Observers found 23 shearwater
burrows or scrapes that were active in
May. By late June, only 3 (13%) of the
burrows contained birds, and 44
shearwater carcasses had been found in
the area. Moku’ Auia Island, just
offshore of the park, was used as a
control site. Eighty-three burrows were
monitored on the island and 62 (75%)
remained active over the same time
period.

Beth Flint and Katie Swift (U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, Honolulu)
continued monitoring and providing
assistance for tenants on a Diamond
Head beachfront property with a small
Wedge-tailed Shearwater colony in
their yard.

Aaron Hebshi, a graduate student
under David Duffy, initiated ^
dissertation work on the dependence of
tropical seabirds on tuna. He has been
monitoring reproductive success and
chick growth of Wedge-tailed
Shearwaters on the Moku Luas,
Kaohikaipu, and Molokini Islets (small
colonies offshore of the main islands)
and comparing these data to local
skipjack tuna catch statistics and
independent aerial and boat tuna
surveys.

G. Causey Whittow has
completed a study of water loss during
incubation in Great Frigatebird eggs,
documenting the events that occur ;
during the long pipping process, and
relating water loss to the prolonged
incubation of the ffigatebird's egg.
Also complete is an investigation of
the perinatal physiology of the Laysan
Albatross. The physiological changes
that occur before and immediately after
hatching have now been described
more completely in the Laysan
Albatross than in any other species of
bird. Ongoing is a long-term sturdy of
egg dimensions of Laysan Albatross
breeding in the main Hawaiian Islands.
Future plans for the Laysan Albatross
include (a) a collaborative study (with
Katherine Cousins and James
Ludwig) of the effects of pesticides
and toxic contaminants on hormone
levels of embryos and hatchlings, and .
(b) the characterization of the egg-
albumen proteins (jointly with N.V.
Bhagavan). Sturkie’s Avian
Physiology (5th ed., edited by GCW),
containing much information on the
physiology of seabirds, has been
published by Academic Press.

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
Year-round monitoring of
population size, reproductive 1
performance, and breeding chronology
was supervised by Brian Allen and

Pacific Seabirds * Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 87

regional reports - Pacific Rim

Tony Palernio at Tern island, French
Frigate Shoals; Lindsey Hayes, Donna
O'Daniel, and Nancy Pnsey at
Johnston Atoll, and a rotating staff of
two or three at Laysan Island. At each
of these sites many exceptional
volunteers did much of the actual data
collection.

Anthony Viggiano is working on
finishing the data analysis on his
Master's project at the University of
Washington, on the demography,
population trends and breeding
frequency of Black-footed Albatrosses
at Tem Island, French Frigate Shoals.

Allison Veit (Memorial
University, Newfoundland) completed
her first field season of her MSc
investigating sexually selected and
aerodynamic functions of Red-tailed
Tropicbird tail streamers at Tern
Island, in collaboration with the
USFWS, Northwest Hawaiian National
Wildlife Refuge. Her work is being
supervised by Ian Jones.

DOF AW continued monitoring of
seabirds on the offshore islands. Dave
Smith, Eric VanderWerf, Reggie
David, and John Polhemus spent a
week on Kure Atoll in May,
monitoring seabird populations there.
No evidence of rats was found.

David Hyrenbach (Scripps
institute of Oceanography and
University of California, Irvine) and
David And e r s o n and Patricia
Fernandez (Wake Forest University)
are studing the foraging areas and the
movements of Black- footed and
Laysan albatross breeding at Tern
Island, Hawai’i. Satellite telemetry will
be used to relate albatross movements
and foraging destinations to
environmental parameters (bathymetric
gradients, ^ea surface temperature,
chlorophyll concentration) during years
of contrasting oceanographic
conditions.

Elsewhere in the Pacific

Beth Flint continued to coordinate
the seabird monitoring program in the
Pacific Remote Islands National
Wildlife Refuge Complex. The
complex spans 2500 miles from north
to south and is home to 24 species of

tropical seabirds on 32 islands and
islets. Flint and Dominique Aycock
made site visits to Howland, Baker,
Jarvis, Palmyra, and Kingman Reef iri
March aboard the NOAA vessel
Townsend Cromwell and did pelagic
seabird surveys en route. An exciting
discovery at Jarvis Island was the
presence in the air and on the ground of
White-throated Storm-Petrels
{Nesofregetta juliginosa) for the first
time.

David Duffy is supervising a
seabird project for American Samoa,
doing a basic inventory and
establishing monitoring protocols.

Kim Nelson (Oregon Cooperative
Fish and Wildlife Research Unit,
Oregon State University) continued her
research on Long-billed Murrelets in
Japan. During her first trip to Japan in
1996 (see Pacific Seabirds 24:62-68,
1997), she and many colleagues
conducted dawn forest surveys in
suitable habitat in an attempt to
identify potential nesting areas. No
murrelets were detected, prompting
plans to conduct surveys in the Sea of
Okhotsk to look at the distribution of
Long-billed Murrelets at sea during the
breeding season. In June 2000, Kim
returned to Japan with colleague Tom
Hamer to conduct at-sea surveys. The
project was coordinated with Yoshihiro
Fukuda and field assistance was
provided by Will Wright and
Mutsuyuki Ueta. After two weeks of
searching from boat and land no
murrelets were detected. It is possible
the Long-billed Murrelets no longer
occur in Japan during the breeding
season because of habitat loss and
extensive gill-net fishing.

In winter 2001, David Hyrenbach
will start collaborating with the
Peruvian Marine Research Institute
(IMARPE) on the monitoring of
seabird abundance and distribution off
the coast of Peru. He is interested in
studying the foraging ecology of
Waved Albatrosses off the Peruvian
coast as well as their interactions with
the small-scale longline fishery.

Lisa T. Ballance and Robert L.
Pitman are now completing the third
year of a three-year project in the

eastern tropical Pacific, conducting
ecosystem studies of the pelagic ocean.
These studies include seabird
distribution and abundance surveys and
behavioral studies, in the next year we
look forward to analyzing these data
and to comparing patterns with those
documented by a similar series of
cruises in the late 1980s. Further
information on the ecosystem is at

http://swfsc.ucsd.edu/mmd/star/-

default.htm. Lisa and Bob also are
continuing work in Antarctica. Bob is
on research vessels in conjunction with
International Whaling Commission
efforts to document cetacean
distribution and abundance in the
Southern Ocean. Lisa is investigating
factors influencing population trends in
Adelie Penguin colonies on Koss
Island, in conjunction with David

Ainley. . , ^ f

Scott Shaffer and Daniel Costa ot
the University of California at Santa
Cruz are conducting research on
Wandering and Black-browed
Albatrosses in the French sub-Antarctic
Islands of the Indian Ocean (Crozet,
Kerguelen, and Amsterdam Islands), in
collaboration with Henri
Weimerskirch of theCentre National
de la Recherche Scientifiquein France.
This study is in its third year of
operation. The main focus is the
interspecific comparison of foraging
ecology and energetics, with an
emphasis on how foraging impacts
reproduction and life history strategies.

Fisheries, oil and rat spills

Beth Flint continues to work with
her colleagues in Ecological Services,
USFWS on bird bycatch issues in the
Hawai’i Pelagic Longline Fishery. She
taught a course in seabird identification

to fisheries observers.

USFWS and other natural resource
trustees have almost completed a
restoration plan for a Tesoro Hawaii
Corporation oil spill in Hawaiian
waters in 1998. The spill injured
seabirds and other natural resources on
Oahu and Kauai. Seabird restoration
projects identified in the plan include:
(1) predator control in Newell s
shearwater colonies on Kauai, (2)

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 88

REGIONAL REPORTS - Pacific Rim

predator control and habitat
enhancement on offshore islands in the
Hawaii Seabird Sanctuary, and (3)
extension of the predator fence at
Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge
on Kauai. The trustees expect to
implement these projects in 2001.

Linda Eliot of the International
Bird Response and Rescue Center
(IBRRC) spent several months in
South Africa helping care for penguins
affected by the oil spill. She also
worked on the Erika spill in France m
December 1999; this led to huge
improvements in facilities and
identified staff and changes in
government regulations on ships. Linda
prepared an instructional videotape on
handling seabirds for Hawai’i longhne
fishermen. She worked with two new
IBRRC response centers for oiled

waterbird in California, and on post-
release studies from the Stuyvesant
spill in northern California.

Mark Rauzon (Marine
Endeavors, Oakland, CA) is working
with Katie Swift and Chris Swenson
of USFWS on planning responses to
shipwrecks and “rat spills on
Hawaiian Islands. He also is working
on feral cat eradication on Wake Atoll
with William EveretPs Endangered
Species Recovery Council.

As of July 2000, the Short-tailed
Albatross was declared endangered
within the United States (see
Conservation News.)

MEETINGS, ETC.

Beth Flint, Katie Swift, David
Duffy, and Pat Tummons hosted the
Second International Conference on the

Biology and Conservation of
Albatrosses and other Petrels held in
Honolulu in May (see Conservation
News.)

Beth Flint, David Duffy, and
Colleen Henson are organizing the
annual PSG meeting, to be held on
Kauai in February (see PSG News for
details.)

Beth Flint provided input into the
North American Colonial Waterbird
Conservation Plan for the Pacific
Islands Region. Katie Swift is working
in the Honolulu office to incorporate
monitoring data into the Pacific
Seabird Monitoring Database. Flint and
Swift attended the "Rat Summit"
sponsored by U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the National Park Service
in San Francisco.

Pacific Seabirds •

Volume 27. Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 89

report of the tre asiTrer for 2000

Breck Tyler

This report comprises a balance sheet
for all active accounts of the Pacific
Seabird Group, a cash flow summary
for the past fiscal year, and a brief dis-
cussion of finances and membership.
Final accounting for the Napa 2000
Annual Meeting was not completed in
time for inclusion in this report.

Assets, Equity, and Liabilities

On 30 September 2000, the total
assets in PSG accounts were
$164,022.09 (Table 1). Total equity
was $138,316.55, an increase of $4,
656 69 during the past fiscal year. Li-
abilities included $16,850.00 for con-
tinued work on the Seabird Monitoring
Database, $5,000.00 for publication of
the 25th Anniversary Symposium,
$2 355.54 balance from funds ap-
proved for Marine Ornithology, and
$1,500.00 for the Xantus’ Murrelet
Technical Committee. The major
sources of income were the Endow-
ment Fund ($22,051.05) and member-
ship dues ($6,210.96). Major expendi-
tures included payment of Monitoring
Database subcontractors ($16,876) and
production of Pacific Seabirds
($7,263.52).

Endowment Account

On 30 September 2000, the PSG
endowment account was worth
$105 091.47. Contributions during the
past fiscal year included $360 m Life
Membership payments and $1,846.51
from fund Vaising at the 1999 Annual
Meeting in Blaine. Capital gams and
dividends from the account totalled
$22 051.05 and were automatically
reinvested. We now own shares in
three Neuberger & Berman Manage-

ment, Inc. funds: Focus, Guardian, and
Partners. Share and account values
fluctuated significantly in line with the
volatile stock market. Overall, we in-
vested $24,257.56 in the account this
year but the account value increased
only $20, 1 60.64.

Other income and expenses

Excluding funds invested in the
Endowment Account, PSG generated
$10 152.26 in new income during this
fiscal year, 61% from membership
dues and the rest from dividends, li-
brary subscriptions, and publication
sales (Table 2). This does not include
membership dues payments and publi-
cation sales from the Napa meeting,
which will be added to the total when
they are determined. Excluding pay-
ments for previous liabilities
dowment account share losses, PSu
accumulated $14,954.16 in new ex-
penses (Table 2). Publication and
mailing of Pacific Seabirds was the
largest expense (49%).

Other accounts

PSG currently maintains a savings
account with Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter, and four other checking/saving
accounts for specific needs. The Treas-
urer’s joint checking/savings account is
managed by Breck Tyler. The Pacific
Seabirds account, now managed by
editor Vivian Mendenhall, contains
funds used in the publication and
mailing of Pacific Seabirds. Steven
Speich manages an account to dea
with costs of other PSG publications
and Marine Ornithology. The United
Kingdom membership account, man-
aged by Mark Tasker, is used for de-

posits of dues paid in British pounds
sterling. A conversion rate of £1.00 to
US$1.45 was used for the value in Ta-
ble 1. Due to rising transaction fees,
PSG is considering a similar account
for members paying in Canadian dol-
lars.

Annual Meeting

At the 2000 Annual Meeting m
Napa, expenditures exceeded income
by $3,488.91. The difference was made
up using funds from PSG savings. The
local committee’s account will be
closed in the near future and remaining
funds will be deposited in PSG sav-
ings. The actual cost of the Napa
meeting has not been calculated. It will
be somewhat higher than the above
figure because some of the income
collected at the meeting (e.g., member-
ship dues, publication sales, and fund-
raising profits) was not for registration
or other meeting activities. The final
assessment of meeting expenses and a
complete financial summary for the
2000 Annual Meeting will be presented
in a future report.

Membership

At the writing of this report, there were
413 active memberships in PSG: 306
regular memberships (individual and
family), 60 life members, 2 corre-
sponding members, and 45 student
members. A total of 50 libraries re-
ceive Pacific Seabirds, of which 26
have paid subscriptions. In addition to
life membership payments ($360) and
library subscriptions ($675), member-
ship dues payments (covering various
years) totalled $6,210.96 this year.

Pacific Seabirds

* Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 90

TREASURER’S REPORT

table 1 . Pacific Seabird Group balance sheet, 30 September 2000.

Balance

Total

NET

30 September 2000 30 September 1999

ASSETS

Annual meeting, Napa, January 2000
Endowment Fund (Neuberger & Berman)
Pacific Seabirds account (Mendenhall)

PSG Savings account (MSDW)

Treasurer’s accounts (Tyler)

UK membership account (Tasker)

EVOS Workshop and publication

Marine Ornithology! PSG publications (Speich)

Total assets

$396.88

105,091.47

$518.24

48,159.52

7,654.93

608.91

0

1,592.14

$1,000.00

84,930.83

0

49,004.10

15,013.98

469.42

15,429.52

1,738.01

$164,022.09

$167,585.86

liabilities and equity

Liabilities

Equity

Total liabilities and equity

$25,705.54

138,316.55

$164,022.09

$33,926.00

133,659.86

$167,585.86

table 2. Pacific Seabird Group cash flow report, 1

October 1999-30 September 2000.

INCOME

Endowment (Capital gains & dividends)
Membership dues

Interest & dividends (other accounts)
Library subscriptions
Life membership dues
Publication sales

Total

$22,051.05

$6,210.96*

$3,091.80

$675.00

$360.00

$174.50*

$32,563 A 1

EXPENSES $16,876.00

Monitoring subcontracts paid 263.52

Pacific Seabirds • $4,158.97

Share value losses 488.91*

Annual meeting 2000 (Napa) ^ ^ *050.00

Director’s insurance $884.45

Taxes, tax preparation, fees on

Dues (Ornithological Council, American Bird Conservancy) $643 96

Marine Ornithology $462.45

Publications ^^^1

Officer & committee expenses tooO 00

Annual Meeting 1999 (Blaine) - reimbursed costs

Bank charges

$36,127.08

-$3,563.77

♦Tentative

iKlT^limatcs; final report will be issued after accounting for Napa mccung is complete.

Pacific Seabirds

Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 91

published proceedings of symposia OFTH EFAC.F.CSEAB1RDGROUP

order form. ^

MARINE BIRDS: THEIR FEEDING ECOLOGY ^^^D C^MERa^^^

0™S«'e!

1985 Published Juae 1987 in Studies in Avian Biology. Number 10.$ . ■

STATUS AND CONSERVATION OF THE G?oup.*PMffic”rove,*Sfor^^ December 1987.

the status, ecology, and conservatiw of SJS

3” th T Rrifies Ken H Morgan, and Douglas Siegel-Causey (editors). Pro m Victoria. British Columbia, February

Naturalist, Volume 76, Number 1. $12.00. , H rorsl

behaviour and ecology of the sea DUCia. “cSbU, stnXmb^r'llw. A^^ral publication

ProLdings of the Pacific Seabird Group Sym^siuro Vmto"a Brmsh ™ Service Occ^ional

SEABIRD BYCATCH: TRENDS. ROADBLOCKS AND ^

t

, formation on presenting symposia: Pacific « Gmup ^

• t tnnir The eoal is to present a collection of papers th p fn: a Svmoosium of the Pacific Seabird Group.

in some cases the papers Committee and the

Individuals interested in organizing a symposium must first - ^ i|„es will be provided for obtaining approval, organizing,

"c Pmgram Coordinator for an annual Organizers can then proceed to

Pacific Seabirds • Volume

27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 92

PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP COMMITTEE

COORDINATORS

Contact committee coordinators for information on activities of committees and how you can participate.

CONSERVATION COMMITTEE oooi -778-2240 Fax; (202)

Craig S. Harrison. 4001 North 9th street. Number 1801, Arlington, VA 22203 U . e ep one

778-2201, E-mail: charrison@erols.com

ELECTION COMMITTM r.^mUSA Telephone: (562)

Pat Baird. Department of Biological Sciences. California State University. Long Beach. CA
985-1780. Fax; (562) 985-8878. E-mail; patbaird@csulb.edu

JAPANESE SEABIRD CONSERVATION 011-81-1646-9-2080,

Koji Ono. Office; Hokkaido Seabird Center, Kita ^1. Telephone & Fax; 01 1-81-

Fax; 01 1-81-1646-9-2090. Home; 2-506, ” Biology. University of Tokyo, 1-1-1

1646-2-1324, E-mail; kojiono@go .com and fries®

Bunkyo-ku, 1 13 Tokyo, Japan. Telephone/Fax; 01 1-81-356-89-7254, b man.

-1 Yayoi

uf.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp

MARBLED MURRELET TECHNipL CO^mEE^^

Anne Harfenist, P.O. Box 2498, Smithers. B.C. VOJ 2N0 Canada. Telephone; (250) 847-1730, E mail.

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

Steven M. Speich, 4720 N. Oeste Place. Tucson, AZ 85749 USA. Telephone; (520) 760-21 10, E-mai ; sspeic @
azstamet.com

XANTUS- MURRELET TECHNICAL ^

William Everett, Endangered Specif Briggs, Dtinville Veterinary Hospital, 812 Camino

PSG DELEGATES ™ ™K AMEWCAN ^

B.. « mmn USA.T.r„lK-: <«I3) 32J-M.2, -

mail; coultermc@aol.com

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 • Page 93

PSG LIFE MEMBERS 2000

Lisa Haggbiom
Judith L. Hand
s. Harrison

David R-Nysewander

Harou Ogi

David G. Ainley

Sarah G. Allen
Daniel W. Anderson

Pat H. Baird

Kenneth T. Briggs

Joanna Burger

Ellen W.Chu
Rogers. Clapp

Cheryl Conel
Malcolm Coulter
Theodore L. Cross
Robert H. Day
Tony DeGange
Jan Dierks
George J. Divoky
Stewart Fefer

Lloyd C. Fitzpatrick

Douglas J. Forsell
Michael Fry

JoelD. Hubbard
David B. Irons

Karl W. Kenyon

James G, King
Kathy Kuletz
Lora Leschner
David B. Lewis
Peter Major
Eugene Y. Makishima
Vivian Mendenhall
Gayle Merlen
Godfrey Merlen
pat Mock

Edward C. Murphy
Maura Naughton
S. Kim Nelson

Koji Ono

Julia K. Parrish
C. John Ralph
Chad Roberts
Palmer C* Sekora
Nanette Seto

Kouzt Shiomi
Douglas Siegel-Causey
William E. Southern

Arthur L.Sowls

Jeffrey A. Spendelow

Takaki Terasawa
Breck Tyler
Eiiriquetta V elarde
Kees Vermeer
JohnS.Warriner
YutakaWatanuki

Monica H-Zhreher

nirrmENTS OF PSG’s LIFETIME

Sevement award

James C.Bartonek

VV.R.P. Bourne^

Charles Guiguet

Thomas R. Howell
Karl W. Kenyon
James G. King

MiklosD.F.l3dvardy^

John Warham
Richard G.B. Brown

recipient of PSG’s SPE^
achievement award

George J. Divoky
Craig S. Harrison

Arthur L. Sowls
Steven M. Speich

Malcolm Coulter

t Deceased

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 2 • Fall 2000 P g

Pacific Seabird Group

Membership Application/PubUcation Order Form

(Please copy)

Membership (includes subscription to Pacific Seabirds)

Individual and Family $20.00

Sponsored Membership $20.00
Contributions^ ^

To the Endowment Fund

Othet (please specify)

Back issues of Pacific Seabirds

Vols. 1-8 (1974-1981) @ $2.50/issue (two issues/year)

Specify Volume(s) and Number(s)

Vols. 9-present @$5.00/issue (two issues/year)

Specify Volume(s) and Number(s) *

Bcdo^3d Behavior of Gulls x $18.50

of Marine Birds of the North Pacific: Free ofch^

sS^s’^d Conservation of the Marbled Murrelet in North Amenca x $20.00

B^Togy of Marbled Murrelets: Inland and at S;a __^x $12.00
Behaviour and Ecology of Sea Ducks; Free of charge

Books

The Ancient Murrelet xju.uu

total enclosed (U.S. Dollars)

Prices include postage (surface rate) and handling.

send check or money order (in U.S. Dollars, made payable to the Pacific Seabird Group) TO:

Breck Tyler, Treasurer, Pacific Seabird Group

EM^rine Laboratory. 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 USA.

Telephone: (83 1) 426-5740, E-mail: ospr@cats.ucsc.edu

S_

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Pacific Seabirds • Volume 27, Number 1

Spring 2000 • Page 95

PSG EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 2000

Chair
Chair Elect

Vice-Chair for Conservation

Treasurer

Secretary

Editor
Past Chair

Alaska and Russia
Canada

Washington and Oregon
Northern California

Southern California

Non-Pacific United States

Pacific Rim

Old World

Student Representative

Officers

Julia Parrish, Zology Department, Universiy of Washington, Box 351800, Seattle WA
98195, USA. elephone: (206) 616-2958; E-mail: jparrish@u. washington.edu

Bill Sydeman, Point Reyes Bird Observatory, 4990 Shoreline Highway, Stinson Beach,
CA 94970, USA. Telephone: (415) 868-1221, ext. 19; Fax: (415) 868-1946; Email:
wjsydeman@prbo.org.

Craig S. Harrison, 4001 North 9th Street, Number 1801, Arlington, VA 222Q3, USA.
Telephone: (202) 778-2240; Fax: (202) 778-2201; E-mail: charrison@hunton.com

Breck Tyler, Long Marine Laboratory, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA.
Telephone: (831)426-5740; E-mail: ospr@cats.ucsc.edu

Lora Leschner, Washington Dept, of Fish and Wildlife, 16018 Mill Creek Blvd., Mill
Creek, WA 98102, USA. Telephone: (425) 776-1311, ext. 421; Fax: (425) 338-1066;
Email: leschlll@dfw.wa.gov

Vivian Mendenhall, 4600 Rabbit Creek Rd., Anchorage, AK 99516, USA. Telephone:
(907) 345-7 1 24; Fax (907) 345-0686; Email: fasgadair@att.net

Ed Murphy, Instittue of Arctic Bioology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks,
AK 99712-0180, USA. Telephone: (907) 474-7154; Fax: (907) 474-6967; Email:
ffecm@uafedu

Regional Representatives

Rob Suryan, Migratory Bird Management, USFWS, 1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage,
AK 99503, USA. Telephone: (907) 786-3829, Facsimile: (907) 786-3641, E-mail:
robert_suryan@fws.gov

Ken Morgan, Canadian Wildlife Service, c/o Institute of Ocean Sciences, P.O. Box
6000, Sidney, B.C. V8L 4B2, Canada. Telephone: (250) 363-6537, Facsimile: (250)
363-6390, E-mail: morgank@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Roy Lowe, USFWS, 2127 SE OSU Drive, Newport, OR 97365-5258 USA. Telephone:
(541) 867-4550, Facsimile: (541) 867-4551, E-mail: Roy.Lowe@hmsc.orst.edu

Kyra Mills, Point Reyes Bird Observatory, 4990 Shoreline Highway, Stinson Beach, CA
94970, USA. Phone (415) 868-1221, ext. 21; Fax (415) 868-1947; Email: kyra-
mills@prbo.org

Pat Mock, Dames & Moore, Inc., 9665 Chesapeake Drive, Suite 201, San Diego, CA
92123, USA. Telephone: (858) 541-0833, Facsimile: (858) 541-0890, E-mail: sdopjm@
dames.com

Jim Lovvorn, Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming,
Laramie, WY 82071, USA. Telephone: (307) 766-6100, Facsimilie: (307) 766-5625, E-
mail; lovvorn@uwyo.edu

Elizabeth Flint, USFWS, Pacific Remote islands National Wildlife Refuge, P.O. Box
50167, Honolulu, HI 96850, USA. Telephone; (808) 541-1201, Facsimilie: (808)

541-1216, E-mail: beth_flint@fws.gov

Mark Tasker, JNCC, Dunnet House, 7 Thistle Place, Aberdeen ABIO l UZ, Scotland,
UK. Telephone; 011-44-1224-642863, Facsimile: 011-44-1224-6214-88, E-mail;
tasker_m@Jncc.gov.uk or mltasker@aol.com

Louise Blight, Dept, of Biology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C.V5A 1S6,
Canada. Telephone (604) 291-5618; Email; !ouise_blight@sfu.ca.