PACIFIC

SEABIRDS

A Publication of the Pacific Seabird Group

Volume 36 Number 2

Fall 2009

PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP

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

The Pacific Seabird Group (PSG) was formed in 1972 due to the need for better communication among Pacific seabird
researchers. PSG provides a forum for the research activities of its members, promotes the conservation of seabirds, and informs
members and the public of issues relating to Pacific Ocean seabirds and their environment. PSG members include research
scientists, conservation professionals, and members of the public from all parts of the Pacific Ocean. The group also welcomes
seabird professionals and enthusiasts in other parts of the world. PSG holds annual meetings at which scientific papers and
symposia are presented; abstracts for meetings are published on our web site. The group is active in promoting conservation
of seabirds, include seabird/fisheries interactions, monitoring of seabird populations, seabird restoration following oil spills,
establishment of seabird sanctuaries, and endangered species. Policy statements are issued on conservation issues of critical
importance. PSG’s journals are Pacific Seabirds (formerly the PSG Bulletin ) and Marine Ornithology. Other publications
include symposium volumes and technical reports; these are listed near the back of this issue. PSG is a member of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Ornithological Council, and the American Bird Conservancy.
Annual dues for membership are $30 (individual and family); $24 (student, undergraduate and graduate); and $900 (Life
Membership, payable in five $180 installments). Dues are payable to the Treasurer; see the PSG web site, or the Membership
Order Form next to inside back cover.

World Wide Web Site

http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org

Donations

The Pacific Seabird Group is a nonprofit organization incorporated under the laws of the State of California. Contributions to
the Pacific Seabird Group are tax deductible [IRS Section 501(c)(3)] to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Pacific Seabirds

Pacific Seabirds publishes short peer-reviewed articles, reports of ongoing work, conservation news, and other items of
importance to seabird science and conservation in the Pacific Ocean. The journal is published twice a year in spring and fall.
Materials should be submitted to the Editor, except that conservation-related material should be submitted to the Associate
Editor for Conservation. Information for contributors to Pacific Seabirds is published in each Fall issue. Back issues of the PSG
Bulletin (volumes 1-20) and Pacific Seabirds (volumes 21 on) are posted on the group’s web site, or they may be ordered from
the treasurer (see Membership/Order Form on last page for details). Submission deadlines are April 1 for the spring issue and
October 1 for the fall issue; manuscripts may be submitted at any time.

Pacific Seabirds Editor

Vivian M. Mendenhall, 4600 Rabbit Creek Rd., Anchorage, AK 99516-4177, USA. Telephone (907) 345-7124; Fax (907)
345-0686; e-mail: fasgadair@attalascom.net.

Associate Editor for Conservation

Craig S. Harrison, 4953 Sonoma Mountain Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404, USA. Telephone: (202) 778-2240, Fax: (202) 778-
2201, e-mail: charrison@hunton.com Assistant Editors for Conservation: S. Kim Nelson and Mark Rauzon.

Assistant Editor for Regional Reports in This Issue

Craig S. Strong

Marine Ornithology

Marine Ornithology presents peer-reviewed contributions concerning international seabird science and conservation. The journal
is published two times a year. It is available on its web site or by subscription. The journal is supported by a partnership of global
seabird societies, including the Pacific Seabird Group (PSG), African Seabird Group, Australasian Seabird Group, the Seabird
Group (U.K.), Dutch Seabird Group, and Japan Seabird Group. For further information see www.marineomithology.org

Change of Address

Send changes of address to the PSG Treasurer, Ron Le Valley, PO. Box 324, Little River, CA 95456-0519, USA. Telephone:
(707) 496-3326 (cell), (707) 937-1742 (work); fax: (707) 442-4303; e-mail: membership@pacificseabirdgroup.org or ron@
madriverbio.com

PACIFIC SEABIRDS

A Publication of the Pacific Seabird Group

Dedicated to the Study and Conservation of Pacific Seabirds and Their Environment
Volume 36 2009 Number 2

Lifetime Achievement Award

Haruo Ogi. By Lora L. Leschner and Robert H. Day 32

Translated into Japanese by Yasuko Suzuki 36

Special Achievement Award

Yutaka Watanuki. By Jim Lovvorn 40

Translated into Japanese by Yasuko Suzuki 43

Conservation Report 45

Meeting News

First World Seabird Conference 50

Regional Reports

Alaska 51

Canada 55

Washington and Oregon 59

Northern California 63

Southern California 66

Non-Pacific United States 67

Hawai‘i and the Pacific 68

Latin America 69

Asia 70

General Information

Information on the Pacific Seabird Group Inside Front Cover

Information for Contributors to Pacific Seabirds 71

Publications of the Pacific Seabird Group 73

PSG Committee Coordinators 75

PSG Life Members and Recipients of Awards 76

Membership Application and Order Form 77

PSG Executive Council for 2009 Inside Back Cover

LIFETIME AND SPECIAL
ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

The Pacific Seabird Group occasionally honors outstanding contributors to seabird science and conservation with
Lifetime Achievement or Special Achievement Awards . At the 36th Annual Meeting in Hakodate , Hokkaido ,
Japan, PSG presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Haruo Ogi and the Special Achievement
Award to Dr. Yutaka Watanuki . A report on the Hakodate meeting was published in Pacific Seabirds 36( 1): 12.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: HARUO OGI

Lora L. Leschner and Robert H. Day

Haruo Ogi was born in Tokyo in
1940. He began his studies of marine
ecology with his Bachelor’s degree in
Fisheries in 1969 and his Master’s the-
sis on the feeding ecology of Sockeye
Salmon ( Oncorhynchus nerka ) in 1971.
He started his studies of seabirds in the
1970s at Hokkaido University, where
he studied food and feeding habits of
the Common Murre and Thick-billed
Murre ( Uria aalge and U. lomvia ) in
the Okhotsk Sea, northern North Pacific
Ocean, and Bering Sea. In 1977, he began
working as an Assistant at Hokkaido Uni-
versity, where he recently had received
his Ph.D. He was promoted to Instructor
in 1980, Associate Professor in 1984, and
Professor in 1995. In 2000, he was named

a Professor in the Graduate School of
Fisheries Sciences, and he was named
an Emeritus Professor there upon his
retirement in 2002.

EARLY CONNECTIONS AND
CONTRIBUTIONS

While George Divoky, one of the
Pacific Seabird Group’s (PSG’s) found-
ing members, was compiling names
of those interested in the new PSG in
1973, he corresponded regularly with a
graduate student named Haruo Ogi. Dr.
Ogi offered encouragement for PSG’s
desire to provide a unified voice for
seabird researchers and conservation. Dr.
Ogi became one of the first members of
PSG, and his name is listed in Volume 1 ,
Number 1 of the PSG Bulletin.

While Ogi-san was still a gradu-
ate student, he attended the First An-
nual Meeting of the PSG in Issaquah,
Washington, in December 1974. Some
of the money to help him attend came
from the National Headquarters of the
National Audubon Society, and it was the
first grant money ($500) that PSG ever
received. Dr. Ogi was studying seabird
ecology on Japanese fishing boats, and he
explained that the Japanese government
and fishing industry were very concerned
about his presentation to the US scien-
tists. The meeting attendees soon learned
why: Ogi-san presented slide after slide
with columns of data on food habits of

Common and Thick-billed Murres. One
research scientist viewing the slides
exclaimed later, ‘Those are thousands
of dead murres! Murres that died as a
result of fisheries by catch. No wonder
the Japanese fisheries organizations were
concerned!” Ogi-san documented not
only the food habits of seabirds, but also
the tremendous loss of birds to fisheries
by catch.

Ogi-san was an important presence
at early PSG meetings. His attendance
at those meetings meant much to the
organization, not only because of the
distance he had to travel to attend, but
also because he was the main indication
that PSG truly was the international
organization it aspired to be. The papers
that Ogi-san presented on seabird by-
catch combined the two primary facets

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 32

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD • Haruo Ogi

of what the PSG hoped to encourage:
solid seabird research, combined with
the identification of important conser-
vation issues requiring the attention of
agencies and governments. As a result of
his attendance and the scientific papers
he presented at the early PSG meetings,
Ogi-san inspired the group’s early con-
servation efforts to reduce the bycatch of
seabirds in the North Pacific Ocean and
Bering Sea. In 1976-1977, Ogi-san also
became a member of PSG’s Executive
Council as a Regional Representative
for the Pacific Rim.

Ogi-san made a number of lifelong
friends at that first PSG meeting. George
Divoky assisted in organizing the meet-
ing, and he was speechless, a regrettably
uncommon condition for him, when
Ogi-san asked George to follow him to
a secluded corner of a meeting room and
presented him with a tie clasp decorated
with a Japanese duck. The formality
and solemnity of the gift presentation,
Ogi-san’s clear pleasure in providing
the gift, and Divoky’s lack of anything
with which he could reciprocate never
made George feel more like a “Yankee
barbarian.”

Lora Leschner, then a University of
Washington graduate student studying
Rhinoceros Auklets ( Cerorhinca monoc-
erata ), was Ogi-san’s host and guide
at the first meeting and subsequently
has been a friend for nearly 35 years.
Ogi-san had to commute to and from
the Issaquah meeting with a carload of
other graduate students, who stayed at
Lora’s house to save lodging fees. Dur-
ing those drives, he shared stories of his
adventures working at sea and of life in
Japan. Over the years, Ogi-san shared
his Japanese publications with Lora and
other PSG friends.

Ogi-san was one of the organizers of
the first Japanese Seabird Conference in
Haboro, Japan, in June 1996. The theme
of that meeting was the conservation of
seabirds. He invited North American
researchers that he met through PSG to
tell Japanese officials and conservation-
ists about conservation strategies in the
United States and Canada that could be

applied to Japan and, especially, Teuri
Island. Teuri was home to one of the
largest Rhinoceros Auklet colonies in
the world, and also home to a Japanese
fishing village that was very fond of
cats. The visiting biologists discussed
fishing regulations to protect seabirds,
decoys to attract murres to nesting is-
lands, seabird research, and, of course,
the impact of predators such as cats on
seabird colonies.

A SCIENTIST OF WIDE-
RANGING INTERESTS

Over the course of his career, Profes-
sor Ogi has made significant contribu-
tions to our understanding of the at-sea
ecology and conservation of seabirds and
the marine ecology of the North Pacific
and the Bering Sea. A quick glance at
the partial bibliography of publications
of Professor Ogi (see below) reflects his
wide-ranging interests in marine ecol-
ogy and, especially, in the ecology and
conservation of seabirds.

Dr. Ogi has specialized in marine
ecology and anthropogenic threats to
marine ecosystems. He has published or
has been a coauthor on numerous papers
on the feeding ecology of seabirds; the
at-sea distribution and abundance of
seabirds; the at-sea biology and molt of
shearwaters and albatrosses; fisheries
bycatch of seabirds; plastic pollution of
seabirds and the oceans; the breeding
biology of seabirds; the parasitology of
seabirds; avian influenza; the contamina-
tion of seabirds by hydrocarbons, plastic
pollutants, and heavy metals; and seabird
conservation.

Professor Ogi’s research interests
have changed over the years but always
have concentrated primarily on seabirds.
In the 1970s, he published papers on
the feeding ecology of Common and
Thick-billed murres in the eastern Ber-
ing Sea and the Okhotsk Sea, based
primarily on murres killed as bycatch
in drift-gillnet salmon fisheries. In the
1980s, he published or coauthored pa-
pers on the feeding ecology of murres
and shearwaters in the North Pacific and
the western Bering Sea, again based on

specimens from drift-gillnet fisheries;
the at-sea distribution of Short-tailed
Albatrosses ( Phoebastria albatrus ),
Mottled Petrels ( Pterodroma inexpec-
tata), and Thick-billed Murres in the
North Pacific and Bering Sea; the at-sea
ecology of Short-tailed Shearwaters
(Piiffinus tenuirostris ) and Tufted Puffins
(. Fratercula cirrhata ); and the mortality
of seabirds in the Japanese drift-gillnet
salmon fishery. He also began his first
research on organochlorines contamina-
tion in seabirds, heavy-metals concen-
trations in zooplankton prey eaten by
seabirds, and avian influenza in migrant
shorebirds.

The 1990s brought another flurry of
publications. Professor Ogi published or
coauthored papers on topics as diverse as
the contamination of seabirds by heavy
metals and plastic pollution; migra-
tory dynamics of seabirds as indicated
by stable isotopes; the breeding ecol-
ogy of Spectacled Guillemots ( Cepphus
carbo) and Black-tailed Gulls ( Larus
crassirostris) in Japan; the parasitology
of seabirds; the at-sea distribution and
abundance of Short-tailed Albatrosses
and Mottled Petrels; conservation issues
facing nesting Streaked Shearwaters
(' Calonectris leucomelas ) in Japan; the
feeding ecology of Sooty Shearwaters
(. Pujfinus griseus) in the North Pacific
and of murres caught in coastal Japanese
fisheries in winter; and conservation
issues facing Black-footed Albatrosses
(. Phoebastria nigripes ). He also coau-
thored an important paper on the mortal-
ity of seabirds in the highly controversial
drift-gillnet fishery for neon flying squid
( Ommastrephes bartramii) in the oceanic
North Pacific.

Although he retired from Hokkaido
University in 2002, Professor Ogi con-
tinued publishing on a variety of topics.
However, his recent interests have shifted
more toward studies of the contamination
of seabirds and conservation issues fac-
ing seabirds and the oceans. Papers that
he has published or coauthored since
2000 include topics such as the transfer
of contaminants from adult Black-tailed
Gulls to their eggs; conservation issues
facing nesting Streaked Shearwaters

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 33

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD • Haruo Ogi

in Japan; contamination of the oceans
and beaches by plastic pollution and
their accompanying PCBs; and seabird
bycatch issues.

Perhaps Professor Ogi’s most sig-
nificant contributions, in his career of
major contributions, have been in his
research on the at-sea feeding ecology
of seabirds and on the bycatch mortality
of seabirds in Japanese fisheries. Many
of the feeding studies have involved
analyses of birds from remote parts of
the Bering sea and the oceanic North
Pacific; it is not too strong a statement
that, without his research, we would have
no understanding at all of this important
phase in the annual life cycle of seabirds.
In addition, his work on seabird bycatch
provided important glimpses into a con-
servation issue about which most North
Americans were unaware.

EDUCATION, COOPERATION,
AND INSPIRATION

One of Professor Ogi’s biggest con-
tributions has been the recruitment and
guidance of students interested in seabird
ecology. Ogi-san and his students sal-
vaged specimens from fisheries bycatch
and examined diet, skeletal characteris-
tics, breeding status, and contamination
of seabirds by hydrocarbons, plastic
pollutants, and heavy metals. During
his time as a faculty member at Hok-
kaido University, Professor Ogi was an
advisor for many graduate students who
were studying seabirds; he also was on
the graduate committees of numerous
students who were studying other aspects
of marine ecology.

Dr. Ogi encouraged many scientists,
especially those interested in seabirds, in
at-sea research. Terry Wahl, an ornitholo-
gist in Washington state, credits Ogi-
san’s influence in having a major influ-
ence on his career. Terry was interested
in the opportunity to study seabirds from
Japanese fishing boats. Ogi-san made the
arrangements for the trip and arranged
for a graduate student to meet Terry, tour
Hokkaido, and get him aboard the R/V
Oshoro Maru, a fisheries-research ship
that belonged to Hokkaido University.

Terry reflected on his time as an observer
on Japanese vessels: “Fortunately, they
made up in English what I totally lacked
in Japanese. Altogether, my introduction
to some of the Japanese culture (at least
at sea) over several cruises was due in
part to Dr. Ogi.”

When Robert Day was an oceanogra-
phy graduate student at the University of
Alaska in the 1980s, he also was encour-
aged by Professor Ogi. Day studied the
macroscale distribution and abundance
of seabirds in the oceanic North Pacific
on the Oshoro Maru. In addition. Profes-
sor Ogi graciously helped an assistant
of Day’s (the late Michael Newcomer),
who was collecting data for him while
with Professor Ogi on the R/V Hokusei
Maru, another of Hokkaido University’s
fisheries research ships. Unfortunately,
because the Hokusei Maru always left
Hakodate before the Oshoro Maru did,
Bob was able to meet Professor Ogi
only once, when the Hokusei Maru was
delayed in leaving port.

A LIFETIME OF
CONTRIBUTIONS

Although retired from Hokkaido
University, Dr. Ogi still is active in
ornithology. He now is a Visiting
Researcher at the Yamashina Institute
for Ornithology, serves as an adviser
to the Japanese Seabird Group, and is
an academic adviser to the Wild Bird
Society of Japan. Dr. Ogi received the
Yamashina Award from the Yamashina
Institute for Ornithology in 2000. This
award is presented to an individual who
has made remarkable and important
contributions to the development of
Japan’s ornithology or to the protection
of Japanese birds.

Professor Ogi truly embodies PSG’s
goals: to increase the quality and quan-
tity of seabird research by facilitating
the exchange of information, to identify
threats to seabird populations, and to
provide government agencies and oth-
ers with expert advice on eliminating
those threats and managing populations.
Professor Ogi is receiving the Pacific
Seabird Group’s Lifetime Achievement

Award for his long-term contributions
to the study and conservation of Pacific
seabirds, and for his role as a founding
member of the Pacific Seabird Group.

PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF
PUBLICATIONS BY PROFESSOR
HARUO OGI

Agusa, T., T. Matsumoto, T. Ikemoto, Y.
Anan, R. Kubota, G. Yasunaga, T. Kunito,
S. Tanabe, H. Ogi, and Y. Shibata. 2005.
Body distribution of trace elements in
Black-tailed Gulls from Rishiri Island,
Japan: age-dependent accumulation and
transfer to feathers and eggs. Environ
Toxicol Chem 24:2107-2120.

Endo, S ., R. Tazikawa, K. Okuda, H. Takada,
K. Chiba, H. Kanehoro, H. Ogi, and R.
Yamashita. 2005. Concentration of poly-
chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in beached
resin pellets: variability among individual
particles and regional differences. Mar
Poll Bull 50:1103-1114.

Hamanaka, T., and H. Ogi. 1984. Cadmium
and zinc concentrations in the hyperiid
amphipod, Parathemisto libellula, from
the Bering Sea. Bull Faculty Fisheries,
Hokkaido University 35:171-178.
Hayashi, K., H. Ogi, M.Tsurumi, and F. Sato.
1997. Present status and conservation
of Black-footed Albatross population
in the North Pacific and on Torishima. J
Yamashina Inst Ornithol 29:97-101.
Honda, J., J. Eduardo Marcovecchio, S. Kan,
R. Tatsukawa, and H. Ogi. 1990. Metal
concentrations in pelagic seabirds from
the North Pacific Ocean. Arch Environ
Contam Toxicol 19:704—711.

Honda, E., H. Kida, R. Yanagawa, Y. Mat-
suura, K. Yagyu, M. Tsuji, K. Ueno, N.
Yamauchi, S. Mishima, H. Ogi, and K.
Shimazaki. 1981. Survey of influenza
viruses in feral birds in 1979 and isolation
of a strain possessing Hav6Nav5 from the
cloaca of an eastern Dunlin. Jpn J Veterin
Res 29:83-87.

Ito, S., and H. Ogi. 1999. Flight speed mea-
surement of Short-tailed Shearwaters
Pujfinus tenuirostris recorded by ship-
loading radar. J Yamashina Inst Omithol
31:88-93. [In Japanese with English
summary]

Kubota, R., T. Kunito, S . Tanabe, H. Ogi, and
Y. Shibata. 2001 . Maternal transfer of ar-
senic to eggs of Black-tailed Gull ( Larus
crassirostris) from Rishiri Island, Japan.
Appl Organometal Chem 16:463^-68.
Minami, H., M. Aotsuka, T. Terasawa, N.
Maruyama, and H. Ogi. 1995. Breeding

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 34

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD • Haruo Ogi

ecology of the Spectacled Guillemot
(Cepphus carbo) on Teuri Island. J
Yamashina Inst Ornithol 27:30^-0. [In
Japanese with English summary]

Minami, H., and H. Ogi. 1997. Determina-
tion of migratory dynamics of the Sooty
Shearwater in the Pacific using stable
carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis . Mar
Ecol Progr Ser 158:249-256.

Minami, H., M. Minagawa, and H. Ogi. 1995.
Changes in stable carbon and nitrogen
isotope ratios in Sooty and Short-tailed
shearwaters during their northward mi-
gration. Condor 97:565-574.

Nagasawa, K., V. Barns, and H. Ogi. 1998.
Stegophorus stellaepolaris (Parana, 1901)
(Nematoda: Acuariidae) collected from
Thick-billed Murres ( Uria lomvia ) of the
Bering Sea. J Yamashina Inst Ornithol
31:31-35.

Ogi, H. 1977. Ecology of the seabirds in
the Subarctic Pacific regions: food and
feeding habits of the Common Murre
( Uria aalge inornata Salomonsen) and
Thick-billed Murre ( Uria lomvia [Pal-
las]) in the Okhotsk Sea, northern North
Pacific Ocean, and Bering Sea. Ph.D.
Thesis, Hokkaido University, Hakodate,
Hokkaido, Japan.

Ogi, H . 1 980 . The pelagic feeding ecology of
Thick-billed Murres in the North Pacific,
March-June. Bull Faculty Fisheries, Hok-
kaido University 31:50-72.

Ogi, H. 1984. Feeding ecology of the Sooty
Shearwater in the western Subarctic
North Pacific Ocean. In D. N. Nettleship,
G. A. Sanger, and P. F. Springer, editors.
Marine birds: their feeding ecology
and commercial fisheries relationships.
Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, ON,
Canada, Spec Publ. Pp 78-84.

Ogi, H. 1984. Seabird mortality incidental to
the Japanese salmon gill-net fishery. In
J. P. Croxall, P. G. H. Evans, and R. W.
Schreiber, editors. Status and conserva-
tion of the world’s seabirds. International
Council for Bird Preservation, Tech Publ
No. 2. Pp 717-721.

Ogi, H. 1990. Ingestion of plastic particles
by Sooty and Short-tailed shearwaters in
the North Pacific. In R.S. Shomura and
M. F. Godfrey, editors. Proceedings of
the Second International Conference on
Marine Debris, 2-7 April 1990, Honolulu,
Hawaii. U.S. Department of Commerce,
NOAA Tech Mem NOAA-TM-NMFS-
SWFC-154. Pp 635-652.

Ogi, H. 2000. Food and feeding habits of
marine birds in western region of north-
ern North Pacific. Paper presented at the

Ninth Annual Meeting of PICES, Hok-
kaido, Japan, October 20-28, 2000.

Ogi, H. 2007. The trials of the Streaked
Shearwater on Japan’s largest uninhabited
island, Oshima-Ohshima. Ocean Policy
Res Fndn Newsletter, No. 155 (20 Janu-
ary 2007).

Ogi, H. 2008. International and national
problems in fisheries seabird by-catch. J
Disaster Res 3:187-195.

Ogi, H., H. Akutagawa, M. Yoshida, M. Sato,
Y. Hayashi, and M. Tanaka. 1994. Two
sighting records of the Black-capped
Kingfisher {Halcyon pileata) on Oshima
Ooshima Island in Hokkaido, North-
ern Japan. J Yamashina Inst Ornithol
26:140-143.

Ogi, H., and H. Fujimura. 1989. Sighting of a
Short-tailed Albatross near Buldir Island.
Bull Appl Ornithol 9:7-8.

Ogi, H., and Y. Fukumoto. 2000. A sorting
method for small plastic debris floating
on the sea surface and stranded on sandy
beaches. Bull Faculty Fisheries, Hok-
kaido University 51:71-93.

Ogi, H., and T. Hamanaka. 1982. The feeding
ecology of Uria lomvia in the northwest-
ern Bering Sea region. J Yamashina Inst
Ornithol 14:270-282.

Ogi, H., Y. Hattori, T. Yoshino, T. Yamahara,
N. Sawada, and T. Fukukawa. 1993.
Sighting of the Short-tailed Albatross
over the Bering Sea. J Yamashina Inst
Ornithol 25:102-104.

Ogi, H., M. Kiyota, H. Minami, and H. Na-
kano. 2004. Provisional Japanese com-
mon names of reclassified 24 albatross
species. J Yamashina Inst Ornithol 35:
20-226.

Ogi, H., T. Kubodera, and K. Nakamura.
1980. The pelagic feeding ecology of the
Short-tailed Shearwater ( Pujfinus tenui-
rostris ) in the Subarctic Pacific region. J
Yamashina Inst Ornithol 12:157-182.

Ogi, H., and T. Miyashita. 1991. Sighting
a Gyrfalcon in the Sea of Okhotsk. J
Yamashina Inst Ornithol 23:20-21 .

Ogi, H., K. Momose, F. Sato, and N. Baba.
1994. Plastic particles found in the stom-
ach of a starved Black-footed Albatross
(. Diomedea nigripes). J Yamashina Inst
Ornithol 26:77-80.

Ogi, H., M. W. Newcomer, H. Fujimura, and
S. Shiratori. 1999. Seasonal distribution
of the Mottled Petrel in the northwestern
North Pacific. Bull Faculty Fisheries,
Hokkaido University 50:45-59.

Ogi, H., N. Oka, and N. Maruyama. 1995.
Historical review of exploitation of
Streaked Shearwaters on Oshima

Ohshima Island by seaweed gatherers.
Wildl Conserv Jpn 1:55-67.

Ogi, H., and K. Ryu. 2001. Present status
and future guideline for conservation
of the Streaked Shearwater breeding
population on Oshima Ohshima Island,
Hokkaido. Bull Fisheries Sci, Hokkaido
University 52:71-93. [In Japanese with
English summary]

Ogi, H„ H. Sasaki, M. Ohtani, K. Wata-
nabe, M. Matsushiro, I. Shouji, and Y.
Hayasaka. 1992. Three Ardeidae species
sighted in the sea of Japan off southwest
Hokkaido. J Yamashina Inst Ornithol
24:94-95.

Ogi, H., and M. Sato. 1991. Some observa-
tions of birds on Oshima Ooshima Island,
Hokkaido, in October. Jpn J Ornithol 39:
01 - 102 .

Ogi, H., F. Sato, A. Mitanura, T. Baba, and H.
Oyama. 1994. A survey of Black-footed
Albatross breeding colonies and chicks
on Torishima, January 1994. J Yamashina
Inst Ornithol 26:126-131.

Ogi, H., K. Shimazaki, and K. Nakamura.
1981 . Sooty Shearwaters in the Subarctic
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Pelagic animals and environments around
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cific. Research Institute of North Pacific
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Ogi, H., and K. Shiomi. 1991 . Diet of murres
caught incidentally during winter in
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Ogi, H., N. Takahashi, S. Nakata, S. Ito, Y.
Matsushita, and Y. Shibata. 1999. Egg-
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Ogi, H., N. Takahashi, andT. Sekikawa. 2000.
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Ogi, H., H. Tanaka, and T. Tsujita. 1985.
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Ogi, H., H. Tanaka, and H. Yoshida. 1986.
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Ogi, H., and T. Tsujita. 1973 . Preliminary ex-
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and Bristol Bay, June-August, 1970 and
1971. Japanese J Ecol. 23: 201-209.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 35

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD • Haruo Ogi

Ogi, H., and T. Tsujita. 1977. Food and
feeding habits of Common Murre and
Thick-billed Murre in the Okhotsk Sea in
summer, 1972 and 1913. In S. Mishima,
editor. Pelagic animals and environments
around the Subarctic Boundary in the
North Pacific. Research Institute of North
Pacific Fisheries, Hokkaido University,
Spec Vol.Pp 459-517.

Ogi, H., A. Yatsu, H. Hatanaka, and A. Nitta.
1993 .The mortality of seabirds by driftnet
fisheries in the North Pacific. In J. Ito, W.
Shaw, and R. L. Burgner, editors. Sympo-
sium on biology, distribution, and stock
assessment of species caught in the high
seas drift net fisheries in the North Pacific
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Pp 105-113. [Note: Shiomi sometimes is
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Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, ON,
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Tanaka, H., H. Ogi, S.Tanabe, R.Tatsukawa,
and N. Oka. 1986. Bioaccumulation and
metabolism of PCBs and DDE in Short-
tailed Shearwater Pujfinus tenuirostris
during its transequitorial migration and
in the wintering and breeding grounds.
Mem Natl Inst Polar Res, Spec Issue
40:434-442.

Watanabe, M., T. Kunisue, M. Nakai, H.
Iwata, H. Ogi, Y. Shibata, and S. Tanabe.
2002. Accumulation features and mother-
egg transfer patterns of organochlorines in
Black-tailed Gull. Paper presented at the
2002 Annual Meeting of the Society for
Environmental Toxicology and Chemis-
try. Salt Lake City, UT.LAA

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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD • Haruo Ogi

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State University)

(-»©*)

Agusa, T., T. Matsumoto, T. Ikemoto, Y.
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X K $ £ .A <k «0 Jf .

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hemm im

X%. 1997. AAW&TtUfelfCZ)

yurxrx^ W(D^iXti%±.

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Honda, E., H. Kida, R. Yanagawa, Y.
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ilTiMTldU Vlastimil Barus^

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b Y fitzMX

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ssa

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xM'gmm

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Ogi, H., A. Yatsu, H. Hatanaka, and A.
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yyytyyy-B^r. \bmM

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English as Shiome.]

Springer, A. M., A. Y. Kondratyev, H. Ogi,
Yu. V. Shibaev, and G. B . van Vliet. 1993 .
Status, ecology, and conservation of
Synthliboramphus murrelets and auklets.
In K. Vermeer, K. T. Briggs, K. H.
Morgan, and D. Siegel-Causey, Editors.
The status, ecology, and conservation
of marine birds of the North Pacific.
Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, ON,
Canada. Spec Publ. Pp 187-201.

Tanaka, H., and H. Ogi. 1986. Evaluation
of bill furrows as an age indicator in the
Tufted Puffin Lunda cirrhata. Mem Natl
Inst Polar Res, Spec Issue 44:160-166.

Tanaka, H., H. Ogi, S. Tanabe, R. Tatsukawa,
and N. Oka. 1986. Bioaccumulation and
metabolism of PCBs and DDE in Short-
tailed Shearwater Pujfinus tenuirostris
during its transequitorial migration and
in the wintering and breeding grounds.
Mem Natl Inst Polar Res, Spec Issue
40:434-442.

Watanabe, M., T. Kunisue, M. Nakai,

H. Iwata, H. Ogi, Y. Shibata, and S.
Tanabe. 2002. Accumulation features
and mother-egg transfer patterns
of organochlorines in Black-tailed
Gull. Paper presented at the 2002
Annual Meeting of the Society for
Environmental Toxicology and
Chemistry. Salt Lake City, UT.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 39

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: YUTAKA WATANUKI

James Lovvorn

At its annual meeting in Hakodate,
Japan in February 2009, the Pacific Sea-
bird Group presented a Special Achieve-
ment Award to Yutaka Watanuki. This
award is presented periodically to an
individual who has provided exceptional,
long-term service to PSG, or who has
shown outstanding and exemplary ac-
complishment in seabird research, edu-
cation, or conservation. In fact, Yutaka
has an extraordinary record on all these
counts. Yutaka is the tenth recipient of
this award since its establishment in
1993, and the second from Japan (along
with Hiroshi Hasegawa).

One of the stated goals of PSG when
it was formed was to increase seabird
research by facilitating exchange of
information, with the geographic scope
being the entire Pacific Basin. Among
PSG members, there are very few who
rival Yutaka in promoting exchange of
information across the Pacific Ocean, and
fostering collaborative research not only
among workers in the Pacific region but
also the North Atlantic, Arctic, and Ant-
arctic. Beyond his own initiatives, Yutaka
has shown exceptional dedication to
guiding students along the same path. At
PSG’s annual meetings (which he began
attending in 1994), Yutaka brings several

students with him from Japan. We have
all benefited from seeing their unique
and high-quality work, and have gained
valuable insights from conversations
with them. Yutaka has had the vision
to know that his legacy of communica-
tion and collaboration will have lasting
impact only if he instills the same values
in students. His commitment to this ap-
proach has not been occasional, but every
year for the last decade and a half.

Yutaka is currently an Associate
Professor in the Graduate School of
Fisheries Sciences at Hokkaido Univer-
sity. He is co-leader of the Laboratory
of Marine Ecology, where there are cur-
rently 27 graduate students at M.S. and
Ph.D. levels. Over the last three decades,
Yutaka and his students have worked on
an array of seabird species. In the North-
ern Hemisphere, he started at Hokkaido
University with his M.S. thesis (1983) on
behavioral interactions between Leach’s
Storm-Petrels ( Oceanodroma leucorhoa )
and Slaty-backed Gulls ( Larus schistisa-
gus), followed by his Ph.D. dissertation
(1987) comparing the diets and breeding
biology of Slaty -backed and Black-tailed
(L. crassirostris ) Gulls. Since then he has
also published work on Black-legged
Kitti wakes ( Rissa tridactyla). Streaked
Shearwaters ( Calonectris leucomelas ),
and Japanese Cormorants ( Phalacro -
corax capillatus ), with some of his best
recent research on the diving behavior of
European Shags ( Phalacrocorax aristo-
telis ), Common and Thick-billed Murres
( Uria aalge and U. lomvia). Rhinoceros
Auklets ( Cerorhinca monocerata ), and
Razorbills (, Alca torda ). In the South-
ern Hemisphere, he has studied Em-
peror ( Aptenodytes forsteri ), Macaroni
( Eudyptes chrysolophus ), and especially
Adelie ( Pygoscelis adeliae) Penguins, as
well as King Cormorants (. Phalacrocorax
atriceps ) . When not researching birds, he
also managed to publish several papers
on Japanese monkeys ( Macaca Juscata ) .
Since 1982, Yutaka has authored or co-
authored close to 100 scientific papers.

Throughout his career, Yutaka has
continued traditional ecological studies
on the diets and breeding biology of a va-
riety of seabird species. Over the last 17
years he has maintained a long-term sea-
bird monitoring program on Teuri Island,
which has the world’s largest Rhinoceros
Auklet colony at over 300,000 pairs . This
year he will receive the Oshima Prize
from the Japanese Society of Ecology
for his work on Teuri Island.

Outside Japan, Yutaka is perhaps
best known for his work with bird-borne
electronic devices. In particular, he has
made outstanding contributions through
use of micrologging accelerometers,
which have revealed a great deal about
how birds regulate the allocation of
energy throughout dives. He and his
colleagues have shown that various
alcids, cormorants, and Little Penguins
0 Eudyptula minor ) alter their speeds and
stroke rates throughout dives to offset
changes in buoyancy, probably to keep
work per stroke against drag and buoy-
ancy combined within a relatively narrow
range. (Watanuki et al. 2003, Lovvorn
et al. 2004, Watanuki et al. 2005, 2006).
He recently contributed to a paper with
Katsufumi Sato (Sato et al. 2007) show-
ing that over a very wide range of body
mass from cormorants to killer whales
( Orcinus orca ), stroke rates decrease
allometrically as body mass increases,

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 40

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD • Yutaka Watanuki

Watanuki persuading cormorant . . .

results in differences in wing size or
muscle function that make it hard to
generalize from larger birds to alcids. In
that regard, Yutaka has also worked with
Yasuaki Niizuma and others to determine

. . . and instructing students

Francis Daunt to study the diving pat-
terns of alcids and cormorants. His work
to organize the annual PSG meeting in
Hakodate, including the symposium
on use of new approaches to studies of
diving in seabirds, reflects Yutaka’s com-
mitment to spreading the word about new
methods and finding novel opportunities
to apply them.

Yutaka has been active in a variety
of meetings that promote communication
among researchers as well as conserva-
tion initiatives. He is a member of the
PICES Advisory Panel on Marine Birds
and Mammals, and at the 2006 PICES
meeting in Yokohama he convened
(along with Syoichiro Minobe and Bill
Sydeman) a workshop entitled “Re-
sponse of marine mammals and seabirds
to large-scale and long-term climate
change: mechanisms of environmental
forcing.” In Hakodate in 2007, he hosted
the Third Joint China- Japan-Korea GLO-
BEC Symposium on the relationship
between environmental variation and
ecosystem responses in the northwest
Pacific. At the 2001 PSG meeting in

while mean swim speeds stay between 1
and 2 m per second no matter how large
the animal .

This valuable collection of data
begs many questions about why there
is such remarkable constancy of swim
speed regardless of body size. This pat-
tern may reflect inherent constraints of
muscle function or fluid dynamics, but
perhaps not. Interestingly, alcids rang-
ing in size from Rhinoceros Auklets to
murres did not follow the scaling rule.
This discrepancy suggests that retaining
the ability to fly both in air and water

that, in contrast to larger penguins and
cormorants whose body temperatures
can fall substantially during dives, body
temperatures in Thick-billed Murres
stay high throughout dives (Niizuma et
al. 2007). This finding again suggests
that the diving energetics of alcids may
differ from that of larger penguins or
cormorants, stimulating further research
to find explanations .

As useful as data on dive depths,
swim speeds, and acceleration patterns
are, there is still much to learn about
habitat use and food-searching methods.
More recently, Yutaka has started explor-
ing the use of miniature video cameras at-
tached to the birds (Watnuki et al. 2008),
which should eventually revolutionize
our understanding of habitat and prey
relationships of species large enough to
carry these devices.

In Japan, Yutaka is part of a group
of outstanding scientists who are working
hard to develop new logger technology
and to discover new ways to apply that
technology to important questions. But
Yutaka has also done an impressive job
of working with a variety of people
throughout the world to spread the use
of that technology. On the Isle of May in
Scotland, in particular, he has collaborated
with the group of
Sarah Wanless,
Mike Harris, and

With students at research camp on Ogasawara . . .

. . . and in the rain

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 41

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD • Yutaka Watanuki

Hawaii, Yutaka organized (with Harry
Carter, Kim Nelson, and Koji Ono) a
symposium on the “Biology, status,
and conservation of Japanese seabirds”;
proceedings were later published in the
Journal of the Yamashina Institute for
Ornithology . Yutaka was Chair of the
local committee for the annual PSG
meeting in Hakodate in 2009, where he
organized a symposium entitled “Work-
ing beneath the surface: new approaches
in examining the interplay of biomechan-
ics, physiology and behavioral ecology in
diving seabirds.” A series of papers pre-
sented at this symposium were recently
published (. Aquatic Biology 8[3], 2009).

As a collaborator, Yutaka is well
known for his hard work, good humor,
generosity, and complete dedication
to science, seabirds, and the people he
has worked with. His strong and con-
sistent commitment to student training
and communication among research-
ers throughout the world is exem-
plary. Yutaka has provided a pan-Pacific

dimension to this organization that has
been invaluable. The Pacific Seabird
Group is especially honored to present
a Special Achievement Award to Yutaka
Watanuki .

LITERATURE CITED

Lovvom, J.R., Y. Watanuki, A. Kato, Y. Naito,
and G.A. Liggin. 2004. Stroke patterns
and regulation of swim speed and energy
cost in free-ranging Briinnich’s Guille-
mots. J Exp Biol 207:4679^1695.
Niizuma, Y„ G.W. Gabrielsen, K. Sato, Y.
Watanuki, and Y. Naito. 2007. Briinnich’s
Guillemots ( Uria lomvia) maintain
high temperature in the body core dur-
ing dives. Comp Biochem Physiol A
147:438^144.

Sato, K., Y. Watanuki, A. Takahashi, PJ.O.
Miller, H. Tanaka, R. Kawabe, P. Ponga-
nis, Y. Handrich, T. Akamatsu, Y. Wata-
nabe, Y. Mitani, D. Costa, C.-A. Bost, A.
Kagari, M.Amono, PTrathan, A. Sapiro,
Y. and Naito. 2007. Stroke frequency,
but not swimming speed, is related to

body size in free-ranging seabirds, pin-
nipeds and cetaceans. Proc R Soc Lon.
B 274:471-477.

Watanuki, Y., F. Daunt, A. Takahashi, M.
Newell, S. Wanless, K. Sato, and N. Mi-
yazaki. 2008. Microhabitat use and prey
capture of a bottom-feeding top predator,
the European Shag, shown by camera log-
gers. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 356:283-293 .

Watanuki, Y., Y. Niizuma, G.W. Gabrielsen,
K. Sato, and Y. Naito. 2003. Stroke and
glide of wing-propelled divers: deep
diving seabirds adjust surge frequency to
buoyancy change with depth. Proc R Soc
Lond B 270:483^188.

Watanuki, Y., A . Takahashi, F. Daunt, S . Wan-
less, M. Harris, K. Sato, and Y. Naito.
2005. Regulation of stroke and glide in
a foot-propelled avian diver. J Exp Biol
208:2207-2216.

Watanuki, Y., S. Wanless, M. Harris, J.R.
Lovvorn, M. Miyazaki, H. Tanaka, and
K. Sato. 2006. Swim speeds and stroke
patterns in wing-propelled divers: a
comparison of alcids and a penguin.
J Exp Biol 209:1217-1230.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 42

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD • Yutaka Watanuki

Jim Lovvorn

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(Translation: Yasuko Suzuki, Oregon
State University)

#a.IS;»

Lovvorn, J.R., Y. Watanuki, A. Kato, Y.
Naito, and G A. Liggin. 2004. Stroke pat-
terns and regulation of swim speed and
energy cost in free-ranging BriinniclTs
Guillemots. J Exp Biol 207:4679^-695.
Niizuma, Y., G.W. Gabrielsen, K. Sato,
Y. Watanuki, and Y. Naito. 2007.
BriinniclTs Guillemots ( Uria lomvia )
maintain high temperature in the body
core during dives. Comp Biochem
Physio. A 147:438^-44.

Sato, K., Y. Watanuki, A. Takahashi, PJ.O.
Miller, H. Tanaka, R. Kawabe, P.
Ponganis, Y. Handrich, T. Akamatsu, Y.
Watanabe, Y. Mitani, D. Costa, C.-A.
Bost, A. Kagari, M. Amono, P. Trathan,
A. Sapiro, Y. and Naito. 2007. Stroke
frequency, but not swimming speed, is
related to body size in free-ranging sea-
birds, pinnipeds and cetaceans. Proc R
Soc Lond B 274:471-477.

Watanuki, Y., F. Daunt, A. Takahashi,

M. Newell, S. Wanless, K. Sato, and

N. Miyazaki. 2008. Microhabitat use
and prey capture of a bottom-feeding
top predator, the European Shag, shown
by camera loggers. Mar Ecol Prog Ser
356:283-293.

Watanuki, Y., Y. Niizuma, G.W. Gabrielsen,
K. Sato, and Y. Naito. 2003. Stroke and
glide of wing-propelled divers: deep div-
ing seabirds adjust surge frequency to
buoyancy change with depth. Proc R Soc
Lond B 270:483^188.

Watanuki, Y., A. Takahashi, F. Daunt, S.
Wanless, M. Harris, K. Sato, and Y.
Naito. 2005. Regulation of stroke and
glide in a foot-propelled avian diver. J
Exp Biol 208:2207-2216.

Watanuki, Y., S. Wanless, M. Harris, J.R.
Lovvorn, M. Miyazaki, H. Tanaka, and
K. Sato. 2006. Swim speeds and stroke
patterns in wing-propelled divers: a
comparison of alcids and a penguin. J
Exp Biol 209:1217-1230.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 44

CONSERVATION REPORT, SUMMER 2010

Compiled by Craig S. Harrison

CONSERVATION OF
NEWELL’S SHEARWATERS
AND HAWAIIAN PETRELS

The populations of threatened
Newell’s Shearwaters ( Pujfinus newelli )
and endangered Hawaiian Petrels ( Ptero -
droma sandwichensis ) may be declining
rapidly, which has prompted several re-
cent actions by the U.S . Fish and Wildlife
Service (USFWS) and environmental
organizations. Newell’s Shearwaters
were once part of the diet of native Ha-
waiians, and they were thought be near
extinction until a pig hunter in Anahola
Mountains on Kauai discovered a colony
in 1967. In the late 1980s the population
was estimated to be 4,000 to 6,000. The
center of its range is on Kauai, largely
because the Indian mongoose ( Herpestes
javanicus) has not become established
there. The colonies are very difficult to
find and census, which makes accurate
populations estimates difficult. During
the fledging season (late September to
early December), Newell’s Shearwaters
and Hawaiian Petrels heading to sea are
attracted to bright lights such as street
lamps and hotels and resorts. Trapped
in the glare, confused birds circle repeat-
edly until they fall to the ground from
exhaustion or strike buildings . The “Save
Our Shearwater (“SOS”) program has
operated since the 1980s and has rescued
over 30,000 downed shearwaters. Ac-
cording to some estimates, the Newell’s
Shearwater population on Kauai has
declined by 75% from 1993 to 2008.

In May 2010, four environmental
groups sued Starwood Hotels, alleging
that its St. Regis Princeville Resort is
responsible for over one-quarter of
downed Newell’s Shearwaters on Kau-
ai because the shearwaters are attracted
to bright lights at the resort. The com-
plaint alleges that the resort’s failure to
prevent the ongoing deaths violates the

Endangered Species Act (ESA). The St.
Regis resort recently completed a $100
million renovation that reportedly in-
cluded some lighting changes. In March
2010, a similar suit was brought against
Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, alleg-
ing that another significant cause of harm
comes from birds hitting the utility’s
power lines. The U.S. Department of
Justice obtained a criminal indictment of
the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative in
May 2010 for violations of the ESA and
the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).
The utility responded that it has not
violated the criminal provisions of ei-
ther the ESA or the MBTA and is doing
everything reasonably possible to protect
the seabirds. It stated that it has been
working with USFWS to come up with
a Habitat Conservation Plan that would
allow incidental take of shearwaters and
petrels (. Pacific Seabirds 29:98, 2002;
Pacific Seabirds 31:52-53, 2004). The
utility claimed that it has been working
diligently for the past decade with every
state and federal government agency and
other stakeholders to achieve workable
solutions to protect endangered Hawaiian
seabirds. PSG has written many letters
during the past decade to the utility and
to USFWS to try to improve conserva-
tion efforts on Newell’s Shearwaters
{Pacific Seabirds 26:11, 1999; Pacific
Seabirds 27:23, 2000; Pacific Seabirds
28:13,2001).

PROTECTION OF
SEABIRDS AT KAENA
POINT, HAWAII

The erection of a predator-exclusion
fence at Kaena Point, the northernmost
tip of Oahu, is slowly moving forward.
The fence is designed to eliminate

predation that dogs, cats, mongoose and
rats cause to seabirds, including Laysan
Albatross {Phoebastria immutabilis ), at
the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve
{Pacific Seabirds 35:35, 2008). The
final public hearing was held in January
2010 and the project was unanimously
approved by the Hawaii Board of Land
and Natural Resources. The public is
overwhelmingly supportive of erecting
the fence and the Packard Foundation
has provided funding to remove rodents
and to begin work on seabird restoration
and social attraction. Unfortunately, an
individual filed a contested case ap-
peal, which has delayed construction.
It is anticipated that the project will be
completed before the Laysan Albatross
breeding season begins this winter.

NORTH PACIFIC
ALBATROSSES ADDED TO
ACAP

The Agreement on the Conservation
of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) is
an international treaty between fishing
nations for the protection of albatrosses
and petrels. Many of these wide-rang-
ing seabirds are threatened with extinc-
tion or population declines due to poor
fishing practices, pollution, and inva-
sive species on their breeding islands.
Member nations of ACAP agree to take
actions necessary to conserve these
birds, including protection of breeding
colonies and reducing albatross and
petrel bycatch in fisheries. In November
2009, the parties to ACAP unanimously
added all three North Pacific species of
albatross — Short-tailed Albatross {Phoe-
bastria albatrus ), Laysan Albatross, and
Black-footed Albatross {P. nigripes)— to
their official list. With these additions,
all 22 species of albatrosses together
with seven southern hemisphere petrels

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 45

CONSERVATION REPORT

are protected by ACAP. US and Japanese
delegates to the meeting in Bergen, Nor-
way, gave a presentation demonstrating
how close the objectives of those cur-
rently working to conserve these three
albatrosses were to those of ACAP, and
how mutual benefits would derive from
providing the protections of ACAP to
these species. In September 2008, Presi-
dent Bush had already submitted ACAP
to the Senate for approval, which requires
a two-thirds majority.

PSG wrote to Senator Barbara Boxer
(D-Calif .) and Congressman Nick Rahall
(D-W. Va.) in August 2009, requesting
their support for ratification of ACAP
and the enactment of implementing leg-
islation ( Pacific Seabirds 36:6-7, 2009).
Boxer and Rahall are key members of
Congress because of their positions as
chairs of the Senate Environment and
House Natural Resources committees;
however, to date there has been no prog-
ress in either body. Eleven countries are
parties to ACAP: Argentina, Australia,
Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, France, New
Zealand, Peru, South Africa, Spain, and
United Kingdom.

ICC AT FAILS TO ACT TO
CONSERVE ALBATROSSES

The International Commission
for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
(ICCAT) again failed to take actions to
reduce impacts on albatrosses during its
annual meeting in November 2009 in
Refice, Brazil. ICCAT had conducted a
three-year seabird risk assessment, which
concluded that tuna and swordfish long-
line fishing have significant impacts on
Atlantic seabird populations . More than
40 fishing nations are members of IC-
CAT, and they control longline fisheries
that each year set hundreds of millions of
hooks in the Atlantic. Several proposals
during the meeting would have reduced
the number of seabirds being killed.
No agreements were reached because
some members wanted to include miti-
gation measures that others believe are
unproven.

PERU PROTECTS GUANO
ISLANDS AND VAST
ASSOCIATED MARINE
AREA

Peru announced in December 2009
that it has added 22 “guano islands,” 11
peninsulas (guano reserves), and adja-
cent waters along its coast to its national
system of protected areas. This decision
is unprecedented in South America. The
protected areas cover about 140,000 ha,
including waters 3 km offshore. The rich
Humboldt Current just off Peru’s coast
nourishes the most productive marine
ecosystem in the world, attracting mil-
lions of seabirds to breed on coastal
islands and mainland peninsulas, as well
as sea turtles and marine mammals. The
twelve seabird species protected include
the Peruvian Diving-Petrel ( Pelecanoi -
des garnotii), which nests in burrows
dug into guano. The guano that ac-
cumulates at these seabird colonies is
a much sought-after organic fertilizer
that drove Peru’s economy for decades.
The guano islands of Peru were once an
international model of excellence in sea-
bird management. After bird populations
crashed in the early 20th century due to
guano extraction, Peruvian managers
implemented strict protections for the
islands so that guano could be extracted
with minimal impacts to the birds that
produced it. These improvements qua-
drupled the bird populations by about
1960. The guano market crashed with
the advent of chemical fertilizers and
overfishing of the seabird’s main prey
species— the Peruvian anchovy ( En -
graulis ringens ) . When the once-thriving
colonies were left under-protected, many
quickly succumbed to introduced preda-
tors and human disturbance, including
harvest of the birds.

USFWS CONTINUES
ESA PROTECTION FOR
MARBLED MURRELET

In January 2010, USFWS announced
that the threatened Marbled Murrelet

(Br achyr amphus marmoratus) will
remain listed under the Endangered Spe-
cies Act (ESA) . The proposal to delist the
species was based on the assertion that
the murrelet’s population in Washington,
Oregon, and northern California is not
distinct from other murrelet populations
in British Columbia and Alaska. There
have been several attempts to remove
the Marbled Murrelet from the list of
threatened species during recent years,
and PSG has consistently opposed all
such efforts.

PSG OPPOSES TIMBER
HARVEST IN CALIFORNIA

PSG filed comments with the Cali-
fornia Department of Forestry in March
2010 concerning a proposed timber
harvest in 14 ha of Marbled Murrelet
nesting habitat in northern and central
California. PSG explained its concern
that the cumulative impacts of mul-
tiple timber harvests could significantly
impact conservation efforts for this
threatened species. PSG noted that the
species was listed as threatened in 1992
primarily because of significant losses
of its nesting habitat to logging and de-
velopment in Pacific coastal forests.
Moreover, an objective of the Marbled
Murrelet recovery plan is to stabilize the
population and work for its recovery, by
maintaining and/or increasing produc-
tivity and removing and/or minimizing
threats to survivorship. If murrelets are
to have a good chance of surviving over
the next 100 years, in spite of the loss or
depletion of so much murrelet habitat in
California, it is important to protect all
remaining habitat, regardless of its size.
The current amount of old-growth forest
in California has been reduced by more
than 96% from pre-logging levels. This
is especially serious from Mendocino
County south through San Mateo County,
where populations have been particularly
impacted by the reduced amount of suit-
able nesting habitat.

The Marbled Murrelet population in
Washington, Oregon, and California is

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 46

CONSERVATION REPORT

estimated to be 22,000 birds. Modeling
indicates that this population is declin-
ing, and that it will be extinct in parts of
those states within 100 years, unless the
amount and quality of nesting habitat
improve and demographic trends recover.
Despite PSG’s objections, the timber
harvest was approved in May 2010. The
California Forestry Department conclud-
ed, among other things, that if the 14-ha
parcel were not logged, it would likely
be subdivided into residential property,
and the resulting habitat would be even
worse for Marbled Murrelets and other
forest species.

RADAR RIDGE WIND
TURBINE PROJECT

PSG expressed its concerns to the
Washington Department of Natural
Resources (WDNR) in June 2009 about
a proposal to locate 32 wind turbines
on state land at Radar Ridge in Pacific
County, Washington ( Pacific Seabirds
36:7-8, 2009). The site is located within
the Nemah Marbled Murrelet Manage-
ment Area. PSG discussed the impacts of
this development on Marbled Murrelets,
which are listed as threatened under the
ESA. The project continues to move
forward, and in June 2010 PSG wrote to
USFWS concerning the agency’s notice
of intent to prepare an environmental
impact statement. PSG reiterated the
concerns that it had previously expressed
to Washington State officials, and asked
that these issues be included as part of the
public scoping process to identify what
must be addressed during the environ-
mental review process. PSG is concerned
that the location of this particular project
will likely result in direct mortality of
murrelets that nest adjacent to the facility.
There is also significant risk of long-term
adverse effects to Marbled Murrelet con-
servation and recovery on a landscape
identified as critical for species recovery.
Most of the surrounding forest is identi-
fied as critical nesting habitat, because
it is important for long-term recovery of

the Marbled Murrelet. The area has been
so designated by the federal recovery
plan, and also by the Marbled Murrelet
Science Team of WDNR.

PSG opposes this wind turbine proj-
ect because of its potential impacts on a
threatened species, for whose recovery
the surrounding forest has been desig-
nated as critical. PSG does not object to
all wind turbine projects in general.

MORE SEABIRDS LISTED
AS ENDANGERED

In September 2009 and January
2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice formally listed five more species
as endangered under the ESA: Chatham
Petrel ( Pterodroma axillaris ), Fiji Petrel
(. Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi). Ma-
genta Petrel ( Pterodroma magentae ),
Galapagos Petrel (. Pterodroma phaeopy-
gia ) and Heinroth’s Shearwater ( Pujfinus
heinrothi). Population declines in all
the species were ascribed primarily to
predation by introduced rats, cats, pigs,
and dogs, and the adverse effects of
non-native invasive plants. The addition
of a foreign species to the federal list of
threatened and endangered species places
restrictions on the importation of either
the seabird or its parts .

At the same time, USFWS declined
to list the Cook’s Petrel ( Pterodroma
cookii ) as threatened or endangered,
saying its review has shown the species
is unlikely to become endangered in a
significant portion of its range within the
foreseeable future. The Cook’s Petrel had
been included along with the other five
species in the agency’s 2007 proposal for
listing under the ESA.

VANUATU PETREL
SIGHTED

An expedition led by Peter Harri-
son to New Guinea on the MV Clipper

Odyssey in 2010 provided opportunities
to observe several rare and little known
seabird species. These included the re-
cently rediscovered New Zealand Storm-
Petrel ( Oceanites maorianus ), Beck’s Pe-
trel ( Pseudobulweria becki), Heinroth’s
Shearwaters, Tropical Shearwaters
{Pujfinus bailloni dichrous— formerly
classified with Audubon’s Shearwater,
Pujfinus Iherminieri) , Collared Petrels
(. Pterodroma brevipes). Black- winged
Petrels {Pterodroma nigripennis ), Ta-
hiti Petrels {Pseudobulweria ro strata)
and White-necked Petrels {Pterodroma
cervicalis ) .

The most significant sightings and
photographs were of Vanuatu Petrels
{Pterodroma occulta ). This species has
not been seen at sea for 83 years, and
has never before been photographed
over the ocean. It was previously known
only from seven museum skins, and
has only been seen twice since it was
originally collected in January 1927. It
was observed in the northern Vanuatu
Islands, just 60 miles from where the
original type specimen was collected by
Rollo Beck during the Whitney South
Seas Expedition.

The sightings of this long-lost
seabird species occurred during the
northward voyage from New Zealand
to Papua New Guinea. The expedition
visited several remote and seldom visited
island groups in their quest for seabirds,
including New Caledonia, the Vanuatu
archipelago and the Solomon Islands.
Twenty-one individual Vanuatu Petrels
were seen over a three-day period. Sight-
ings culminated on 8 February, when 1 1
birds were observed during a one-hour
period. Of special significance is that
nine of these birds were sitting, rafting
on the sea just before dusk in front of
several offshore rock stacks. These islets
may indicate a possible breeding haven
for this enigmatic species. In addition
to the six specimens collected at sea in
1927 off the island of Mera Lava, Banks
Islands, northern Vanuatu, one other
specimen was found dead in 1983 on
a roadside in New South Wales, Aus-
tralia. In February 2009, a few Vanuatu
Petrels were discovered breeding in the

Pacijic Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 47

CONSERVATION REPORT

mountains of Vanua Lava. The sightings
of 21 individual Vanuatu Petrels at sea, in
the same geographic area and at virtually
the same time of year as the original 1927
sightings, are especially noteworthy.
Harrison’s observations confirm that the
species still exists.

The Vanuatu Petrel was actually de-
scribed as a distinct species only in 1976.
The six original specimens obtained by
the American Museum of Natural History
Whitney South Sea Expedition in 1927
were not recognized as different from
the very similar White-necked Petrel.
However, in the 1970s a New Zealand
ornithologist, R. A. Falla, recognized it
as a smaller, distinct form.

ALASKA MARITIME
REFUGE CONTINUES
TO REMOVE INVASIVE
SPECIES FROM ISLANDS

In February 2010, PSG endorsed
the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife
Refuge’s environmental assessment of
its plans to eradicate invasive species
and to restore habitat on Tangik, Poa, and
Sud Islands. USFWS wants to eradicate
exotic European rabbits ( Oryctolagus
cuniculus) from Tangik and Poa Islands
in the eastern Aleutian Islands, and
to remove introduced hoary marmots
(. Marmota caligata) from Sud Island
in the Barren Islands group, Gulf of
Alaska. PSG stated its conviction that the
removal of invasive species from island
ecosystems can provide one the greatest
paybacks per dollar spent on wildlife
conservation efforts.

RAT ERADICATION IN
OGASAWARA ISLANDS

A team led by Dr. T. Hashimoto
carried out a large-scale invasive rodent
eradication campaign in the Ogasawara

(Bonin) Islands from the end of January
to early March 2010. The team dropped
diphacinone rodenticide by helicopter.
The effort was an attempt to eradicate
black rats ( Rattus rattus ) and in some
locations house mice ( Mus musculus ) on
Mukojima (257 ha), Anijima (785 ha),
Otoutojima (530 ha), Nishijima (49 ha),
Higashijima (28 ha) and other several
small islands and islets. As a separate
task, Tatsuo Yabe conducted a survey
for rodents on Chichijima (2,395 ha) and
Minamijima (34 ha) islands, also part
of the Ogasawara Group. Dr. Yabe also
reported an earlier attempt to eradication
rats from Nishijima failed, as rats evi-
dently have reinvaded. The International
Union for the Conservation of Nature
(ICUN) is in the process of evaluating the
Ogasawara Islands for possible designa-
tion as a World Heritage site.

CHINESE CRESTED TERN
UPDATE

PSG has been working to catalyze
conservation actions to save the Chinese
Crested Tern ( Thalasseusa bernsteini ),
based on our Taiwan conference in 2007.
To this end, former PSG chair Verena Gill
attended the 2009 International Sym-
posium of Chinese Crested Tern. The
meeting took place in November 2009 on
the Matsu Islands in Taiwan. The Matsu
Islands are the main breeding grounds
for Chinese Crested Terns and are only 5
km from mainland China. The Japanese
biologist Dr Tatsuo Yabe, who special-
izes in rodent eradication on seabird
islands, also attended. The objective of
the meeting was to update everyone on
results from the 2009 surveys, share in-
formation on this species, and to discuss
future research.

A synchronized survey was un-
dertaken in 2009 by both the Chinese
and Taiwanese, in an effort to count all
Chinese Crested Terns and identify new
breeding sites. Known breeding sites
were surveyed simultaneously on 6 and
21 June, 5 and 19 July, and 12 and 23

August 2009. The maximum total count
was 22 individuals (17 adults and 5
chicks) - this is about half of the world’s
estimated population.

In the spring of 2010, Dr. Yabe
began a rat assessment on the Matsu
Islands and discovered the lesser rice
rat (Rattus losea) was present on one
island. It is apparently omnivorous and
a potential threat to the terns. Plans are
now underway for fall 2010 surveys and
eventual rat eradication.

MANAGEMENT OF WHITE
PELICANS

In May 2010, PSG expressed its
concerns to USFWS about the manage-
ment of White Pelicans (Pelecanus eryth-
rorhynchos), especially in the state of
Idaho. Idaho officials are taking actions
to reduce the numbers of White Pelicans
in ways that could be detrimental to the
management of the species as a whole. In
2009, the Idaho Department of Fish and
Game attempted to obtain a permit under
the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to shoot
White Pelicans and/or oil their eggs, in
order to reduce by half the population
of this species in southern and eastern
Idaho. USFWS declined to issue such a
permit on the grounds that it constituted
an inappropriate eradication program.
However, recent press reports state that
in 2010 Idaho officials have released
predators such as badgers ( Taxidea taxus)
and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis )
on Gull Island in the Blackfoot Reser-
voir. Apparently Idaho officials are tak-
ing these actions after being pressured
by fishermen, who believe that White
Pelicans are responsible for eating too
many game fish, including Yellowstone
cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii
bouvieri ) .

PSG expressed two primary con-
cerns. First, White Pelicans are pro-
tected by the federal Migratory Bird
Treaty Act, and releasing predators on
a nesting island seems a circumvention

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 48

CONSERVATION REPORT

of the federal permit program, which
exists to ensure that all migratory birds
are managed rationally. Piscivorous birds
are often unfairly blamed for declines in
sport fisheries and commercial fisheries,
without compelling evidence as to what
role (if any) they actually play. Decisions
about the management of White Pelicans
should be based on rigorous scientific
analysis that puts the impacts of pelicans
on any particular fish stock into the con-
text of other factors affecting that stock,
such as drought or water management
for other purposes (e.g., withdrawals for
irrigated agriculture).

Our second concern is that releas-
ing predators into any bird colony is
problematic. PSG as an organization and
its members have spent vast amounts
of time, effort and resources to reverse
the impacts of predator introductions in

seabird colonies throughout the Pacific.
There is no reason to believe that badgers
and skunks will “target” their predation
to any specific species, and there could
be severe unintended consequences
from such actions. For example, seabird
populations have suffered dramatically
from the introduction of foxes to many
Aleutian Islands, mustelids to other
islands in Alaska, mongooses to islands
in Hawaii, brown tree snakes ( Boiga ir-
regularis) to Guam, and rats to islands
around the world.

PSG concluded that White Peli-
cans in Idaho should be managed in a
regional or fly way context. The state of
Washington lists the White Pelican as
endangered, and Idaho itself considers
it to be a species of special concern. Or-
egon and California might be interested
in enhancing their pelican populations

within their boundaries. Pelican popula-
tions in all three of these states probably
are strongly linked to those in Idaho.
Overall, the American White Pelican
population in western North America is
much smaller than east of the Continental
Divide, and management decisions in
the west should consider that smaller
population level.

PSG urged USFWS to work col-
laboratively with Idaho officials on
White Pelican problems in the spirit of
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives,
thereby ensuring that management of the
species is based on a rigorous scientific
approach and multi-state management is-
sues. (Landscape Conservation Coopera-
tives are consortiums of agencies, states,
and other entities that were proposed in
2009 by USFWS, for coordination of
work on widespread threats to species.)

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 49

MEETING NEWS -FALL 2010

FIRST WORLD SEABIRD CONFERENCE

The first World Seabird Conference
is barely a month away! More than 800
participants from at least 40 nations
will fill the Victoria Conference Centre
in Victoria, British Columbia in early
September 2010. Scientific sessions on
8-1 1 September will feature major sym-
posia, invited papers, contributed papers,
posters, films, and workshops. Various
committees will meet on 7 September,
including PSG’s Executive Council.

Primary symposia will include:

• Climate Change Comparative Eco-

system Dynamics of the World's
Oceans

• Interactions between Seabirds and

Fisheries: A Global Perspective

• Spatial Ecology At Sea: Opportunities

and Challenges for Seabird Marine
Protected Areas

• Seabird Island Ecology and Restora-

tion: A Global Synthesis

Special paper sessions will in-
clude:

• Interactive Effects of Chemical Con-

taminants, Parasites, and Stressors
on Seabirds

• Seabird Phenotypic Plasticity and

Microevolution

• Marine Debris

• Seabird Demography

• Technological and Analytical Innova-

tion in Seabird Research

• Longterm Monitoring

• Evolutionary and Conservation Ge-

netics of Seabirds

• Seabirds and Economy: Are We Miss-

ing the Link, or the Entire Ark?

• Managing Forage Fisheries for Feed,

Food, and Prey

The chair of the Scientific Program
Committee is Patrick Jodice (Pjodice@
clemson.edu).

Workshops

A dozen interrelated workshops
will consider the enhancement of inter-
national cooperation in seabird work.

• Introduction to the Aims of the Legacy

Workshops

• Seabirds.net (Web portal for seabird

professionals)

• Introduction to Linking Seabird Da-

tabases

• Distributed Versus Centralized Data-

bases: Decision Points

• World Seabird Colony Register

• Seabird Tracking Databases

• Seabird At-Sea Survey Databases

• Seabird Productivity and Population

Indices

• World Seabird Monitoring database

• World Seabird Governing Commit-

tee

• Tracking and At-Sea Database Inter-

communication

• Mortality Events

Evening social activities will include
poster sessions, a film festival, and a
banquet. Registration for the conference
is still open. For more information, see
the conference’s website, http://www.
worldseabirdconference.com

The International Steering Commit-
tee includes reprersentatives of more than
two dozen professional seabird organiza-
tions worldwide. Its chair is David Irons
(David_Irons@fws .gov) . The conference
is being supported by a number of gov-
ernment and private donors (donations
of any size are welcome) .

The First World Seabird Confer-
ence will provide an unprecedented
forum for the exchange of information
among seabird scientists. In addition, the
Legacy Workshops should lead to a new
level of international collaboration. The
conference is likely to influence seabird
science and conservation for many years
to come.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 50

REGIONAL REPORTS FOR 2009

Regional Reports summarize current seabird work of interest to PSG members. Regional
Reports generally are organized by location of the work, not by affiliation of
the biologist. They should not be cited without permission of the researchers.

ALASKA

Compiled by Heather Renner

Brachyramphus murrelets

Matt Kirchhoff (Audubon Alaska),
Sadie Wright (Endangered Species,
Alaska Department of Fish and Game
[ADFG]), and Karen Blejwas (Non-
game, ADFG) were principal investi-
gators on surveys of Brachyramphus
murrelets in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Field
crews completed 3 resurveys of a set of
transects that were established by the
U.S . Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
in 1993. Preliminary results show the
density of Marbled Murrelets ( B . mar-
moratus) was unchanged, and the density
of Kittlitz’s Murrelets ( B . brevirostris )
increased relative to 1993 levels. Field
crews also monitored murrelet atten-
dance patterns, activity budgets, dive
characteristics, and prey-capture success
in habitats with varying levels of glacial
influence. A report on the Glacier Bay
studies will be available at year-end.

Mayumi Arimitsu of the U.S. Geo-
logical Survey (USGS) finished her MS
in fisheries at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks (UAF) School of Fisheries
in Juneau. She studied prey availability
and environmental gradients relative to
glacial features in Kittlitz’s Murrelet
foraging habitat in Kenai Fjords National
Park, Alaska during 2007-2008.

Michelle Kissling (USFWS) and
Scott Gende of the National Park
Service (NPS) continued research on
Kittlitz’s Murrelets in Icy Bay. In 2009,
they captured and banded 209 [that’s
not a typo! —Editor] Kittlitz’s and 23
Marbled Murrelets. They included six
Kittlitz’s Murrelets that were banded in
previous years (2007 and 2008). They
attached radio transmitters to 30 adult
and one hatch-year Kittlitz’s Murrelet

and located birds throughout the breed-
ing season. In addition, they conducted
at-sea surveys, monitored active nests,
collected blood and feather samples
for genetic and diet information, and
conducted at-sea behavioral watches.
This project involves multiple partners
and will continue through the 2011 field
season.

In 2009, several PSG members be-
gan the first year of a two-year project,
funded by the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, to research Kittlitz’s Mur-
relet habitat and prey in Prince William
Sound. The Principal Investigator is
Priscilla Post Wohl (The Northern
Forum, Inc.); Kathy Kuletz and David
Irons (USFWS) and John Piatt (USGS)
designed and supervised the project. Ob-
jectives for 2009 included (1) capturing
approximately 30 Kittlitz’s and collect-
ing feather and blood samples for stable
isotope analysis, and 2) repeating tran-
sects designed and surveyed by Kuletz et
al . in 200 1 , to update estimates of relative
abundance distribution of Kittlitz’s in
Prince William Sound. The 2009 field
crew was Andrew Allyn (University of
Massachusetts Amherst), Aly McKnight
(USFWS), and Peter Crommett (vol-
unteer) . Capture work began in the final
week of April. They consulted Michelle
Kissling on how to find nighttime loafing
locations and received hands-on train-
ing from Tom Bloxton, Jr. (U.S. Forest
Service). Thirty-nine Kittlitz’s were cap-
tured and sampled, including eight mated
pairs. In addition to collecting blood
and feather samples for stable isotope
analysis, the crew deployed radio trans-
mitters on 12 birds. Tagged individuals
were monitored through (1) boat-based
tracking to collect fine-scale behavioral
data, and (2) presence/absence sampling
using remote data-logging stations to
record daily and seasonal movements in

a glacial fjord system of northwestern
Prince William Sound. In July, the field
crew resurveyed the 17 bays and fjords
surveyed in 2001 to determine estimates
of the relative abundance and distribution
of Kittlitz’s in Prince William Sound. The
work completed in 2009 will be instru-
mental in fine-tuning plans for the second
year of research (summer 2010), which
will be a more intensive investigation of
Kittlitz’s distributions in relationship to
a suite of environmental and biological
variables.

Jennifer Boisvert, Bob Day, Lau-
ren Attanas, and Adrian Gall (all of
ABR, Inc.) conducted land-based sur-
veys for breeding Kittlitz’s and Marbled
Murrelets near Valdez in June and July.
In the north of Alaska, Bob and Adrian
conducted at-sea surveys for Kittlitz’s
Murrelets near Point Barrow in late
August. Day is compiling a synthesis of
data on Kittlitz’s Murrelets in northern
Alaska for USFWS.

In the western Aleutians, Robb
Kaler and Leah Kenney continued
breeding demography work on Kittlitz’s
murrelet at Agattu Island. They found 17
active nests this year, of which only one
fledged a chick, similar to poor repro-
ductive results in 2007. Robb and Leah
were able to refine their search image for
Kittlitz’s nests and found many former
nest sites occupied in previous years that
were not active in 2009.

Gulf of Alaska

Seabirds at St. Lazaria Island were
monitored this year by the outstanding
crew comprised of Carrie Hisaoka, Jor-
dan Lawrence, Danette Perez, and Les-
lie Slater of Alaska Maritime National
Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR). Data were
collected on Fork-tailed and Leach’s
Storm-Petrels ( Oceanodroma furcata

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 51

REGIONAL REPORTS • Alaska

and O. leucorhoa ), Pelagic Cormorants
(. Phalacrocorax pelagicus ), Glaucous-
winged Gulls ( Larus glaucescens).
Pigeon Guillemots ( Cepphus columba),
Common and Thick-billed Murres ( JJria
aalge and U. lomvia). Tufted Puffins
(. Fratercula cirrhata ), and Rhinoceros
Auklets ( Cerorhinca monocerata). The
goal of monitoring was to determine an-
nual productivity, population changes,
and chick growth rates. Diet samples
were collected from storm-petrels and
auklets; blood samples were collected
from auklets.

Slater and Steve Ebbert visited
Sud Island, in the Barren Islands group,
in late August to conduct biological
surveys on this rarely-visited refuge is-
land. The island was stocked with hoary
marmots ( Marmota caligata ) in 1930 by
the Alaska Game Commission. Former
refuge biologist Ed Bailey conducted
more intensive surveys on the island in
1975 and documented approximately
500 Rhinoceros Auklet burrows, the
only known colony of the species in
the Barren Islands. However, no bur-
rows were found in a subsequent visit
by refuge biologist Dave Roseneau in
1996. No sign of nesting Rhinos were
found by Leslie and Steve during their
visit, except for seven active burrows in
one location and approximately a dozen
in another location on the island. Both
groups of burrows were along the up-
per edge of a steep cliff, in habitat not
utilized by marmots. Marmots were,
however, present in the 1975 colony loca-
tion and throughout the island in 2009.
A motion-sensitive camera confirmed
the use of some of the seabird burrows
by Rhinoceros Auklets.

Bob Day and Adrian Gall (ABR)
are conducting bimonthly aerial surveys
for Steller’s Eiders ( Polysticta stelleri )
in Iliamna and Iniskin bays, western
Cook Inlet.

AMNWR staff continued long-
term seabird demography monitoring at
Chowiet Island, Semidis group, off the
coast of the Alaska Peninsula. The 2009

field crew consisted of Erik Andersen
and Joann Wang.

Scott Hatch (USGS) continued
research and monitoring of seabirds on
Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska.
Collaborators in 2009 included Etienne
Danchin and Pierrick Blanchard, (Uni-
versity Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France)
and Alexander Kitaysky at UAF. French
researchers and their students are doing
experimental studies of behavioral ecol-
ogy in Black-legged Kittiwakes ( Rissa
tridactyla ) while Kitaysky is examin-
ing rates of telomere sequence loss in
known-age kittiwakes. The work was
greatly facilitated in 2009 by camp leader
Tim van Nus (Amsterdam), returning for
his third season on Middleton.

Pelagic surveys were conducted in
the Gulf of Alaska under Kathy Kuletz;
see Bering Sea section, below.

Prince William Sound

Mary Ann Bishop and Kathy Ku-
letz (USFWS) continued fall and winter
seabird surveys in Prince William Sound,
concurrent with acoustic and seining
studies on Pacific herring ( Clupea pal-
lasi ), as part of the Exxon Valdez Trust-
ees’ Herring Restoration Plan. Abun-
dance and habitat use throughout the fall
and winter were examined for 42 species
of marine birds recorded. The goal is to
examine the environmental and habitat
factors associated with seabird predation
on herring during winter, and ultimately
to assess the role of seabird predation in
suppressing herring recruitment to the
population. Concurrently, the importance
of herring to wintering seabirds such as
the declining Marbled Murrelet may be
highlighted. Surveys were conducted in
fall and winter 2008/2009, and will con-
tinue in 2009/2010. Neil Dawson, who
conducted the field work, has drafted a
paper on results from this study.

Bishop also will initiate a comple-
mentary study starting in fall 2009, with
support from North Pacific Research
Board. This project will endeavor to
capture Marbled Murrelets in Prince Wil-
liam Sound throughout the nonbreeding
season to provide data on body condition

at this energetically demanding time of
year.

David Irons (USFWS), Dan Roby
(USGS-Oregon Cooperative Wildlife
Research Unit [OSU]), and Kirsten
Bixler (Oregon State University [OSU])
continued research on Pigeon Guillemots
in Prince William Sound. The Pigeon
Guillemot has shown no evidence of
population recovery since the Exxon
Valdez oil spill 20 years ago. Nest pre-
dation, particularly by American mink
(. Mustela vison ) appears to be the primary
limiting factor for guillemot population
recovery in some parts of the Sound. In
2009, they compiled and analyzed data
on (1) colony counts, (2) at-sea counts
(3) guillemot chick diet, (4) brood size,
brood reduction, and nesting success, and
(5) forage fish abundance from beach
seining and aerial surveys. A restoration
plan for Pigeon Guillemsots at the Naked
Island Group in Prince William Sound
will be produced upon completion of
this study.

Shawn Stephensen (USFWS, Or-
egon Coast National Wildlife Refuge
Complex) successfully defended his
Masters thesis at the University of Alaska
Anchorage. His work included studies
of habitat selection by Kittlitz’s and
Marbled Murrelets in Harriman Fjord,
Prince William Sound, Alaska. Habitat
variables and bird presence correlation
models were ranked using Akaike’s In-
formation Criteria. The highest-ranked
models indicated that Marbled Murre-
lets selected deep, clear water far from
glaciers, whereas Kittlitz’s murrelets
selected turbid, cold, shallow, fresh water
close to glaciers.

(See also “ Brachyramphus mur-
relets,” above.)

Aleutian Islands

Alaska Maritime National Wild-
life Refuge staff continued long-term
seabird demography monitoring at
2 camps in the Aleutians. Slade Sa-
pora and Allyson Larned worked
with several species including petrels,
gulls, oystercatchers ( Haematopus
bachmani ) and murres at Aiktak Island.
Scott Freeman, Ray Buchheit, and

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 52

REGIONAL REPORTS • Alaska

Kyle Morrison monitored demography
of petrels, kittiwakes, murres, auklets
(Rhinoceros Auklet, Aethia spp., Pty-
choramphus aleuticus ) and puffins (14
species).

Jeff Williams (USFWS), Vernon
Byrd (USFWS) and Gary Drew (USGS)
re-initiated studies of birds at Kasatochi
Island in the central Aleutians following
the devastating eruptions of the island
on August 7, 2008. The eruption hap-
pened at the end of the breeding season
for Least and Crested Auklets. The bird
studies at Kasatochi are part of new
long-term, interdisciplinary study that
is examining the ecological response to
and recovery from the eruption. Surpris-
ingly, many of the formerly nesting birds
species returned in spring 2009. Many of
the 250,000 Least and Crested Auklets
(. Aethia pusilla, A. cristatella) that his-
torically nested there returned to breed
in 2009. However, despite active erosion
of the new volcanic ash along the coast,
the colony site was buried under meters
of volcanic ash; there was nowhere for
the auklets to nest. Auklets copulated and
laid eggs on the bare surface and in the
water, but all were abandoned. By late
summer auklets were still in the area,
but had abandoned attempts to nest and
were attending the former colony in low
numbers .

In addition to the land-based surveys
on Kasatochi, a marine bird, mammal
and fish survey (SMMOCI) was con-
ducted around the island in July, led by
Don Dragoo and with additional crew
members Jeff Williams, Gary Drew,
David Wigglesworth, Naomi Barg-
mann, Lisa Climo, Nathan Zabel,
Catherine Berg, Bill Bechtol, Aaron
Baldwin and Joe Filipowicz.

Williams, Berg, Bargmann, Barry
Sampson, Kimi Nelson, and others
conducted seabird counts in July in the
Near Islands around Attu, Agattu, and the
Semichi Islands. They counted 100,000
seabirds in coastline surveys from skiffs
and many thousands more from the M/V
Tiglax 1 mile offshore. The Near Islands
were a former population stronghold of
Red-faced Cormorants ( Phalacrocorax
urile) in the 1970s, when over 70,000

were counted. Red-faced and Pelagic
Cormorant numbers are about the same
(8,000 total) as a similar count in 2003,
but are still down from 1970’s.

Anticoagulant rodenticide was
broadcast by helicopter at Rat Island
in fall 2008 to eradicate the introduced
Norway rat ( Rattus norvegicus), in order
to restore the native biodiversity of the
island, including nesting seabirds (see
Pacific Seabirds 35:42) . The project was
a partnership among three entities: AM-
NWR, The Nature Conservancy, and Is-
land Conservation. Followup monitoring
in spring 2009 indicated no signs of rats,
but we discovered non-target mortality of
birds, primarily Glaucous-winged Gulls
and Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocepha-
lus ). We plan a thorough review of the
project to elucidate the likely pathways
of the rodenticide and to evaluate options
for mitigating non-target mortality in
future projects. Species such as Leach’s
and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, Whis-
kered Auklets (. Aethia pygmaea), and
Tufted Puffins are expected to recolonize
Rat Island. Jeff Williams, Deb Rudis
and Matt Francis conducted seabird
coastline counts around Segula, Davidof,
Khvostof , Kiska, and Little Kiska Islands
as comparison sites for birds documented
before and after rat eradication on Rat
Island. Initial results from last October’s
eradication on Rat Island are still posi-
tive and no rats have been detected on
the island.

Rachel Buxton completed the
second season of her MS field work on
Amatignak Island. Using song meters,
she is looking at the re-establishment of
seabirds from islands where they were
extirpated by introduced predators .

Terry Schick, Bob Day, Matt Ma-
cander, and Trish Loomis (ABR Inc.)
are continuing their study of habitat use
by migratory Aleutian Cackling Geese
(. Branta hutchinsii leucopareia) in the
Near Islands (Attu, Agattu, Shemya,
and Nizki-Alaid islands), western Aleu-
tians. Current research is focused on
Attu Island, where fall migrating geese
were observed 2009. The U.S. Air Force
is funding this project to help identify
potential habitats on other islands, de-
termine their carrying capacity, and

encourage continued recovery of this
delisted species.

Alex Bond (PhD student. Memorial
University of Newfoundland [MUN],
St. John’s, Newfoundland) completed
his last year of field work for his PhD
dissertation on the interaction of auklets
and rats at Sirius Point, Kiska Island.
He was assisted by field technician Erin
Penney (MUN). They monitored auklet
demography and rat abundance. Least
Auklet reproductive success was the
lowest since 2002 (0.44 chicks/pair),
despite rat abundance being fairly low,
similar to 2007 and 2008. Survival from
2007-2008 dipped from the long-term
average to 66%, the lowest recorded
since monitoring began in 2001 . Crested
Auklet reproductive success was 0.52
chicks/pair, and survival dipped below
75% for the first time during winter 2008-
2009. Ian Jones (MUN) conducted
searches for Kittlitz’s Murrelet on Kiska
and made wildlife observations from
Gertrude Cove.

Bering Sea and North Pacific

2009 was the second field season
of the Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem
Research Program (BSIERP) on and
around the Pribilof Islands. The study
is funded by the North Pacific Research
Board and includes several seabird
components, focusing on Black-legged
Kittiwakes) and Thick-billed Murres. A
colony -based component led by Heather
Renner (USFWS) and Vernon Byrd
supplements the long-term monitoring
already taking place on the islands.
The monitoring crew consisted of Greg
Thomson and Maureen McClintock
on St. Paul Island, and Paula Shannon
and Sarah Thomsen on St. George. The
field crew for the colony-based portion
of BSIERP was Brie Drummond and
John Warzybok (USFWS).

The principal investigators for
the Seabird Telemetry project are Da-
vid Irons (USFWS) and Dan Roby
(USGS-OSU). Two field research
teams led by Rosana Paredes (OSU)
and Rachael Orben (University of
California, Santa Cruz) included team

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 53

REGIONAL REPORTS • Alaska

members Dan Cushing, Brie Drum-
mond (USFWS), Dean Kildaw (UAF),
Tom Harten (PolarTREC teacher),
Robert Massengale, and Warzybok.
The teams successfully deployed global
positioning system (GPS) loggers,
wet/dry activity loggers, and time-depth
recorders on chick-rearing Black-legged
Kittiwakes and Thick-billed Murres. In
addition to determining at-sea foraging
distribution and behavior during July and
August 2009, Orben will be studying
the winter distributions of Black-legged
Kittiwakes and Thick-billed Murres us-
ing geolocation loggers as part of her
Masters degree program.

Kathy Kuletz and Liz Labunski
completed the second of a three-year
project for the broad-scale seabird dis-
tribution component of BSIERP, with
support from the North Pacific Research
Board (NPRB). This project will ex-
amine seabird distribution relative to
oceanographic and biological features
of the Bering Sea and ultimately data
will be integrated with other components
to address changing oceanographic and
predator-prey dynamics in the Bering
Sea ecosystem. In 2009 we surveyed
during 13 cruise legs, for a total of over
29,760 km of transects in the Bering
Sea. NOAA vessels and the U.S. Coast
Guard (USCG) icebreaker Healy pro-
vided survey platforms in conjunction
with other BSIERP studies. Additional
pelagic surveys were conducted with
USFWS support in the Gulf of Alaska,
the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea. In
these waters we joined seven cruises and
surveyed approximately 5,500 km. The
USCG icebreaker Polar Sea, the NOAA
vessel Miller Freeman, and the AMNWR
vessel Tiglax provided platforms of op-
portunity.

Survey data from all of the pelagic
surveys will be archived with the as-
sistance of Martin Renner in the North
Pacific Pelagic Seabird Database. At-sea
observers in 2009 included Toby Burke,
Dan Cushing, Lucas DeCicco, Brian
Hoover, Nathan Jones, Robb Kaler,
Ivan Kuletz, Kathy Kuletz, Liz Labun-
ski, Aaron Lang, Vivian Mendenhall,
Scott Mills, Marty Reedy, Alexandra
Rose, Art Sowls, Tom Van Pelt, Sophie

Webb, and Tamara Zeller . The BSIERP
project will continue through 2010, and
the Alaska at-sea observer program will
shift focus to Arctic seas with support
from the U.S. Minerals Management
Service in 2010-2013.

A fine-scale component within BSI-
ERP is the Patch Dynamic Study (PDS),
which has three seabird components:
colony monitoring, telemetry tracking
of breeding Black-legged Kittiwakes
and Thick-billed Murres, and at-sea
distribution and abundance and diet rela-
tive to the prey base. The PDS includes a
prey-species component (Scott Heppell
and Kelly Benoit-Bird of OSU) and a
northern fur seal ( Callorhinus ursinus )
component (Andrew Trites, University
of British Columbia, and also lead PI for
the PDS). The at-sea component of the
Patch Dynamics Study, led by principal
investigators Kelly Benoit-Bird and
Scott Heppell (OSU) assessed prey
patchiness and abundance in relation
to the distribution of foraging seabirds.
Surveys of seabird distribution and diets
were led by Kathy Kuletz (USFWS) .At-
sea surveys were carried out by Nathan
Jones and Brian Hoover (California
State University, Moss Landing Marine
Lab), who will be using the data for
their Master’s projects. Concurrent with
seabird and mammal surveys were prey
acoustics and trawl sampling. The study
area included 200 km around the Pribilof
Islands and Bogoslof Island and waters
between them. The two teams surveyed
a total of 2,553 km of transects, with
247 of those conducted at night using
an experimental protocol and night-vi-
sion monoculars. Brian and Nathan also
collected kittiwakes and murres as part
of the diet and trophic interactions study.
In addition, Rob Suryan (OSU, Hatfield
Marine Science Center) collected data on
eddies in relation to seabird and fur seal
feeding areas, using 2 drifters provided
by Phyllis Stabeno and Carol Ladd
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration [NOAA]).

Diet and blood samples of tagged
birds in colonies were collected for the
Patch Dynamics Study by Rebecca
Young, Sarah Youngren, Ine Dorres-
teijn, and Thibaut Vergoz (UAF) for

determination of gender, stable isotope
ratios, stress hormone levels, telomere
lengths, and diet composition. Samples
were taken in collaboration with Drum-
mond and Warzybok of the colony -based
BSIERP project (above).

In the southeastern Bering Sea, Di-
ane Calamar Okonek, Marian Snively
and Stephanie Sell (ADF&G) monitored
Black-legged Kittiwake, Common
Murre, and Pelagic Cormorant popula-
tions and productivity at Round Island,
within the Walrus Islands State Game
Sanctuary. Productivity on the monitor-
ing plots for murres and kittiwakes was
zero, likely due to predation by Common
Ravens ( Corvus corax ) and native red
foxes ( Vulpes vulpes). Conversely, pro-
ductivity of Pelagic Cormorants within
the monitoring plots was good (53%).

Rob Suryan is continuing his
research with radiotagged albatrosses,
looking at foraging and potential molting
areas off Alaska.

Greg Balogh arranged to send
Brian Lance and Vivian Mendenhall

to the Bering Sea aboard the U.S. Coast
Guard Cutter Munro. They hoped to
follow up on reports that large flocks of
Short-tailed Albatrosses ( Phoebastria
albatrus ) congregate in September over
the western edge of the continental shelf,
at the heads of major undersea canyons.
Unfortunately the Munro’’ s mission kept
it east of the Pribilof Islands, where al-
batrosses were at low densities.

Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, and
Alaska North Slope

Dan Rizzolo (USGS) completed
his second field season on the com-
parative ecology of loons nesting on the
Arctic Coastal Plain, as part of his PhD
program at UAF. This project deployed
satellite radios on nesting Red-throated
and Yellow-billed Loons ( Gavia stellata
and G. adamsii) to examine use of the
Chukchi Sea and non-breeding season
distribution. Data were also collected
on productivity, foraging ecology,
and chick growth of Red-throated and
Pacific (G. pacified) loons nesting on
the Chukchi Sea coast near Point Lay.

Bob Day and Adrian Gall (ABR)
conducted at-sea surveys of seabirds

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 54

REGIONAL REPORTS • Alaska

in the northeastern Chukchi Sea dur-
ing the open water season (late July
to mid-October). Our invaluable ob-
servers from the bridge were Lauren
Attanas, Jennifer Boisvert, Tim
Obritschkewitsch, John Rose, and
Peter Sanzenbacher. This project is a
multi-disciplinary oceanographic study
that will provide an environmental con-
text for development plans of offshore
oil prospects.

Bob Ritchie and Obritschkewtisch
(ABR) continued their annual aerial
survey for breeding Steller’s Eiders
(. Polysticta stelleri ) in the Barrow re-
gion, under contract with USFWS and
the North Slope Borough.

Betty Anderson and Rick
Johnson (ABR) completed the 17th
year of aerial surveys for pre-nest-
ing eiders on the Arctic Coastal Plain
for ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. They
enumerated and mapped locations of
Spectacled ( Somateria fischeri ), King
( S . spectabilis ), and Steller’s Eiders in
the oilfields between the Kuparuk River
and the northeastern National Petroleum
Reserve-Alaska.

Ann Wildman and Rick Johnson

(ABR) continued their study of breed-
ing Yellow -billed Loons on the Colville
River delta and in the National Petroleum
Reserve-Alaska. Nesting pairs were
monitored with time-lapse cameras at
nests to determine nest occupancy and
document predator events. After hatch,
brood use of lakes was monitored with
periodic aerial surveys. Funding for this
study was provided by ConocoPhillips
Alaska, Inc.

Betty Anderson (ABR) is continu-
ing her long-term study (since 1993)
on breeding Spectacled Eiders in the
Kuparuk Oilfield for ConocoPhillips
Alaska, Inc. In addition to daily road
surveys to evaluate numbers and habi-
tat use by pre-nesting eiders in the oil-
fields, nesting females were monitored
for nesting success and incubation con-
stancy with thermistored eggs and time-
lapse cameras.

Bob Ritchie, Betty Anderson, and
Rick Johnson continued their annual
aerial survey for brood-rearing Brant
(. Branta bernicla) and Snow Geese

{Chen caerulescens ) on the Arctic
Coastal Plain. This survey covers the
coast between Prudhoe Bay and Barrow
and enumerates brood-rearing geese
and maps use of coastal salt marshes by
geese. Funding is from the North Slope
Borough and ConocoPhillips Alaska,
Inc.

Pelagic surveys were conducted in
the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas under
Kathy Kuletz; see Bering Sea section,
above.

Other Projects

Tuula Hollmen (Alaska SeaLife
Center and UAF), Shiway Wang (Alaska
SeaLife Center, Sedna Ecological Inc.),
Sue Budge (Dalhousie University),
and Matthew Wooller (UAF) received
funding from NPRB to study the diets
in threatened eiders using stable carbon
isotopes of specific fatty acids, specifi-
cally to validate a new technique with
controlled feeding experiments. Wang
and Hollmen also received funding from
the Coastal Marine Resource Grant/Na-
tional Park Service to validate the use
of yolk fatty acids to estimate diets of
captive female spectacled eiders.

Hollmen, David Safine (Alaska
SeaLife Center sea duck research staff),
Wang, Ann Riddle, and graduate stu-
dent Rebekka Federer (UAF) worked
on several projects involving captive
eiders, laboratory, and field studies. They
focused on reproductive physiology,
disease ecology, nutrition, and diving
physiology. Federer defended her MSc
thesis in April 2009 . The title of her thesis
is “Quantifying diet to tissue isotopic
fractionation factors in captive spec-
tacled eiders: implications for nutrient
allocation and foraging studies.”

Falk Huettmann and his students
at the E WHALE lab (UAF) worked on
several offshore and pelagic projects,
including Pacific Rim Avian Influenza
and science-based policy. Of general
interest might also be some of the work
on data from higher latitudes (North
and South). Specifically, they did some
research regarding Marine Protected
Areas and the entire protection of the
circumpolar arctic, based on the strategic
conservation planning tool MARXAN,

using 50 GIS datasets Falk has compiled
over the years. Details can be found at
the website of the International Polar
Year (IPY; search for author’s name and
“Arctic Protection”): http://www.ipy.org/
index .php? option=com_k2&id =1951
&category =6&view=item&Itemid=0 .

CANADA

Compiled by Ken Morgan

British Columbia

Doug Bertram’s main project in-
trvolves detection of population trends
in Marbled Murrelet ( Brachyramphus
marmoratus) using radar monitoring
at key locations in British Columbia
(BC). Bertram is based in Environment
Canada, Science and Technology Branch
(EC/S&T), Sidney, BC. In 2009, Ber-
nard Schroeder Consulting (Nanaimo,
BC) surveyed the Marbled Murrelet Con-
servation Regions of Vancouver Island’s
north and west coasts.

Alan Burger (University of Victo-
ria [UVIC], Victoria, BC) is continuing
research on Marbled Murrelets and
other seabirds in BC. He is analyzing a
database covering 3 1 ,000 trees to assess
availability of potential nest platforms
for murrelets in all coastal regions of the
province. Rob Ronconi of Dalhousie
University (DAL), Halifax, Nova Scotia
[NS]) continued his work with Burger on
models of factors affecting murrelet nest
platforms. Burger is also undertaking a
status review of the Marbled Murrelet
in Canada for the Committee on the
Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
(COSEWIC). In addition, Burger contin-
ues to analyze data from past radar and
low-level helicopter surveys to identify
and map murrelet nesting habitat in BC,
working with Louise Waterhouse (BC
Ministry of Forests, Nanaimo), Alvin
Cober (BC Ministry of Environment
[BCMOE] in the Queen Charlotte Islands
[QCI]), and David (Dov) Lank (Simon
Fraser University [SFU], Burnaby,
BC).

Trudy Chatwin (BCMOE, also
MSc student at Royal Roads University,
Victoria) continued to work on Marbled

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 55

REGIONAL REPORTS • Canada

Murrelet habitat recovery and protec-
tion with the Marbled Murrelet Habitat
Recovery Implementation Group. Chat-
win and Monica Mather are preparing
to publish a model of suitable nesting
habitat in coastal BC, based mainly on
forest cover characteristics overlain with
protected-area data in the province. The
result will show how much Marbled Mur-
relet habitat is protected at a regional and
provincial scale. Chatwin and Mather are
working with Jamie Popkin (Little Earth
GIS Consulting, Lantzville, BC) to pro-
duce a “MAMU Mashup” for Vancouver
Island (http://mamu.littleearth.ca/). This
database combines habitat, the above
model, landscape-scale protected areas,
and change in habitat from logging.

Chatwin also reported that BCMOE
is working with Island Conservation
(IC) to restore former seabird nesting
colonies on Lanz and Cox Islands on the
northwest coast of Vancouver Island by
removing alien mammals. Initial surveys
of Lanz, Cox and Triangle islands by IC
detected introduced raccoons ( Procyon
lotor ) and mink ( Mustela vison) on Cox
Island, mink on Lanz Island and Euro-
pean rabbits ( Oryctolagus cuniculus) on
Triangle Island. Kirsty Swinnerton and
the IC team plan to focus on removal of
mink and raccoons on Lanz and Cox. The
IC team includes the Quatsino First Na-
tion. This will be a challenging project,
due to the remote and rugged terrain and
dense undergrowth of the islands. In her
“spare time,” Chatwin completed data
collection for her thesis, “Development
of Scientifically-based Guidelines for
Viewing Seabirds”; she is now analyzing
and writing. Alan Burger is supervising
this work.

In 2009, Harry Carter (Carter Bio-
logical Consulting, Victoria) and Trudy
Chatwin conducted colony surveys of
Pelagic Cormorants ( Phalacrocorax
pelagicus) in the Strait of Georgia, BC.
With Spencer Sealy (University of
Manitoba [UM], Winnipeg) and others,
Carter worked on the distribution and
history of murrelets in western North
America and eastern Asia.

Jessica Adkins (Oregon State
University, Corvallis [OSU]) conducted

aerial surveys of Double-crested Cormo-
rant ( Phalacrocorax auritus) colonies in
BC. She noted that the recent surveys of
Pelagic and Double-crested Cormorants
suggest shifts in distribution of the spe-
cies, and general declines or abandon-
ment in many colonies. (However, see
BSC’s report, next paragraph.)

Bird Studies Canada (BSC), Delta,
BC has been working on a variety of
seabird trends. Personnel included Pete
Davidson, Rob Butler, Dick Cannings,
Christopher Di Corrado, and Karen
Barry (all of BSC), and Anne Murray
and Krista Englund (BC Nature). Pre-
liminary analyses of non-breeding and
wintering populations of birds occurring
in coastal and near shore habitats in the
Georgia Basin, BC, derived from the 10-
year Coastal Waterbird Survey data set
(www.bsc-eoc.org/volunteer/bccws), re-
vealed stable trends in more than 60% of
the approximately 60 species examined.
The data showed notable increases in Pi-
geon Guillemots ( Cepphus columba ) and
Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants,
but continuing long-term declines in
Western Grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii)
and Black Scoters ( Melanitta nigra).

Between October 2008 and October
2009, BSC conducted monthly boat-
based marine bird and mammal surveys
of the Southern Gulf Islands, Boundary
Pass and Haro Strait (BC), following
a standard protocol. Davidson also re-
ported that the BC Breeding Bird Atlas
(www.birdatlas.bc.ca) completed year
two of five survey seasons (2008-2014).
Seabird colony data included collec-
tion and collation of information from
other groups (e.g., the Canadian Wildlife
Service [CWS] and the Laskeek Bay
Conservation Society [LBCS]). Previ-
ously unknown colonies of Glaucous-
winged Gulls ( Larus glaucescens) and
Double-crested Cormorants in the Strait
of Georgia were among the many new
discoveries.

BSC continued to coordinate
beached-bird surveys in the province,
and contributed the data to 2 collabora-
tive papers that were published recently
in Marine Ornithology.

Tony Gaston (EC/S&T, Ottawa,
Ontario), Akiko Shoji (MSc student,

University of Ottawa) and Kyle El-
liott (PhD student, UM) visited Reef
Island, QCI during 27 April-1 1 May to
study diving behavior in Ancient Mur-
relets ( Synthliboramphus antiquus ) and
Cas sin’s Auklet ( Ptychoramphus aleuti-
cus), as well as incubation metabolism
in Ancient Murrelets. In 2008 only four
of 16 birds equipped with time-depth
recorders (TDRs) had returned, so this
year the researchers increased the sample
size of birds returning with TDRs . Using
only already-banded birds (which may
be more resilient to disturbance than
unbanded ones), they retrieved TDRs
from 20 birds, leaving only two TDRs
unretrieved. One of the TDR-banded
birds was 25 years old— which is very
old for an Ancient Murrelet!

Gaston also reported that the LBCS
field project, led by Jake Pattison and
Ainsley Brown, continued monitoring of
seabirds in Laskeek Bay, off the east coast
of the QCI. The population of Ancient
Murrelets on East Limestone Island has
declined steeply in recent years, and the
number of chicks trapped in 2009 was the
lowest recorded. Predation by raccoons
is likely responsible; although raccoons
have been eradicated, they can swim to
the island and recolonize. Among other
species monitored, Cassin’s Auklets
appear to be increasing in the islands,
and probably also Fork-tailed Storm-
Petrels ( Oceanodroma jurcata). Black
Oystercatcher ( Haematopus bachmani)
and Glaucous-winged Gull populations
appear to be stable in the area.

Anne Harfenist (Harfenist Envi-
ronmental Consulting, Smithers, BC),
along with assistant Janet Gray (QCI),
continued her study of Leach’s Storm-pe-
trel ( Oceanodroma leucorhoa) survival
at two sites along the British Columbian
coast. This is the fourth year of the proj-
ect, funded through the Bulkley Valley
Centre for Natural Resources Research
and Management. Adult survival esti-
mates will be generated for two colonies:
Rock Islet in southeast QCI and Cleland
Island off southwestern Vancouver
Island.

Mark Hipfner of the Centre for
Wildlife Ecology (CWE), SFU, and

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 56

REGIONAL REPORTS • Canada

EC/S&T reported on the 16th year of the
CWE’s seabird research and monitoring
program on Triangle Island, BC. The
2009 field crew consisted of Hipfner and
CWE contractors Kristin Charleton,
Rachel Darvill, Jasmine Freed, Glen
Keddie, Paul Levesque and Jason
van Rooyen, volunteer Michiel Faber,
Amy- Lee Kouwenberg (PhD candidate,
Memorial University of Newfoundland
and Labrador [MUN], St. John’s, New-
foundland [NL]), and Dan Shervill
(Environment Canada [EC]/Canadian
Wildlife Service [CWS], Delta, BC). As
usual, they monitored breeding chronol-
ogy and success and related demographic
parameters in Cassin’s Auklet, Rhinoc-
eros Auklet ( Cerorhinca monocerata ),
Tufted Puffin ( Fratercula cirrhata ),
Common Murre ( Uria aalge ), Pelagic
Cormorant, Black Oystercatcher, and
Glaucous-winged Gull. Breeding success
in 2009 was generally close to long-term
averages for most species. However, no
murres raised chicks in 2009— a result
of constant harassment by Bald Eagles
(. Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) and Glau-
cous-winged Gulls. EC continued with
their seabird monitoring program in BC
in 2009, with a reunion of sorts on Tri-
angle Island: Moira Lemon (EC/CWS,
Delta) led a crew consisting of contrac-
tors Michael Rodway and Heidi Re-
gehr in population surveys for Cassin’s
Auklets, Rhinoceros Auklets and Tufted
Puffins. Finally, Hipfner, Keddie, Sher-
vill and David Cunnington (EC/CWS,
Delta, BC) visited the Rhinoceros Auklet
colonies at Lucy Island (North Coast),
Pine Island (Central Coast), and Sgang
Gwaay (QCI) in July and August as part
of ongoing genetic and demographic
studies on the population-level impacts
of fisheries by catch.

Heather Major continues her PhD
at SFU, investigating prospecting deci-
sions and habitat selection by Ancient
Murrelets in the QCI and the western
Aleutian Islands.

Louise Blight (Centre for Applied
Conservation Research, University of
British Columbia [UBC], Vancouver,
BC) continued her doctoral research
on the population dynamics of the

Glaucous-winged Gull, with study sites
at Mandarte Island and other colonies in
southwestern BC.

Ken Morgan (EC/CWS, Sidney,
BC) continued monitoring seabirds in
the northeast Pacific and western Arctic.
Morgan conducted one survey, and EC
contractor Michael Bentley conducted
two along the 1500-km route referred
to as “Line P,” from the Strait of Juan de
Fuca (BC) to Ocean Station Papa (50°N,
145° W). Bentley also conducted a survey
from Victoria across the north Pacific,
through the Bering Sea, and east through
the Beaufort Sea to Kugluktuk, Nunavut
(NU); this marked the third year in a row
this route has been monitored.

Central and Eastern Canada

Tony Diamond (University of New
Brunswick [UNB], Fredericton, New
Brunswick [NB]) reported that students
from UNB continued the long-term
research and monitoring of seabirds and
their diets on Machias Seal Island, Bay of
Fundy, NB. This program, which started
in 1995, examines a subpopulation of
known-age banded birds in three focal
species that represent different foraging
and migratory strategies: Atlantic Puffin
(. Fratercula arctic a ), Razorbill (Alca tor-
da), and Arctic Tem ( Sterna paradisaea ) .
Intensive banding and resighting allow
the team to track changes in movement
and survival. Also, chick growth rates
and breeding success are monitored in
marked plots or burrows, and diet is
monitored by observation and collection
of prey items brought to chicks. Other
breeding species there include Common
Murre, Common Tern ( Sterna hirundo ),
Common Eider ( Somateria mollis sima),
and Leach’s Storm-Petrel. As part of
the Gulf of Maine Seabird Working
Group, they collaborate closely with
US researchers on many islands there,
sharing most research and monitoring
protocols.

The team has detected substantial
changes in the Machias Seal Island
colony over the years, the most spec-
tacular being desertion of the colony by
both Arctic and Common Terns in 2006
and subsequent years. The data allow

the team to relate this event to changes
in both diet and gull predation, the latter
due a relaxation of gull control starting
in 2000. To put the decline in context,
according to CWS records going back
to 1873, the tem colony had abandoned
the island only once before (in 1944).
The colony was the largest tern colony
(both species combined) in the Gulf
of Maine/Bay of Fundy, and the larg-
est known Arctic Tern colony in North
America. It is still the largest colony of
Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills, and Com-
mon Murres in the Gulf of Maine/Bay of
Fundy region. In 2009, herring ( Clupea
harengus ) returned to the diet of puffins
and razorbills, in proportions not seen
since the year 2000. Terns abandoned
again, after laying fewer eggs than last
year, but in late July they returned in
good numbers (about 2000 at one point);
the terns displayed, carried fish, selected
nest sites, and generally behaved as one
would expect if they were about to nest.
Many Arctic Terns still carried field-
readable bands from the metapopulation
study carried out by Kate Devlin (see
Auk 2008, 125:1-9).

Dave Fifield (EC/CWS, St. John’s,
NL) and Carina Gjerdrum (EC/CWS,
Dartmouth, NS) continue to coordinate
the collection of pelagic seabird data
offshore NL and NS. Additional fund-
ing was provided by the Environmental
Studies Research Fund to map seabird
distribution and abundance around hy-
drocarbon activities in the region. Since
September 2008, surveys occurred dur-
ing 163 days and covered over 10,000 km
of ocean track. These surveys are mostly
focused on the Grand Banks and Scotian
Shelf, but also cover from the Gulf of
Maine in the south to Lancaster Sound in
the north, and from the central Canadian
high arctic in the west to Greenland in the
east. The first full-scale analysis of the
data will be published this year.

Since June 2009, Rob Ronconi
has been working as a post-doc with
Marty Leonard at DAL. Along with
colleagues Sarah Wong (PhD student,
DAL), Heather Koopman and An-
drew Westgate (University of North
Carolina, Wilmington), they have been

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 57

REGIONAL REPORTS • Canada

studying the foraging ecology, habitat
selection, and migratory strategies of
Greater Shearwaters ( Pujfinus gravis )
in the Bay of Fundy. They are doing
the work through the Grand Manan
Whale and Seabird Research Station on
Grand Manan Island, NB . Ronconi and
Leonard are also co-supervising honors
student Rolanda Steenweg (DAL), who
is studying season diet shifts in Great
Black-backed and Herring Gulls ( Larus
marinus and L. argentatus) from Kent
Island, NB.

Linda Takahashi (MSc student,
MUN) wrote that Anne Storey and Car-
olyn Walsh (Cognitive and Behavioural
Ecology, MUN) have continued research
on the parental care of the Atlantic Puf-
fin and Common Murre in Witless Bay,
NL. Takahashi recorded behavioral
interactions between Common Murre
parents while both are at the colony on
Gull Island (NL) . Megan Rector (MUN)
completed a supplemental-feeding ex-
periment on Atlantic Puffins for her MSc,
using burrow scopes on Gull Island. PhD
student Amy-Lee Kouwenberg (MUN)
collected samples for a stable isotope
study using Atlantic Puffins from Gull
Island and the Gannet Islands (NL), and
Rhinoceros Auklets with Mark Hipfner
on Triangle Island, BC.

In September 2009, Rob Ronconi
DALoined Peter Ryan (University of
Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa)
on a voyage to Inaccessible Island in the
mid-South Atlantic. They will be de-
ploying satellite transmitters on Greater
Shearwaters {Pujfinus gravis) to docu-
ment their northward migration routes.
This project is also collaborating with
Marie Caroline-Martin (PhD student,
College of Staten Island, New York).

Arctic Canada

In July, Tony Gaston (EC/S&T,
Ottawa, ON), along with Rob Rankin
(MSc, University of Lund, Lund, Swe-
den) and Kevin Elner (volunteer) visited
Prince Leopold Island, NU to recapture
birds equipped with geolocator tags in
2008. They recaptured 17 tagged Thick-
Billed Murres ( Uria lomvia ) and four

tagged Black-legged Kittiwakes. Five
murres and two kittiwakes with tags
were present but could not be caught.
Due to failure of some devices, move-
ment records of only 12 murres and one
kittiwake were useable. It was a very
early year for breeding at this colony
(the earliest on record for both species),
probably because the ice broke up very
early in the surrounding waters.

Jenn Provencher (UVIC) wrote
that a small seabird research team visited
Digges Sound (NU) from late July to
early August 2009. Grant Gilchrist (EC/
S&T, Ottawa, ON), P. Smith (Carleton
University, Ottawa, ON) and Provencher
focused effort on the large Thick-billed
Murre colony in the area, retrieving geo-
loggers deployed in 2008, completing a
photo census of the East Digges Island
portion of the colony, and collecting adult
murres near Cape Wolstenholme and in
Nuvuk Harbour (both in QC). The work
was part of an International Polar Year
project that has examined changes in
adult diet since the early 1980s. The team
also conducted surveys at several gull
colonies, including pairs of Iceland Gulls
{Larus glaucoides ), Glaucous Gulls (L.
hyperboreus ), Herring Gulls, and Great
Black-backed Gulls. Other work in-
cluded a feeding watch at a small Black
Guillemot {Cepphus grille) colony, a
census of small Common Eider colonies,
and at-sea surveys that included Atlantic
Puffins, Common Loons {Gavia immer)
and a Razorbill, along with species more
common to the area.

Other work

Ken Morgan is chair of Canada’s
Pink-footed Shearwater {Pujfinus creato-
pus), Short-tailed Albatross {Phoebastria
albatrus) and Black-footed Albatross
{P. nigripes) Recovery Team. He con-
tracted Amy Medve to write a draft Re-
covery Action Plan for the three species .
In March, Garry Donaldson (EC/CWS,
Gatineau, Quebec [QC]) and Morgan met
with officials from the government of
Chile, nongovernmental organizations,
academics, and others in Vina del Mar,
Chile to discuss a coordinated approach

to the conservation of the Pink-footed
Shearwater by Chile and Canada.

Morgan also participated in the
Agreement on the Conservation of Al-
batrosses and Petrels (ACAP) Meeting
of the Parties, in Bergen Norway. At
the meeting, Maura Naughton (U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS],
Portland, Oregon) summarized status as-
sessments for Short-tailed, Black-footed
and Laysan {P. immutabilis) albatrosses,
written by Naughton, Morgan, and Greg
Balogh (USFWS, Anchorage, Alaska),
with assistance from Kim Rivera (Na-
tional Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration, Juneau, Alaska). As a
result, ACAP member nations unani-
mously agreed to add the north Pacific
albatrosses to the list of species under
the Agreement. By the addition of these
three species, all species of albatrosses
are now under ACAP’s umbrella.

Pat O’Hara (EC/CWS, Sidney, BC,
and UVIC) is the Pacific lead on the Birds
Oiled at Sea (BOAS) program. This pro-
gram is providing research support for
policy, management, and enforcement
efforts associated with anthropogenic
marine pollution, and for examining
impacts that this pollution has on ma-
rine ecosystems. The BOAS program in
Canada's Pacific region consists of two
basic components; the first is marine
ecosystem risk assessment of maritime
activities in Canadian waters, focusing
on illegal intentional and accidental dis-
charges of oily wastes. This component
is based on data from the National Aerial
Surveillance Program (Transport Canada
and EC’s Marine Aerial Reconnaissance
Team), the Integrated Satellite Tracking
of Polluters program (EC), and Marine
Communications and Traffic Services of
the Canadian Coast Guard. The second
component is in monitoring pollution-
related change in habitats, communities,
and ecosystems. Data informing this
component come from several sources:
colleagues within EC, the Canadian De-
partment of Fisheries and Oceans, and
several beached bird survey programs
(BSC, the Coastal Observation and

Pacijic Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 58

REGIONAL REPORTS • Canada

Seabird Survey Team, and the Farallones
Marine Sanctuary Association).

The Important Bird Areas (IBA)
program is undergoing a renaissance in
Canada, spearheaded by BC. In part-
nership with BC Nature, Bird Studies
Canada has established caretakers for
the province’s 84 designated IBAs, has
begun revision of the web database,
tools and resources (see www.ibacanada.
ca), delivered outreach and partnership-
building presentations to approximately
20 resource management agencies, and
are contributing to the Marine IBA iden-
tification process for the Baja to Bering
region. And last but not least, BSC has
recently made publicly available most
major bird monitoring data sets in which
they have been involved, through the
website www.naturecounts.ca

WASHINGTON-OREGON

Compiled by Don Lyons

Marbled Murrelets

The Marbled Murrelet Effective-
ness Monitoring Program, coordinated
by Gary Falxa (U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service [USFWS], Areata, CA) con-
tinues to monitor the status and trend
of Marbled Murrelet ( Brachyramphus
marmoratus ) populations and nesting
habitat. This is an interagency effort to
evaluate the effectiveness of the North-
west Forest Plan (NWF Plan). We have
monitored murrelet populations annually
from boats since 2000, covering about
8800 km 2 of coastal waters, covering
murrelet conservation Zones 1 through
5 (from the US-Canada border to San
Francisco Bay). Zone 1 (Puget Sound
through Straits of Juan de Fuca) surveys
were led by Marty Raphael and Tom
Bloxton (U.S. Forest Service-Pacific
Northwest Research Station [PNW]).
Scott Pearson and Monique Lance
(WDFW) led surveys in Zone 2 (outer
coast of Washington [WA]), and Oregon
(OR) surveys were led by Craig Strong

(Crescent Coastal Research). In Califor-
nia (CA), Sherri Miller, with crew lead-
ers Mark Morrissette and Elias Elias
(U.S. Forest Service-Pacific Southwest
Research Station [PSW]) led surveys
in Zone 4 (Coos Bay, Oregon through
Humboldt County, CA). Annual popula-
tion estimates for the 5-zone area have
ranged from 17,400 to 23,700 Marbled
Murrelets, with the 2009 estimate at
17,750. The significant declining trend
described in 2008 continued in 2009. A
summary report with trend analysis and
other results is available at their website
(http://www.reo.gov/monitoring/mm-
overview.shtml). Population surveys will
continue in 2010.

The Habitat Monitoring Team of
the Effectiveness Monitoring Program
(including Marty Raphael, Kim Nel-
son and Katie Dugger of Oregon State
University (OSU), Sherri Miller, Jim
Baldwin (PSW), and Deanna Lynch and
Rich Young (USFWS) continue work
on modeling murrelet nesting habitat
relationships across the 5 conservation
zones, for an assessment of murrelet
nesting habitat through the first 15 years
of the NWF Plan (1993-2008). Other
contributors to the monitoring program
included Beth Galleher (PNW) and CJ
Ralph and Linda Long (PSW), plus the
many seasonal technicians who made the
population surveys possible. In addition
to the NWF Plan, Martin Raphael and
Tom Bloxton surveyed other seabirds
and marine mammals in Recovery Zone
1, from the San Juan Islands to Olympia
in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de
Fuca, and continued collecting baseline
data on within-season and annual chang-
es in distributions, densities, and produc-
tivity indices (as estimated from ratios of
juvenile to adult birds) of murrelets in the
San Juan Island archipelago— a data set
that goes back to 1995.

Turnstone Environmental Con-
sultants conducted Marbled Mur-
relet surveys for a variety of land
managers in 2009. Tom Williamson
was the Turnstone project manager for
Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF)
contracts in 7 coastal districts. District
representatives for ODF were Jenny

Johnson in Astoria, Nick Stumpf in
Tillamook, Laurie O’Nion in Forest
Grove, Ole Buch in Western Lane, Ryan
Greco in Coos Bay, Eric Foucht and
Dan McMinds in West Oregon; Matt
Gostin was the ODF contract adminis-
trator. Surveyors conducted more than
1500 surveys at 196 unique sites and
970 unique stations, whose habitat varied
among first-, second-, and multi-year for-
est. Murrelets were detected during 150
surveys and “occupied” behavior was
observed during 23 surveys. All surveys
were conducted according to PSG’s 2003
survey protocol.

Jeff Reams led murrelet surveys
as pre -timber management for Forest
Capital Partners (represented by Jenni-
fer Bakke) in the coast range of Oregon.
Over 50 surveys at 1 1 unique sites in the
Oregon coast range were completed.
Reams also supervised 20 surveys at
3 sites in the coast range of Oregon in
support of a watershed management plan
for the city of Corvallis. Gary Rodgers
was the City of Corvallis representative.
Finally, Turnstone completed the second
year of murrelet surveys in support of a
proposed energy infrastructure project in
northwest Oregon. The project included
conducting 74 murrelet surveys at 13
sites located on both public and private
lands.

Columbia River: seabirds and
salmon

Jeannette Zamon (National Ocean-
ographic and Atmospheric Agency
[NOAA] -Fisheries), Elizabeth Phillips
(OSU, Cooperative Institute for Marine
Resource Studies), and Lauren Rein-
alda (Pacific States Marine Fisheries
Commission) — all based at NOAA-
Fisheries’ Point Adams Research Station
in Hammond, OR— continued research
on interactions of Sooty Shearwaters
( Puffinus griseus ) and Common
Murres ( Uria aalge) with juvenile
salmonids ( Oncorhynchus spp.) around
the Columbia River plume area. They
also collaborated with Josh Adams (U.S.
Geologic Survey [USGS]), who is using
satellite tags to study Sooty Shearwater
movements in the California Current

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 59

REGIONAL REPORTS • Washington-Oregon

ecosystem. With excellent assistance
from volunteer observers Ryan Mer-
rill (WA) and Terry Hunefeld ( CA),
they also completed three at-sea seabird
surveys between Cape Flattery, WA and
Newport, OR in March, May, and June
2009. Analysis of seabird distribution,
oceanographic conditions, juvenile
salmon, and forage fish abundance pat-
terns continues, with funding by NOAA
and the Bonneville Power Administra-
tion. Additionally, Zamon and co workers
continue monthly land-based marine bird
and mammal surveys from North Head
Lighthouse (Cape Disappointment State
Park, WA) to assess year-round wild-
life use of the Columbia River plume
habitat.

OSU, the USGS-Oregon Coop-
erative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit,
Real Time Research (RTR), and coopera-
tors in the Caspian Tem Working Group
continued their research on colony dy-
namics and seabird predation on salmon
smolts in the lower Columbia River and
the entire Pacific Northwest. The largest
breeding colonies of both Caspian Terns
(. Hydroprogne caspia) and Double-
crested Cormorants ( Phalacrocorax
auritus) on the west coast occur on East
Sand Island (ESI) in the Columbia River
estuary. In 2009, the ESI Caspian Tern
colony was approximately 9850 pairs
in late May, compared to approximately
10,670 pairs in 2008. Juvenile salmonids
comprised 32% of the diet of terns at
ESI in 2009, a small increase from 29%
in 2008. Northern anchovy ( Engraulis
mordax) and surfperch (Embiotocidae)
were the most prevalent non-salmonid
prey. After ESI, the Caspian Tem colony
at Dungeness Spit, WA has been the
second largest in the Pacific Northwest.
However, after reaching a peak number
of about 500 pairs in early June 2009, the
entire Dungeness Spit colony failed by
early July due to avian and mammalian
predation pressure.

The 2009 Double-crested Cormorant
colony at ESI was approximately 12,090
nesting pairs (up from 10,950 pairs in
2008). While colony size fluctuated by
10 to 20% from 2007 to 2009, this colony
increased dramatically since first noted

20 years ago. Over 30 Double-crested
Cormorants from the ESI colony were
tracked in a continuing satellite telemetry
study to investigate post-breeding disper-
sal and location of wintering areas . ESI
is also the largest known post-breeding
roost site for California Brown Pelicans
(. Pelecanus occidentalis calif ornicus) ,
with over 16,800 Brown Pelicans count-
ed on the island in mid to late July.

On the Mid-Columbia River, near
its confluence with the Snake River in
eastern WA, the Caspian Tern colony
on Crescent Island was estimated at 350
nesting pairs in 2009, down from 390
in 2008. Juvenile salmonids comprised
64% of the diet of Crescent Island terns
in 2009, similar to 2000-2007. In 2009,
this colony was surpassed by the Goose
Island colony in Potholes Reservoir
(eastern WA) as the largest colony in
the Columbia Plateau Region, with
approximately 500 pairs. Goose Island
is also the largest Double-crested Cor-
morant colony in the Columbia Plateau
Region, with around 810 pairs nesting in
trees at the north end of the reservoir in
2009. Foundation Island, 9 km upriver
from Crescent Island, also supports a
tree-nesting colony of Double-crested
Cormorants, which had at least 310 nest-
ing pairs in 2009.

Implementation of the Caspian
Tern Management Plan was continued
in 2009 with efforts to relocate terns to
artificial nesting islands. Before the 2008
nesting season, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE) built two 0.2-ha tem
nesting islands at Summer Lake Wildlife
Area in southeastern OR, and two 0.4-ha
tem nesting islands were built, one each
at Crump Lake (southeastern OR) and
Fern Ridge Reservoir (near Eugene, OR) .
Caspian Tern decoys and sound systems
playing tern calls were deployed at all
sites except Crump Lake. All sites were
monitored for tern activity throughout
the breeding season. Sixteen pairs of
Caspian Terns nested on the new Sum-
mer Lake islands in 2009; approximately
420 Caspian Tern pairs nested at Crump
Lake, similar to 2008. About 145 fledg-
lings were produced at Crump Lake,
where Tui chub ( Gila bicolor ) and catfish

(Ictaluridae) made up the bulk of the diet.
As in 2008, no terns nested at the new
island in Fern Ridge Reservoir, although
video recordings showed multiple visits
to the island by different Caspian Terns.

Besides OSU, USGS, and RTR, the
Caspian Tern Working Group included
representation from NOAA-Fisheries,
USACE, USFWS, WDFW, Oregon
Department of Fish, Idaho Department
of Fish and Game, Columbia River Inter-
Tribal Fish Commission, and others . This
year’s research team included Dan Roby
(USGS/OSU), Jessica Adkins, Dan
Battaglia, Maureen Correll, Karen
Fischer, Nathan Hostetter, Pete Los-
chl, Don Lyons, Tim Marcella, Lauren
Reinalda, Yasuko Suzuki, James Ten-
nyson, and Coral Wolf (OSU), Ken Col-
lis. Brad Cramer, Allen Evans, Mike
Hawbecker, and John Sheggeby (RTR),
and numerous seasonal technicians and
volunteers. Research was funded by
the Bonneville Power Administration,
USACE, and the Northwest Power and
Conservation Council.

Washington— colonies, at sea

Scott Pearson, Peter Hodum

(Oikonos), Julia Parrish (University of
Washington), and Tom Good (NOAA,
Northwest Fisheries Science Center)
extended their multi-year comparative
study of foraging ecology and repro-
ductive success of Rhinoceros Auklets
( Cerorhinca monocerata ) on Protec-
tion, Destruction and Tatoosh islands,
WA. They also continued their five-year
population monitoring program for
Tufted Puffins ( Fratercula cirrhata)
on Tatoosh. The comparative foraging
study of Rhinoceros Auklets addresses
spatial and temporal variation in diet
across three different marine habitats.
Prey composition differed between sites,
with birds on Protection exploiting a nar-
rower range of prey species and depend-
ing more heavily on Pacific sand lance
(. Ammodytes hexapterus) than auklets on
Destruction and Tatoosh. Despite dietary
differences, reproductive performance
has been comparable across the three
colonies among years. In 2009, Tufted
Puffins on Tatoosh had their most

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 60

REGIONAL REPORTS • Washington-Oregon

successful breeding season since moni-
toring began in 2005.

This past year Joe Galusha from
Walla Walla University has been study-
ing social facilitation in juvenile Glau-
cous-winged Gulls (j Larus glaucescens)
on natal territories in the colony on Pro-
tection Island National Wildlife Refuge.
The young gulls are twice as likely to
be doing the same behaviors at the same
time with each other as with their par-
ents, neighboring gull chicks, or distant
control birds. Doing the same things
at the same time may be functionally
advantageous to the bonding process in
this species. Galusha and colleagues are
also analyzing 100 hours of videotape for
patterns in preening by adult and juvenile
gulls. The length of preening bouts vary
greatly (from 0.2 to 13 .4 sec) during the
series that make up a preen episode (from
start to stop of alternating preen and
vigilance). Interestingly, the efficiency
ratio (length of preen/following period
of vigilance) is lower at the beginning
and ending of an episode and peaks in
the middle.

Lora Leschner, North Puget Sound
Wildlife Program Manager, Washing-
ton Department of Fish and Wildlife
(WDFW), is involved in estuary resto-
ration projects on Padilla, Skagit, and
Port Susan Bay as well as the Snohom-
ish River estuary. The WA legislature
directed the state to restore habitat for
threatened species, but to “restore public
lands first” in an effort to reduce impacts
on private agricultural land. This has
resulted in conflict and controversy, as
hunters, bird watchers, and hikers feel
that their recreation areas are changed
with no replacement for recreation ac-
cess . However, waterbirds love the newly
created estuary habitat and flooded farm
fields. It will be exciting to see the habitat
changes, and to watch whether the estu-
ary restorations remain productive for
water birds. Feasibility studies, including
community support for wetland restora-
tion, are planned for 3 of the projects
that Lora is managing. Agriculture pres-
ervation groups have delayed several
projects planned for North Puget Sound
by WDFW and Snohomish County.

Joe Evenson, Bryan Murphie,
and Tom Cyra (WDFW, Puget Sound
Assessment and Monitoring Program
[PS AMP]) are continuing the low-level
aerial bird surveys throughout the inner
marine waters of WA this coming winter,
as has been done since 1992. Maps of
density indices for selected species and
other data products are available for the
1992-2008 winters and the 1992-1999
summer surveys at http://www.wdfw.
wa.gov/mapping/psamp/ These data
are also accessible through the Wild-
life Resources Data Section, WDFW,
Olympia.

WDFW’s mark-recapture study of
molting scoters ( Melanitta spp.) was
continued in 2009. As in late summer
2007 and 2008, we used specially modi-
fied gill nets to increase banding effort.
Over 1600 Surf, White-winged, and
Black Scoters (. Melanitta perspicillata,
M. jusca, and M. nigra ) were banded on
26 capture days over a nine-week period
at four areas: Padilla Bay, Boundary Bay,
the vicinity of Oak Harbor, and the mouth
of the Fraser River in British Columbia.
Around 3000 scoters have been banded
over the study’s three years. This effort
has been highly successful due to the
extensive collaboration between varied
WDFW staff, Dan Esler, Eric Ander-
son, Jenn Barrett (Simon Fraser Uni-
versity, British Columbia), and numerous
volunteers from British Columbia and
Washington.

WDFW also continued a study on
sex and age ratios of scoters and Harle-
quin Ducks ( Histrionicus histrionicus )
to examine hatch-year recruitment.
This work began in February 2008. The
sampling scheme involved 40 boat-days
of survey covering all winter groups of
Harlequin Ducks and a large percentage
of wintering scoters known to occur in
the inner marine waters of WA. We plan
to repeat the effort again in February
2010 .

Other projects related to breeding
marine birds are continuing or evolving
at WDFW. Researchers are banding and
fitting VHF transmitters on 20 Black
Oystercatchers ( Haematopus bachmani)
to determine wintering flock locations

in northern Puget Sound. They also
are archiving the 1999-2003 breeding
surveys of Pigeon Guillemots ( Cepphus
columba) in the inner marine waters of
WA State.

Questions or input on WDFW
studies can be directed to Joe Evenson
(360-790-8691 ; evensjre@dfw.wa.gov.),
Bryan Murphie (360-790-8687), Tom
Cyra (425 422 0537), or Ruth Milner
(360-466-4345x265).

On a sad note for seabird research
in WA, for the three remaining staff, and
especially for a marine person like him-
self, budget cuts led WDFW to reassign
Dave Nysewander from seabird issues
to large carnivores. We miss him in the
field and try to sneak him out whenever
possible.

Oregon— colonies, at sea

Rob Suryan reported on the Seabird
Oceanography Lab (SOL) at OSU’s Hat-
field Marine Science Center (HMSC) in
Newport. SOL is involved in research on
marine and estuarine avian ecology and
integrated ecosystem studies, while pro-
viding research opportunities for students
and developing educational programs.
Now in its fourth year, SOL continued to
expand the breadth of research projects
throughout the north Pacific. Research
in 2008-2009 included Common murre
(Uria aalge) reproductive biology and
foraging ecology at Yaquina Head, Or-
egon; U.S. West Coast fisheries and sea-
bird interactions; life history strategies
and environmental forcing (see below for
these projects); plus research in Alaska,
California, Hawaii, and Japan (details are
in reports for those areas).

Suryan, Amanda Gladics (USFWS),
and Amanda Stewart (National Science
Foundation intern) conducted studies of
Common Murres at the Yaquina Head
colony in Newport, OR. This was the
third consecutive year of collaborative
studies at this site among OSU, USFWS,
and the Bureau of Land Management.
Reproductive success (fledglings per
egg laid) for murres in 2009 was rela-
tively high (77%), similar to 2008, and
far greater than 2007 (54%). The most

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 61

REGIONAL REPORTS • Washington-Oregon

striking difference in prey among the
past three years was the occurrence of
sand lance; this prey was not observed
in 2007, became the dominant prey in
2008, and was intermediate in 2009. Bald
eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) are
known to cause significant disturbance to
murre colonies in Oregon and were the
dominant disturbance source at Yaquina
Head during the past three years. Luckily,
this colony appears to be large enough to
withstand the effects of repeated preda-
tion. In fact, the majority of disturbance
events have been concentrated on a
relatively small area, leaving most of the
colony undisturbed during incubation
and chick rearing. Asynchrony in egg
hatching dates among islets, however,
may be caused by the greater predation
pressure in some areas, preventing birds
from settling on colony and initiating egg
laying during early season.

Peter Sanzenbacher and Brian
Cooper of ABR, Inc. in cooperation
with Shawn Stephensen, Roy Lowe,
and Dave Ledig (USFWS Oregon Coast
National Wildlife Refuge Complex [OC-
NWR]) developed radar sampling meth-
ods to monitor populations of noctumally
active seabird colonies. ABR personnel
conducted nocturnal radar and night
vision surveys at Leach’s Storm-Petrel
( Oceanodroma leucorhoa) colonies on
the southern coast of Oregon during the
2008 and 2009 breeding periods. The
goal of these studies is to determine if
radar is a viable and effective tool for
monitoring nocturnally active species
at near-shore colonies. All work was
conducted as part of a Challenge Cost
Share Agreement between USFWS and
ABR. From 29 June to July 8, 2008 a
total of 12 radar surveys were done at
seven storm-petrel colonies in a week
during new moon, from 29 June to July 8.
These efforts were spread evenly among
seven different storm-petrel colonies.
Concurrent with radar sampling, USFWS
personnel conducted burrow surveys at a
number of colonies to compare methods.
During the 2009 season we conducted
20 radar survey nights, five nights per
month, from May to August. We saw a
wide range of activity levels both within
and among colonies. Among factors

affecting colony attendance were weather
(particularly high winds), time of night,
and seasonal period. Night-vision scans
confirmed the identification of radar
targets as storm-petrels during nocturnal
hours, and also confirmed the presence of
mammalian predators, both raccoon and
river otter, at the Saddle Rock colony in
2008 and 2009.

Shawn Stephensen, Amanda Glad-
ics, Amy Kocourek, Jason Ziegler, and
Jessica Gelnett of the OCNWR con-
ducted a census of Leach’s Storm-Petrel
on nine islands within the Oregon Islands
National Wildlife Refuge. A precise
population estimate was obtained by
determining burrow density, burrow
occupancy, and nesting area, calculated
with the aid of Light Detecting and Rang-
ing (LIDAR) images. Transects with
multiple lxl-m quadrats were delineated
on each island in order to replicate tran-
sects over years. The largest Leach’s
Storm-Petrel colony was at Goat Island
with an estimated breeding population
of 267,201 individuals. In addition, a
reconnaissance botanical survey was
conducted on the islands by Dave and
Diane Bilderback (USFWS volunteers).
Plant species were collected, dried, and
pressed and a comprehensive plant list
for each island was obtained. Several rare
plants were found and some introduced
invasive species were documented.

Stephensen and Dave Ledig of the
OCNWR conducted an aerial seabird
colony survey on June 8-9, 2009 along
the entire Oregon coast. The aircraft used
was a Bell Jet Ranger III helicopter and
total flight time was approximately 10
hours. All cliff-nesting seabird colonies
were photographed using digital cameras
and birds were counted on the digital
images utilizing GIS computer software.
Thousands of digital images were orga-
nized and archived for future reference.
Shawn and USFWS pilot Ray Bentley
conducted a coastal aerial survey of
California Brown Pelicans on September
14—15, 2009. The survey extended from
Smith River, Del Norte County, northern
CA to Willoughby Rock, Grays Harbor
County, southern WA. Total survey
flight time was 9.9 hours. We included
all rocks, reefs, islands, coastal beaches,

and waters up to 0.5 mile offshore. The
aircraft used was a fixed-wing Cessna
182; survey altitude ranged from 200
to 800 feet. A total of 17,926 individual
birds were counted in 2009, in com-
parison to 18,769 in 2007 and 12,425 in
2008. The largest congregation of birds
(4,140 individuals) was located on East
Sand Island, Columbia River.

Also see “Other Work and News,”
below, for the OCNWR.

Bycatch

Shannon Fitzgerald reported on
seabird/fishery interaction studies at the
Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC),
NOAA-Fisheries. In June there was a
workshop to improve annual estimates of
seabird bycatch in Alaskan commercial
groundfish fisheries. Shannon and Kim
Dietrich completed an analysis exam-
ining vessel-specific seabird bycatch
features in the demersal longline fleet,
and the Freezer Longliner Coalition
collaborated on the results. In August
the North Pacific Fisheries Foundation
and NOAA-Fisheries conducted a pilot
program on seabird interactions with
paravane (net-monitoring) gear on a
trawl vessel. Jeff Pesta was deployed
for one trip and recorded interaction rates
with the gear and worked with vessel per-
sonnel to develop mitigation measures.
Ed Melvin, Washington Sea Grant, and
Kim Dietrich provided support in the
development of field protocols. Ground-
fish observers continue to retain seabird
carcasses during fishing operations for an
ongoing seabird necropsy program with
Michelle Hester and Hanna Nevins of
Oikonos. Fitzgerald was also the local
coordinator for the NOAA-Fisheries
National Seabird Program Strategic Plan-
ning Workshop, held at AFSC in Seattle
in September 2009. The workshop was
led by Kim Rivera, NOAA’s National
Seabird Program Coordinator.

Tom Good is continuing collab-
orative work with the Northwest Straits
Commission and Natural Resource Con-
sultants, Inc. on assessing the impacts of
derelict fishing gear on marine birds and
other species in Puget Sound. Economic
stimulus funding through a grant from
NOAA will provide resources over the

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 62

REGIONAL REPORTS • Washington-Oregon

next 18 months to find and remove ap-
proximately 3000 high-priority derelict
nets that remain in Puget Sound. Analy-
ses of nets removed thus far were re-
cently published in Marine Ornithology
as part of the symposium on the Salish
Sea ecosystem that was held at PSG’s
2008 Annual Meeting in Blaine, WA.

Ed Melvin and Troy Guy of Wash-
ington Sea Grant and Rob Suryan are
continuing to work with NOAA-Fisher-
ies to assess interactions of albatrosses
and other seabirds with the hook-and-line
and trawl fishing fleets of WA, OR, and
CA. To accomplish this they will use
at-sea observational and telemetry data
from a wide range of seabird studies and
PSG collaborators to overlay seabird
distributions with fishing effort. They
plan to recommend seabird-avoidance
measures (in consultation with the fishing
industry) and conduct seabird avoidance
workshops at ports on the west coast.
They also are working with NOAA-
Fisheries and USFWS to make streamer
lines available free of charge to the west
coast fleet.

Other work and news

Rob Suryan (OSU) worked with
Morten Frederiksen (National Envi-
ronmental Research Institute, Denmark),
Vince Saba (Virginia Institute of Marine
Science), Bryan Wallace (Conservation
International), Sarah Wanless (Centre
for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh),
and Scott Hatch (USGS, Anchorage,
Alaska) to synthesize life history pa-
rameters for species at multiple trophic
levels and different ocean basins, with
the goal of showing parallel responses
in life history strategies to environmental
forcing— climate and both top-down and
bottom-up drivers. These results have
broad applications for understanding and
predicting marine community response
to climate change.

Suryan reports that in the field of ed-
ucation, the Seabird Oceanography Lab
of OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center
in Newport, OR offered its first short
course in marine bird ecology for un-
dergraduates in 2008-2009. The lab also
contributed to a weeklong workshop at
HMSC for graduate students from many

countries to learn the latest techniques in
studying bird migration, organized by
MIGRATE (Migration Interest Group:
Research Applied Toward Education;
http://www.migrate.ou.edu/) .

Bill loads of prey held by terns and
alcids provide valuable data relevant
to behavior, ecology, and management
of predators and prey. David P. Craig
(Willamette University) is collecting
protocols and reference materials to train
field observers in identifying prey, and in
estimating prey size with reference to the
bill. His goal is to complete a compre-
hensive manual that will cover all birds
of the Pacific Coast that carry bill-loads
of fish, including species accounts and
images of prey species, for the World
Seabird Conference. Contributions
and questions are encouraged via his
blog site (http://pacificseabirdbillloads.
blogspot.com/). A more general set of
reference photos related to waterbird
diet research is at http://www.flickr.
com/groups/565552@N22/.

Shawn Stephensen (USFWS, OC-
NWR) successfully defended his Masters
thesis at University of Alaska Anchorage
(see Alaska report for details).

With great sadness, the OCNWR
reports the loss of David Pitkin and
Ray Bentley in a plane crash during
aerial waterfowl survey work on the
Oregon coast in January 2010. Dave was
a remarkably dedicated and inspiring
biologist during his tenure at OCNWR
from 1992 to 2007, and afterwards con-
tinued the work he loved on a variety of
waterbird and archaeological projects in
the northwest. Dave’s legacy of research,
superb photography, and warm spirit
carries on for those fortunate enough to
have known him.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Compiled by Craig Strong

Gulf of the Farallones

PRBO Conservation Science biolo-
gists Russ Bradley and Pete Warzybok,
in conjunction with Gerry McChesney
(U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service [USFWS],
San Francisco Bay National Wildlife

Refuge [NWR] Complex) and a host of
interns and volunteers continued long-
term seabird work at Southeast Farallon
Island NWR (SEFT) . The seabird research
conducted annually at SEFT includes diet,
reproductive success, prey availability
and distribution, foraging strategy, and
oceanographic parameters affecting the
13 species of marine birds that nest there.

There was another year of mixed
signals on the Farallones in 2009. Strong
upwelling in the early spring likely
influenced abundant krill, which were
present for most of the season. At-sea
surveys conducted by the Gulf of the
Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
(GFNMS), Cordell Bank National Ma-
rine Sanctuary (Lisa Etherington and
Kaitlin Graiff) and PRBO Conserva-
tion Science (Jaime Jahncke) indicated
high levels of primary and secondary
productivity. Krill, krill-eating seabirds
(Cassin’s Auklets [Ptychoramphus
aleuticus ], storm-petrels ( Oceanodroma
spp.), shearwaters ( Pujfinus spp.), blue
whales ( Balaenoptera musculus ), and
humpback whales ( Megaptera novaean-
gliae) were common to abundant in the
Gulf through the fall (October).

With good prey available, Cassin’s
Auklets on SEFI had high reproductive
success and even a few successful double
broods, in sharp contrast to recent years
of failure. In contrast, a virtual absence
of northern anchovy ( Engraulis mordax)
in the diet of piscivorous birds resulted
in very poor breeding success of Com-
mon Murres ( Uria aalge ), Western Gulls
( Larus occidentalis) , and Brandt’s Cor-
morants ( Phalacrocorax penicillatus ).
Murres had their worst breeding year
since the 1992 El Nino; Brandt’s Cormo-
rants had zero reproductive success, and
Western Gulls had their worst breeding
year in the Farallon time series. Pelagic
Cormorants ( Phalacrocorax pelagicus)
and Pigeon Guillemots ( Cepphus co-
lumba ) had moderate breeding success,
perhaps linked to juvenile rockfish ( Se -
bastes spp.) stocks close to the island.
California Gulls ( Larus californicus) at-
tempted to breed on SEFI for the second
straight year, again failing to fledge any
young. Notable events from 2009 also

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 63

REGIONAL REPORTS • Northern California

included the first successful Peregrine
Falcon ( Falco peregrinus ) nesting on
SEFI in over 60 years and a pair of
resident ravens ( Corvus corax ) regularly
excavating Cas sin’s Auklet burrows.

The Beach Watch program of
GFNMS, led by Jan Roletto, Shannon
Lyday, ru Devlin, and Jamie Hall de-
tected an unusually large number of dead
Brandt’s Cormorants along the outer
coast beaches in mid-March. The mortal-
ity event, from Bodega Head in Sonoma
County south to Ano Nuevo Island in
San Mateo County, continued throughout
the spring. Lesser mortality occurred
in Western Grebes ( Aechmophorus oc-
cidentalis ), Double-crested Cormorants
( Phalacrocorax auritus ), Common
Murres, and loons ( Gavia sp.). Mortality
of seabirds subsided during the summer,
while numbers of dead California Sea
Lions (. Zalophus californianus ) increased
greatly and peaked in August. The num-
bers of dead cormorants and sea lions
were 6 to 8 times higher than average for
the spring and summer months, in com-
parison to data for the previous 1 6 years .
Cause of death in most animals was due
to starvation (emaciation) . It is suggested
that the main cause of mortality was
upwelling anomalies and a mismatch
with the timing of anchovy production
in the Gulf of the Farallones. There may
have been larger-scale processes over the
winter of 2008-2009 to cause anchovies
to move farther north. By most accounts,
seabird and pinniped mortality was less
both north and south of the region.

Other colonies

Ron Le Valley (Mad River Biolo-
gists) led a group of about ten volun-
teers, sponsored by the Mendocino
Audubon Society and the Bureau of
Land Management, to monitor three
cormorant colonies in central Mendocino
County. They visited the colonies 3-5
times a week and photographed the
colonies once a week. They monitored
60 nests out of about 400 in one Brandt’s
Cormorant colony on the Mendocino
Headlands, and 18-20 nests in each of
two Pelagic Cormorant colonies.

The Sea Ranch Task Force, headed
by Rich Kuehn and Diane Hichwa

and sponsored in part by the Madrone
Audubon Society and the Bureau of Land
Management, finished their third year of
intensive monitoring of a Brandt’s Cor-
morant colony at Gualala Point Island,
Sonoma county. Work included regular
aerial photos of the island and of the
nearby colony at Fish Rocks in southern
Mendocino County. Nesting success is
still being analyzed, but all colonies,
including those monitored by Le Valley
in Mendocino, had their best reproduc-
tion in years. Most nests fledged multiple
chicks and, in two instances, Pelagic
Cormorants laid a second clutch after
fledging young (neither second clutch
was successful).

Susan Euing (USFWS) and Mer-
edith Elliott (PRBO Conservation Sci-
ence) monitored the Least Tem ( Sternula
antillarum browni ) colony at Alameda
Point (the former Naval Air Station,
Alameda) . The colony had another suc-
cessful reproductive year during 2009.
There were an estimated 318 breeding
pairs and a total of 346 nests. Of the 669
eggs laid, 538 of them hatched, giving
an 80% hatching success rate. An esti-
mated 356 fledglings were produced, and
breeding success was 1 .2 fledglings per
breeding pair. Few eggs were abandoned
or failed to hatch, but predation on adults
and fledglings was high, and crows were
responsible for taking abandoned and
failed-to-hatch eggs at the end of the
season.

A project on colony status and diet
of Caspian Terns in San Francisco Bay
was in its second year in 2009. The team
included Dan Roby (U.S. Geologic Sur-
vey [USGS]/Oregon State University
[OSU]), Lindsay Adrean, Dan Batta-
glia, Don Lyons, Allison Patterson and
Yasuko Suzuki (OSU), Ken Collis and
Allen Evans (Real Time Research) and
a number of seasonal technicians and
volunteers. They found Caspian Terns
at 6 colonies in 2009, with a total of
approximately 830 breeding pairs, com-
pared to approximately 1025 breeding
pairs at 4 sites in 2008. Brooks Island in
the north bay (nearest the Sacramento

Delta) held approximately 82% of the
population. The diet of Brooks Island
terns was dominated by surfperch ( Em -
biotocidae ), silversides ( Atherinidae ),
and anchovies (. Engraulis mordax ), with
juvenile salmonids making up about 9%
of the diet, similar to 2008. Telemetry
data on 50 adult Caspian Terns radio
tagged at Brooks Island showed that
most commonly used foraging areas
were outside of San Francisco Bay in
the nearshore area, and in the north bay
from the east side of San Pablo Bay up
to the mouth of Carquinez Strait. Other
colonies were located at Eden Landing,
Stevens Creek, Agua Vista Park, Raven -
swood Park, and Redwood Shores. Prey
composition at Eden Landing differed
from Brooks Island, with silversides and
flatfish (Pleuronectidae and Bothidae)
dominating; juvenile salmonids made up
less than 1% of the diet.

This study was funded by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, with logistic
support and technical assistance from the
East Bay Regional Parks, USFWS/Don
Edwards NWR, California Department
of Fish and Game (CDFG), and San
Francisco Bay Bird Observatory.

Mark Rauzon (Marine Endevours;
now at Laney College, Geography De-
partment) surveyed the Double-crested
Cormorants on San Francisco Bay
bridges in May, along with Meredith
Elliott (PRBO Conservation Science).
Numbers of breeding cormorants were
the lowest since record keeping began
in 1999, which appears attributable in
part to a food shortage experienced by all
central California cormorants in 2009. In
addition, a new colony of Caspian terns
(. Hydroprogne caspia ) was located in
Marin County.

Kris Robison of the University
of California, Davis (UCD) reports on
continued monitoring of Western and
Clark’s grebes ( Aechmophorus oc-
cidentals and A. clarkii, respectively)
in northern California. The project is a
joint effort between California’s Office
of Oil Spill Prevention and Response
(OSPR), the Kure-Stuyvesant Trustee
Council, and the California Institute
of Environmental Studies. Field work

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 64

REGIONAL REPORTS • Northern California

was accomplished by Robison, Dan
Anderson, and Renee Weems (UCD),
and Frank Gress (California Institute of
Environmental Studies). Aerial surveys,
population and productivity transects,
disturbance monitoring, and outreach
activities were the main objectives at
several important breeding sites: Clear
Lake (Lake County), Eagle Lake (Las-
sen County), Lake Almanor (Plumas
County), and Tule Lake NWR (Siskiyou
County) . Compared to the last two years,
2009 showed an increase in number of
nests and number of young produced
at all sites, however, nest numbers and
productivity at Clear Lake and Eagle
Lake are still well below historical lev-
els. Two likely reasons for recent low
nesting efforts are prolonged drought,
which has limited the available nesting
substrate, and chronic human disturbance
(especially at Clear Lake).

Marbled Murrelets

Sal Cinnichi reports that the Hum-
boldt Redwood Company, LLC (HRC)
is a new company formed last year as a
result of the Pacific Lumber Company’s
bankruptcy. HRC is continuing con-
servation activities for the Marbled
Murrelet ( Brachyramphus marmoratus )
under its company Habitat Conservation
Plan (HCP). Murrelet occupancy and
numbers are tracked over years using
both radar and audio-visual survey tech-
niques at the Headwaters Lorest Reserve
(HER), the Humboldt Redwoods State
Park (HRSP), and Marbled Murrelet
Conservation Areas (MMCAs) on HRC
forest lands. Collaborators are Mad
River Biologists and O’Brien Biologi-
cal Consulting. Audio-visual surveys
resulted in detections of occupancy by
murrelets at HER, HRSP, and the ma-
jority of the MMCAs. In addition, the
HCP’s marbled murrelet research fund
continued to support the research of
Zach Peery (University of California,
Berkeley) and collaborators on murrelet
ecology and genetics.

Steve Singer continues his long-
term audio-visual monitoring of Marbled
Murrelets with the assistance of Portia
Halbert at Gazos Creek Canyon in the

Santa Cruz Mountains, central Califor-
nia. Steve and Tom Hamer (Hamer
Environmental) used radar surveys at
several sites surveyed by radar 8-10
years ago (results are pending). Steve
also remains active in evaluation of
forest nesting habitat and acquisition
of property for NGOs in the Santa Cruz
Mountains.

The Marbled Murrelet Effectiveness
Monitoring Program, coordinated by
Gary Falxa (USFWS, Areata, Califor-
nia) continues to monitor the status and
trends of Marbled Murrelet populations
and nesting habitat from northern Cali-
fornia to the Canadian border. Further
details are in the Washington-Oregon
Regional Report (above).

Oil spill restoration projects

Laird Henkel (OSPR) reports on
restoration projects for seabirds in north-
ern California that have been funded
by oil spill settlements in recent years.
Multi-agency trustee councils select
and oversee all restoration projects. Two
trustee councils are currently funding
seabird-related projects in northern Cali-
fornia, with others in planning stages or
nearing conclusion. Projects are summa-
rized here; details for some are elsewhere
in this regional report.

The Kure/Stuyvesant Trustee Coun-
cil (for two spills in Humboldt Bay)
began implementation in 2008. Projects
include (1) reduction of disturbance to
nesting Common Murres at Redding
Rock (Bureau of Land Management and
USFWS), (2) a study to determine ap-
propriate methods to reduce disturbance
to roosting pelicans and cormorants
(Humboldt State University), (3) reduc-
tion of disturbance at Western/Cl ark’s
Grebes nesting colonies (UCD), (4)
corvid management to enhance nesting
success of Marbled Murrelets (Redwood
National Park), and (5) habitat acquisi-
tion for Marbled Murrelets (Save the
Redwoods League) .

The Command Trustee Council
(for a spill in the San Francisco Bay
area) began implementation in 2004.
Current projects include (1) reduction
of disturbance through outreach and

monitoring by the Seabird Protection
Network (GFNMS), (2) enhancement of
nesting habitat for Common Murres on
SEFI (USFWS and PRBO Conservation
Science), (3) enhancement and protec-
tion of nesting habitat for Rhinoceros
Auklets ( Cerorhinca monocerata) atAno
Nuevo Island (Oikonos, California State
Parks), (4) removal of non-native rats
from nesting colonies of Sooty Shear-
waters (. Puffinus griseus ) in New Zealand
(Oikonos), (5) acquisition of habitat for
Marbled Murrelets (Save the Redwoods
League), and (6) corvid management in
the Santa Cruz Mountains (California
State Parks). All projects include moni-
toring of success.

The Luckenbach Trustee Council
(for spills from a historic sunken wreck
in the Gulf of the Farallones) will imple-
ment several seabird restoration projects
as funds are made available from the Na-
tional Pollution Funds Center. Planning
is underway for restoration projects to
compensate for seabird losses during the
Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco
Bay in November 2007 . The Apex Hous-
ton and Cape Mohican Trustee Councils
(both for spills in the San Francisco Bay
area) have mostly completed their resto-
ration projects. To view restoration plans
and for other information, see www.dfg.
ca.gov/ospr/spill/nrda/nrda.html

Colony restoration

The Common Murre Restoration
Project completed its 14th year of
seabird restoration and monitoring in
central California, with funds from the
Command and Apex Houston Trustee
Councils. Gerry McChesney (USFWS),
Rick Golightly (Humboldt State Uni-
versity [HSU]), Harry Carter (Carter
Biological Consulting [CBC]), Steve
Kress (National Audubon Society), and
Karen Reyna (GFNMS) were contribut-
ing leads. Field personnel included Lisa
Eigner, Sandy Rhoades, Peter Kappes,
Mary Davis, Jonathan Shore, Crystal
Bechaver, and Phil Capitolo. They
tracked disturbance, attendance patterns,
and breeding performance at several
murre colonies between Point Reyes and

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 65

REGIONAL REPORTS • Northern California

Point Sur in 2009. Murres had extremely
low productivity at all monitored colo-
nies. For the first year since restoration
efforts began in 1996, no murre chicks
survived to departure at Devil’s Slide
Rock. Brandt’s Cormorants bred in very
low numbers and also suffered very low
productivity, concomitant with a large
starvation event in spring. Disturbance
from aircraft and boats continues to
be high at Devil’s Slide Rock. Special
Closure zones were recently declared
there and at five other central California
colonies under California’s Marine Life
Protection Act, which should help reduce
boat disturbance in the future.

In conjunction with the restoration
project, annual aerial photographic sur-
veys of northern and central California
colonies of murres, Brandt’s and Double-
crested Cormorants were conducted in
2009 by Phil Capitolo (University of
California, Santa Cruz) and Laird Hen-
kel (OSPR).

In 2009, Gerry McChesney, Rick
Golightly and Dawn Goley (HSU) ini-
tiated a feasibility study for Common
Murre restoration at Redding Rock off
the northern California coast, with assis-
tance from Harry Carter (CBC) . Support
was from the Kure-Stuyvesant Trustee
Council. Field personnel included Janet
Thibault, Allison Fuller, and Mallory
Mlynarek. This study is examining the
causes of murre decline on the rock,
including disturbance from humans
and sea lions, and potential options for
restoration.

Other work

Elizabeth Phillips (OSU, Coopera-
tive Institute for Marine Resource Stud-
ies), Jim Harvey and Hannah Nevins
(Moss Landing Marine Laboratories),
together with Josh Adams (USGS) and
Dave Jessup (CDFG). Marine Wildlife
Veterinary Care and Research Center)
began a project to compare hematologi-
cal values and other health parameters of
Northern Fulmars ( Fulmarus glacialis )
in Monterey Bay with birds admitted to

rehabilitation facilities during die-off or
oiling events. This project is a follow-up
study to the 2007 Santa Cruz Mystery
Spill event, and is funded by the Oiled
Wildlife Care Network. Their goal is to
obtain baseline information on blood
reference ranges and body condition
indices for this abundant Procellariid,
which will help improve rehabilitation
protocols.

A cooperative study is examining
how climate change affects the timing
of seasonal production cycles and food-
web dynamics. The group includes the
Farallon Institute for Advanced Ecosys-
tem Research (Bill Sydeman, Jarrod
Santora), Rob Suryan of the Seabird
Oceanography Lab at Oregon State Uni-
versity’s Hatfield Marine Science Center,
NOAA-Fisheries Pacific Fisheries Envi-
ronmental Lab, the Bodega Marine Lab
of the University of California, Davis,
and the Ocean Modeling Group at the
University of California, Berkeley.

Sarah Allen (Point Reyes National
Seashore [PRNS]) reports that the Cali-
fornia Fish and Game Commission, with
authority from the Marine Life Protection
Act, established several marine reserves
in the north central California region.
These included a few special closure ar-
eas for seabirds in Point Reyes National
Seashore. The primary seabird exclusion
areas include a 1000-ft boat exclusion
zone around most of Point Reyes Head-
land and a 300-ft zone around Miller
Rocks and Stormy Stack in Drakes Bay.
Whether these buffer zones are effective
in reducing disturbance from boats will
be monitored in coming years by the
USFWS and PRNS.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Compiled by Dan Robinette

Colonies

Kathy Keane (Keane Biological
Consulting [KBC]) and assistants moni-
tored the nesting population of the Cali-
fornia Least Tern ( Sternula antillarum
browni ) in Los Angeles Harbor.

Least Terns initiated 435 nests
in 2009, an 18% decrease from 2008
numbers. The reduction may be due
to reduced prey availability, frequent
visits by a Peregrine Falcon ( Falco
peregrinus ), and unsuccessful veg-
etation management. As well as Least
Terns, about 4500 Elegant Terns ( Sterna
elegans ) and 250 Caspian Terns ( Hy -
droprogne caspia ) nested successfully
within the harbor in 2009. KBC also
monitored a restoration project in Upper
Newport Bay, Orange County, to ensure
that dredging and other activities avoid
nesting Least Terns and other endangered
birds. KBC also completed a white pa-
per summarizing 20 bird surveys over
a one-year period in the Los Angeles
and Long Beach harbors; Western Gull
(. Lams occidentalis ), Brandt’s Cormorant
(. Phalacrocorax penicillatus) and Surf
Scoters ( Melanitta perspicillata ) were
the most numerous species. Finally,
KBC compiled a database for the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Portland office of all nesting tern spe-
cies and the Black Skimmer ( Rhynchops
niger ) in California.

Dan Robinette and Julie Ho war
(PRBO Conservation Science) have
completed their 11th year collecting
seabird data at Vandenberg Air Force
Base. Breeding success in 2009 was
similar to 2008, with pelagic feeding
seabirds having the highest success, fol-
lowed by demersal feeders then rocky
intertidal feeders. The California Least
Tern population doubled in 2009 but
continues to be undersized compared to
pre-2004 numbers . Least Tern fledging
success was the 2nd highest on record,
with 1.23 fledglings per pair. Brandt’s
and Pelagic (. Phalacrocorax pelagicus)
cormorant productivity was above aver-
age, while that for Black Oystercatchers
(. Haematopus bachmani ) was below av-
erage. The Western Gull colony at North
Rocky Point suffered major disturbance
and nest losses due an influx of Califor-
nia sea lions (. Zalophus calif ornianus),
which remained at the point all season
and reached record numbers. We also
documented sea lions pupping on North
Rocky Point, which is not common.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 66

REGIONAL REPORTS • Southern California

In the Channel Islands National
Park, the Montrose Settlements Resto-
ration Program (MSRP) implemented
several seabird restoration projects and
continued four seabird habitat restoration
projects. Participants included Harry
Carter (Carter Biological Consulting,
Victoria, British Columbia), Bill Mclver
(USFWS, Areata), Gerry McChesney
(USFWS, Newark), Laurie Harvey
(National Park Service), and Darrell
Whitworth and Frank Gress (Califor-
nia Institute of Environmental Studies
[CIES]). Reproductive effort, success,
and phenology of Cassin’s Auklets ( Pty -
choramphus aleuticus ) were monitored
on Scorpion Rock (Santa Cruz Island), as
well as at a reference site at Prince Island
(San Miguel Island). Extensive revegeta-
tion and soil stabilization were completed
on Scorpion Rock in fall 2009; plant
work was carried out in cooperation with
Growing Solutions. Reproductive effort,
success, and phenology of Ashy Storm-
Petrels ( Oceanodroma homochroa) were
monitored on Orizaba Rock and in 4 sea
caves at Santa Cruz Island. The team also
carried out social attraction and artificial
nest site projects for colony restoration,
and tracked reproductive effort, suc-
cess, and phenology of Xantus’s Mur-
relets ( Synthliboramphus hypoleucus)
and Cassin’s Auklets at Santa Barbara
Island (SBI). Plant habitat restoration
was expanded to four sites on SBI, and
social attraction for Cassin’s Auklets
was initiated there. Harry, Laurie, Frank
and Darrell also studied Xantus’s and
Craveri’s ( S . craveri ) Murrelets on is-
lands of at western Baja California with
colleagues Eduardo Palacios (CIES),
Tim Birt, and Vicki Friesen (Queen’s
University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada),
among others.

Pat Mock (URS Corporation) is as-
sisting the San Diego Regional Airport
Authority in their long-range planning
for the management of the California
Least Tern colony present on airport
property.

In retirement, Charlie Collins
continues his field studies of California
Least Terns breeding at Seal Beach Naval

Weapons Station and also “harvesting”
survival data (i.e. reading bands) for
Black Skimmers and Caspian Terns in
Southern California. He is also working
up a variety of accumulated data (not all
on seabirds) for publication.

At sea

Patricia Baird (Simon Fraser
University [SFU], British Columbia),
conducted a foraging study on Califor-
nia Least Terns within San Diego Bay,
and from the nearshore area to 30 km
offshore from the bay. Baird’s grad stu-
dent, Tyler Willsey (SFU), an assistant
from the University of British Columbia
(Melody Kirkby), and one from Cali-
fornia State University Fullerton (Greg
McMichael) rounded out the research
crew. They determined where the birds
foraged throughout the breeding season,
adult and chick diet, and age class of the
fish species taken.

Lisa T. Ballance and Robert L. Pit-
man continue to conduct seabird surveys
for the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NOAA)-Fisheries, Southwest Fisheries
Science Center [SWFSC]). Their work
is part of the SWFSC’s marine mam-
mal and ecosystem assessment cruises.
Two areas are monitored regularly: (1)
The California Current (the US Pacific
coast between borders with Mexico and
Canada, and seaward 300 nautical miles)
is surveyed every three years during
June-November for 120 sea days aboard
one NOAA research vessel . The most re-
cent survey was completed in December
2008. This project includes collaboration
with national marine sanctuaries along
the west coast, with fine-scale assess-
ment conducted in sanctuary waters
during some surveys. More details are at
http://swfsc.noaa.gov/prd-orcawale.aspx
(2) The Eastern Tropical Pacific (waters
between the US -Mexico border, Hawaii,
and Peru) is surveyed approximately
every three years during August-No-
vember, using 240 sea days aboard two
NOAA research vessels . The most recent
survey was conducted in 2006; the next
survey is planned for 2010. Details can
be found at http://swfsc.noaa.gov/prd-
star.aspx

NON-PACIFIC U.S.

Compiled by Melanie Steinkamp

Lisa Ferguson Eggert (Clemson
University [CU]) continued her PhD
research focusing on reproductive and
physiological ecology of seabirds at pro-
tected colonies in South Carolina, under
guidance of Patrick Jodice (CU, and
U.S. Geologic Survey [USGS], South
Carolina Cooperative Research Unit).
Gillian Brooks (CU) initiated her MS
degree examining nesting success of
Black Skimmers ( Rhynchops niger ) and
Least Terns ( Sterna antillarium ) in the
Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.
Work on movement patterns of Audu-
bon’s Shearwaters (. Pujfinus Iherminieri )
and White-tailed Tropicbirds ( Phaethon
lepturus ) nesting in the Bahamas contin-
ues under Co-principal investigators Will
Mackin and Jennifer Arnold (CU) . Two
devices were retrieved from shearwaters
after 5 weeks in 2008, 4 were retrieved
from shearwaters after 1 year, and 3
from tropicbirds after 1 year. Plans are
to continue deploying and attempting to
retrieve geolocators in 2010.

In 2009, Sara Williams and staff of
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife
Refuge (MCINWR) completed the sec-
ond of a 3 -year Adaptive Management
Study on tern habitat for 3 islands in the
Gulf of Maine. The study was designed
to enhance Arctic and Common Tern
0 Sterna paradisaea and S. hirundo ) nest-
ing habitat. They considered options such
as active predator control and annual
management such as mowing, prescribed
fire, or sheep grazing to cost-effectively
create vegetation communities that will
stay low during the tem breeding season.
This study will aid in selecting appropri-
ate islands for future seabird restoration,
and in management of multiple islands.

Sarah Spencer, in cooperation with
Linda Welch of MCINWR and Paul
Sievert of the USGS Massachusetts
Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research
Unit, continues her thesis work on
foraging ecology of Atlantic Puffins

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 67

REGIONAL REPORTS • Non-Pacific U.S.

(. Fratercula arctica) on Petit Manan
Island in the Gulf of Maine. Sarah is
also developing a predictive model for
identifying sex of breeding puffins in
the Gulf of Maine using morphomet-
ries, investigating burrow character-
istics of alcids nesting on Petit Manan
Island, and modeling foraging habitat
using temperature-depth recorders and
oceanographic conditions.

Katie Kauffman (Organismic and
Evolutionary Biology, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst) continued her
thesis research on foraging and diving
behavior, chick diet, and reproductive
success of Razorbills {Ale a tor da ) on
Matinicus Rock, Knox County, Maine,
part of the MCINWR. Her collabora-
tors were Paul Sievert, Linda Welch,
and Scott Hall of the Audubon Seabird
Restoration Program (SRP). In 2009,
Kauffman collected diving data from
breeding adults using time-depth re-
corders, and she estimated chick growth
rate at the colony.

A highlight of the 2009 season for
the SRP included the first Common
Murre ( Uria aalge ) egg on Matinicus
Rock, Knox County, Maine in more
than 100 years. The egg was found by
SRP staff in late June next to 150 murre
decoys; unfortunately it failed and was
likely predated by gulls. Another high-
light was the discovery of a near-fledg-
ing Manx Shearwater ( Pujfinus pujfinus )
on Matinicus Rock in one of 6 burrows
checked by Hall and USFWS refuge
staff on 8 Sep. This is the first con-
firmed fledging of a Manx Shearwater
chick in the United States, and only the
third North American nesting record.
Though 2009 was unusually wet and
cold at MCINWR, there appeared to be
ample Atlantic Herring ( Clupea haren-
gus) prey for seabirds. Nesting of terns
(4 species) was normal to slightly below
recent average numbers on the seven is-
lands managed by SRP, except that the
Roseate Tern {Sterna dougallii ), which
is listed under the federal Endangered
Species Act, continued to decline (34%

since 2001). In contrast, Atlantic Puffin
and Razorbill burrow numbers were
at a record high, beating the 2008 fig-
ures. With funding assistance from the
Maine Sea Grant program, SRP fitted
band-mounted LOTEK LAT2500 geo-
locators on eight Atlantic Puffins from
Seal Island to learn about winter distri-
bution.

Jeff Spendelow (USGS-Patuxent
Wildlife Research Center [PWRC])
continues to oversee a long-term co-
operative research project on the
metapopulation dynamics and ecol-
ogy of endangered Roseate Terns in the
Massachusetts-Connecticut-New York
region. Spendelow, Carolyn Mostello
(Massachusetts Division of Fisheries
and Wildlife) and her staff trapped
724 terns at Buzzards Bay Islands
(BBMA). Old band combinations were
recorded and fixed as needed, and 411
new color band combinations were
placed. By the end of 2009, over half
of the breeding adults in BBMA were
color-banded. During postbreeding dis-
persal of the terns, Spendelow worked
with staff of Massachusett Audubon’s
Coastal Waterbird Program, including
Becky Harris (Director), Ellen Jedrey
(Assistant Director), and others, and
with Edie Ray (Nantucket Conservation
Foundation) and others to resight and
identify banded Roseate Terns all
around the greater Cape Cod-Islands
area. From 20 Jul to 20 Sep, Spendelow
identified 1165 color-banded individu-
als. These represented over half the
2100 color-banded Roseate Terns that
were estimated to be alive since the
resumption of colorbanding in 2004.
Of particular interest, nearly all fledg-
ling Roseates that were color-banded at
Country Island, Nova Scotia, Canada
were resighted in Massachusetts. This
suggests that the entire northwest
Atlantic breeding population stages in
Massachusetts prior to fall migration to
South America. When the 2009 resight-
ing work is complete, it should result in
nearly 12,000 identifiable “bird-day”
sightings from at least 10 locations.

HAWAPI AND
PACIFIC

Compiled by Linda Elliot

Hawai‘i

The Tagging Of Pacific Pelagics
program (TOPP) continues to study
albatrosses at Tem Island, French Frig-
ate Shoals, and the Northwest Hawaiian
Islands. Researchers on the program
include Bill Henry, Melinda Conners,
Dan Costa (University of California,
Santa Cruz [UCSC]), Maura Naugh-
ton and John Klavitter (U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service [USFWS]), Marc
Romano (National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]-
Fisheries), Rob Suryan, (Oregon State
University [OSU], Seabird Oceanogra-
phy Lab), Lindsay Young (Pacific Rim
Conservation), and Scott Shaffer (San
Jose State University). Work includes
tracking birds with satellite transmitters
and GPS archival data loggers during the
incubation and chick-brooding periods,
with the focus on interannual variability
in foraging behavior (Kappes et al, in
press,) and eventually on longer-term
changes. The data series now runs since
2002.

The data-logger studies have ex-
panded in scope and collaboration. In
addition to tracking birds at Tern Island,
we have deployed archival tags on
Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses
{Phoebastria immutabilis and P. nigripes
) at Midway, 0‘ahu (Kaena Point), and
Guadalupe Islands; Laysan Island will
be added in 2010. These long-term data
sets will allow us to map the albatrosses’
population-level usage of the North
Pacific with greater resolution. We have
collected one season’s worth of data so
far, and the tags are back out again. Rob
Suryan and the team used these data
to note that many tagged birds were
visiting areas in the Gulf of Alaska, and
spent surprisingly long periods of time
there. We also collected data on albatross
feather molt during at-sea captures in
these regions. Using these two data sets,
we began to investigate the hypothesis
that albatrosses may go to specific areas
to molt during the non-breeding season.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 68

REGIONAL REPORTS • Hawaii and Pacific

If this is true, it would have implications
for at-sea conservation of albatrosses,
and would provide critical information
for establishing marine important bird
areas and marine protected areas.

In addition to Tern Island alba-
trosses, the TOPP team has also started
tracking Red-footed and Masked Boo-
bies ( Sula sula and S. dactylatra ) using
GPS data loggers. The boobies provide a
marked contrast with albatross foraging
behavior, because they stay relatively
close to the atoll.

There have been a few personnel
changes in TOPP. Doctoral student
Melinda Conners (co-advised by Scott
Shaffer and Dan Costa) is now leading
Tem Island work, since we happily report
that Michelle Kappes completed her
doctoral thesis in June 2009. Michelle is
enjoying the warm weather of Reunion
Island (In the Indian Ocean near the Sey-
chelles) as a postdoctoral scholar with
Matthieu Le Corre at Universite de la
Reunion. Scott Shaffer has also relocated
to a tenured faculty position at San Jose
State University (new contact scott.shaf-
fer@sjsu.edu). He’s not far from UCSC,
though. Please contact Scott for further
details or questions on TOPP.

In addition to the TOPP work, Rob
Suryan, Lindsay Young, Scott Shaffer,
and David Hyrenbach (Hawaii Pacific
University [HPU]) are studying breed-
ing biology, diet, and at-sea distribution
of four seabird species on Lehua Island,
Hawaii . Wendy Johnson (Hawaii Wild-
life Center) wrote about Freeman Seabird
Preserve (FSP), a 2.5-ha site at Black
Point, 0‘ahu, which supports a small
colony of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters
(Pujfinus pacificus ). David Hyrenbach
compiled data from the second annual
count of active nests at FSP, which was
conducted at the beginning of Septem-
ber by Hawaii Audubon, USFWS, HPU
students, and neighbors at Black Point.
Numbers were up 22% from 64 (6 Sep
2008) to 78 (89 Sep 2009). Nest moni-
toring revealed 70% hatching success
with a median date of 12 Aug. Three
eggs showed evidence of rodent preda-
tion. Predator control at the site consists
of six Diphacinone stations, which are

monitored twice monthly and replen-
ished as needed. While the birds were at
sea (December through March), Hawaii
Audubon Society volunteers met at FSP
on a regular basis to remove trash and
invasive vegetation. Long-term goals for
habitat restoration include reintroduction
of native plants and creation of additional
burrow and nesting sites.

Nick Holmes (Kaua‘i Endangered
Seabird Recovery Project) and David
Leonard (Hawaii Division of Forestry
and Wildlife (HDFW) reported on their
research on Newell’s Shearwater ( Pujfi-
nus auricularis newelli ) and Hawaiian
Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis ) on
Kauai. Radar surveys replicating earlier
surveys by Robert Day of ABR, Inc. in-
dicated a continuing decline of Newell’s
Shearwater, which is corroborated by the
recovery rates of grounded fledglings
over 20 years. Additional radar surveys
were used to test the statistical power of
trend data. Along with night vision and
acoustic surveys, radar was also used
to locate and characterize all colonies
of the above species, as well as Band-
rumped Storm-Petrels ( Oceanodroma
castro ). Holmes and Leonard also stud-
ied Barn Owl (Tyto alba ) distribution
and abundance near petrel colonies.
They worked with HDFW, USFWS,
the Nature Conservancy, and others to
develop means of controlling introduced
predators, minimize impact of ungulate
fence construction near colonies, and
study flight behavior at ball fields and
other areas that are lit at night. Contact
David at david.l.leonard@hawaii.gov for
complete reporting.

Jay Penniman, Fern Duvall II,
Wildlife Biologists, and David Leonard
(HDFW) continued studies on biology
and distribution of Hawaiian Petrels
and carried out initial predator control
measures at Lanaihale, Hawaii under
Lanaihale Endangered Seabird Manage-
ment. Auditory surveys, supplemented
with night vision and thermal imaging
methods, revealed abundant petrels at all
accessible areas in approximately 14 km 2
of steep ridge habitat that is dominated
by native uluhe fern ( Dicranopteris lin-
earis and Diplopterigium bipinnatum).

Because human access to nesting habitat
can damage the uhule and burrows, we
will use aerial vegetation mapping to
map remaining habitat and invasive spe-
cies. Only four chicks fledged out of 11
active burrows among 15 burrow sites
monitored. Barn owls, feral cats (Felis
sylvestris ), and rats (. Rattus spp.) were
proven predators on Hawaiian petrels.
We made over 21,000 trap sets with 68
box traps through the season using vari-
ous baits, and captured 9 cats. Rat trap-
ping prior to use of diphacinone revealed
Black or roof rats (. R . rattus ) to be com-
mon, with Polynesian ( R . exulans) and
Norway ( R . norvegicus) rats also pres-
ent. The USFWS is fencing 4,000 acres
of Lanaihale, and additional predator
control and ungulate removal will take
place once the fence is finished.

Pacific

Scott Shaffer (San Jose State Uni-
versity) and Hillary Young (Stanford
University) are studying trophic interac-
tions and foraging ecology of seabirds
on Palmyra Atoll, as part of Hillary’s
doctoral thesis.

Mark Rauzon (Marine Endevours,
now at Laney College, Geography De-
partment) surveyed birds in American
Memorial National Park, Saipan (North-
ern Mariana Islands), in July 2009. Mark
located nesting Little Terns ( Sterna albi-
frons), new for the park list. Photos may
be seen at www.rauzon.zenfolio.com.

LATIN AMERICA

Compiled by Linda Elliot

The Peruvian non-governmental
organizations APECO and ProDelphinus
are collaborating with the American Bird
Conservancy (ABC) on seabird by catch
in longline and gillnet fisheries. Pro-
Delphinus is also working to reduce the
intentional capture of Waved Albatrosses
for human consumption. In addition,
ABC worked with Samuel Amoros to
reduce the threat that traffic poses to
the endangered Peruvian Tern ( Sterna

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 69

REGIONAL REPORTS • Hawaii and Pacific

lorata ) breeding colony in Paracas Na-
tional Reserve. ABC has also supported
Dr. Carlos Zavalaga in Paracas in as-
sessing threats to the Peruvian Diving-
Petrel ( Pelecanoides garnotii ), including
satellite tracking of this species.

In 2009, the American Bird Con-
servancy (ABC) expanded its efforts to
reduce seabird by catch in eastern Pacific
fisheries. ABC is working with the Ec-
uadorian and Peruvian governments, the
Agreement on the Conservation of Alba-
trosses and Petrels (ACAP), and many
other partners to further the National
Plans of Action for Seabird Conservation
in Ecuador and Peru. ABC and Ecuador-
ian partner Equilibrio Azul began the
largest independent observer program on
the artisanal fishery in Ecuador, and the
first one to collect data on the critically
endangered Waved Albatross ( Phoebas -
tria irrorata) . The program was initiated
because of informal reports from fisher-
men that albatross bycatch was relatively
common. The Waved Albatross nests in
the Galapagos Island, and we know from
satellite tracking data that its foraging
routes take it to southern Peru, but its
behavior in Ecuadorian waters was un-
known. It was suspected that they passed
through relatively quickly, but observer
data show that they follow fishing boats,
and that large groups are frequently pres-
ent and squabble over offal and baited
hooks. This work is the first year of a
three-year program to reduce accidental
bycatch of seabirds.

In Chile, ABC, Oikonos, and the
Juan Fernandez Island Conservancy are
working with the Chilean Government to
improve conservation of the Pink-footed
Shearwater ( Pujfinus creatopus ) at its
largest breeding colony on Isla Mocha.
Historically, human consumption has
posed a serious threat to the colony there.
In the first field season (winter 2009/10),
Dr. Erin Hagan will lead an internation-
al team of biologists to map and monitor
the breeding burrows on the island, and
will affix satellite tags to document their
migration north to Canadian waters.
Funding for this project includes gener-
ous support from the U.S. National Fish
and Wildlife Foundation.

In Mexico, ABC is working with
Bill Henry (UC Santa Cruz) to assess
seabird bycatch in the artisanal fishing
fleets of northern Baja California.

ASIA

Compiled by Linda Elliot

In South Korea, the 3rd Interna-
tional Symposium on Migratory birds
was held on 25 September 2009, hosted
by National Park Research Institute and
Shinan Country. The topic of this sym-
posium was “Seabirds in Danger: Inva-
sive Species and Conservation of Island
Ecosystems.” Kyung-Gyu Lee (a PSG
member from Shinan County) presented
his work on conservation of Swinhoe’s
Storm Petrels ( Oceanodroma mono-
rhis ) breeding on 4 islands (Chilbaldo,
Sokuguldo, Kuguldo and Gaerindo).
About 110,000 individuals of Swinhoe’s
Storm-Petrels (90% of world population)
breed between late June and mid July in
South Korea. Although breeding islands
are protected by Cultural Heritage Ad-
ministration of Korea, he and his team
described effects of introduced plants on
breeding. The petrels rarely build their
nests in area with introduced plants such
as Miscanthus sinensis, Artemisis princes
and Achyranthes japonica. These plants
are accidentally introduced by human
and goats in islands. The most serious
problem is Achyranthes japonica, which
has sticky seeds that can trap petrels
when they visit their chicks in the bur-
rows. In 2008 and 2009, more than 80
individuals died due to Achyranthes
japonica. Mr Lee and his colleagues are
investigating whether removing invasive
plants will help the breeding success of
Swinhoe’s Storm Petrels.

Also during the symposium, Dr.
Young-Soo Kwon, PSG member and
researcher in the National Park Insti-
tute, talked about seabird conservation
in South Korea, particularly concern-
ing the globally-threatened Saunders’
Gull ( Larus sounder si). About 7100
to 9600 Saunders’ Gulls are found in

South Korea. For the past few years, the
gulls have bred in an area reclaimed for
development of a new town. Now they
have to leave the reclaimed area because
development is proceeding. Dr. Kwon
stressed that we need to make a plan for
Saunders’ Gulls. Last August, Miran
Kim (PSG member, Research Fellow
in Hanyang University) helped Mr Lee
and his team to remove invasive plants in
Chilbaldo. She is interested in conserva-
tion and the egg color variation in gulls.
In May 2009, she took digital images of
Black-tailed Gull ( Larus crassirostris)
eggs in Hong-do, South Korea and will
look at the factors affecting eggshell
color variations.

In Japan, a collaborative study is
continuing on the endangered Short-
tailed Albatross ( Phoebastria albatrus).
Participants include the Yamashina In-
stitute for Ornithology (Kiyoaki Ozaki,
Fumio Sato, Noboru Nakamura),
the Japanese Ministry of Environment,
(Naoki Amako), the USFWS (Greg
Balogh, Judy Jacobs), University of
Massachusetts (Paul Sievert), and the
Seabird Oceanography Lab at Oregon
State University (Rob Suryan.) Satel-
lite-tracking efforts, now in the seventh
year, are revealing the at-sea distribution
and marine habitat use of breeding sea-
son adults and post-breeding fledglings.
Transmitters are being placed on birds in
the colony on Torishima Island. Another
aspect of Short-tailed Albatross studies is
the experimental translocation of chicks
to recolonize a historical breeding site,
Mukojima in the Bonin Islands (Ogas-
awara). A component of this project is
satellite tracking of chicks after fledging,
to ensure that survival and migration
of translocated and hand-reared chicks
are similar to those of naturally reared
individuals. These juvenile birds will
be tracked into US waters to evaluate
potential fishery interactions. Evaluation
of threats from bycatch is particularly
important, because a small sample during
previous studies suggested that hatch-
year birds appear to have very different
movement and distribution patterns than
sub-adults and adults, which causes them
to overlap a larger variety of fisheries.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 70

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS
TO PACIFIC SEABIRDS

Pacific Seabirds is a journal of the Pacific Seabird Group. Manuscripts and news items are welcome
on any topic relating to Pacific seabirds or to their conservation. Short manuscripts are preferred
(about 1,000 to 5,000 words for major submissions). Submit materials to the Editor (except as noted
below): Dr. V.M. Mendenhall, 4600 Rabbit Creek Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99516; e-mail fasgadair@
attalascom.net. Deadlines are normally 15 April for the spring issue and 15 October for the fall issue.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Contributors are invited to submit
the following:

• Articles on original research (to be

peer-reviewed)

• Reports on current topics (e.g., re-

search in progress or seabird conser-
vation issues; not peer-reviewed)

• Forum (discussion of a current

topic)

• Review articles (these may cover

seabirds worldwide)

• Conservation N ews ( submit to C r a i g

Harrison, Conservation Chair; e-
mail charrison@hunton.com)

• News items (short news relating to

seabird research, conservation, or
the Pacific Seabird Group

• Book reviews

• Letters commenting on content of

Pacific Seabirds or other issues

• Art work, such as sketches or photos

of seabirds, either accompanying a
text or for publication alone

PEER-REVIEW OF MANUSCRIPTS

Articles and review articles will
be submitted to two peer reviewers for
technical review. Other submissions
may also be sent for review, if the au-
thor requests this or at the editor’s dis-
cretion.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Material may be submitted by
e-mail or regular mail or (addresses
above). Materials sent by e-mail should
be attached to the main message and
should be in Word, WordPerfect, or

Rich Text Format, except that materials
less than 300 words long may be sent in
the body of the e-mail . For manuscripts
submitted by e-mail, figures must also
be sent as separate files or via regular
mail. If a manuscript is submitted by
regular mail, include a CD.

FORMAT OF MANUSCRIPTS

Contributors should consult format
in a recent issue of Pacific Seabirds.
Back issues are online at www.pacific-
seabirds.org

General format

Manuscripts should be double-
spaced with 1-inch margins. If your paper
size is A4 (European), the bottom mar-
gin must be at least 1 3 A inch (including
in electronic files), to ensure that it will
print properly on U.S. equipment. Pages
should be numbered, except for Tables
and Figures.

Give the scientific name ( italicized )
after the first mention of any genus or
species. English names of bird species
are capitalized (e.g., Fork-tailed Storm-
Petrel). Names of mammals, other taxa,
and English names of bird groups are
lowercase, except for proper names
(e.g., blackbirds, shield fern, Steller’s
sea cow).

If you use an acronym, give the
entity’s full name the first time it is
mentioned. Avoid excessive use of ac-
ronyms.

Use the 24-hour clock without a
colon (e.g., 1830). Give dates as day-
month-year. Use metric measures, except

when quoting informal statements. For
quantities less than 1, use an initial 0
(P = 0.95, not P= .95).

Typographical conventions follow
Scientific Style and Format , 6th edition,
by the Style Manual Committee of the
Council of Biology Editors; Cambridge
University Press (1999).

Organization

Articles should contain the fol-
lowing sections, in this order: Title,
Author(s), Authors’ affiliations (includ-
ing e-mail for corresponding author), Ab-
stract, Key words, Introduction, Methods,
Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments,
Literature Cited, Tables, Figure legends,
and Figures . Other types of manuscript
may use a different organization (e.g., a
review or report could contain sections
on various locations); however, the same
formats for Literature Cited, Tables, and
Figures will apply.

Abstract— An abstract is required
for longer articles and suggested for
short ones. It should contain essential
information from each section of the text,
without statistics . One or more additional
abstract(s) may be provided in languages
other than English.

Key words— Five to 10 words for
use in computerized searching. Species
names in both Latin and English should
be included.

Introduction— Present the aims and
significance of the work, and place it in
the context of pre-existing information.
State hypotheses that are being tested,
if any.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 71

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Methods— Describe the methods,
location, time, and personnel of the study.
Include statistical methods, if any.

Results— Present results that are
pertinent to aims given in the Introduc-
tion. Where feasible, summarize infor-
mation and give the full data in Tables
or Figures. Give sample sizes and the
significance levels of statistical tests.
Literature citations normally should not
be in the Results section.

Discussion— Summarize the results
briefly, then evaluate the results, and
develop their importance in relation to
other work. Do not include primary re-
sults and statistical tests, which belong
in Results .

Text citations should be “Surname
year.” Two authors are “Surname and
surname year”; 3 or more authors are
“Surname et al. year” (but all authors
should be given in the Literature Cited).
E.g., (Pratt et al. 1987, Schreiber and
Schreiber 1988). If appropriate, specify
page number(s) in a book or long article
(Pratt et al. 1987:32-34).

Literature Cited— List all refer-
ences in alphabetical order of the authors’
surnames. Surname of the first author
should be listed first, then initials; sub-
sequent authors’ names should be listed
as Initial(s), Surname. List all authors in
the Literature Cited (do not use “et al.”).
Year of publication follows, then title and
journal reference. Include page numbers
for all cited works, including the total
number of pages in a book. Use standard
abbreviations for journal titles; if you are
unsure, spell them out. Spell out names
of agencies and institutions .

The first line of each citation should
be justified to the left margin; subsequent
lines may be left-justified or indented.

Do not use all-capital letters or italics in
the Literature Cited, except that scientific
names should be in italics. Examples:

Pratt, H.D., P.L. Bruner, and D.G. Berrett.
1987. A held guide to the birds of Hawaii
and the tropical Pacific. Princeton Univer-
sity Press, Princeton, NJ. 409 pp.

Schreiber, E.A., and R.W. Schreiber. 1988.
Great Frigatebird size dimorphism on two
Central Pacific atolls. Condor 90:90-99.

Verify that all items in the Literature
Cited are referenced in the article, and
vice versa.

For articles that you have read in
a language other than English, list the
citation in the original language. An
English translation of the title [in brack-
ets] is optional.

Supporting materials

Tables— Tables should be numbered
in the order they are first mentioned in
the text. Refer to each table at least once.
Use horizontal lines below the main
heading(s); do not use vertical lines in
tables. The Table (including its head-
ing) should be comprehensible without
immediate reference to the text. Data in
Tables should not be repeated in the text,
except to summarize.

Figures— Figures should be num-
bered in the order they are first mentioned
in the text. Refer to each figure at least
once. Figures should be drawn at least
50% larger than they will appear in print.
Make all lettering, numbers, and symbols
large enough to be read easily after they
are reduced. The figure (including cap-
tion) should be comprehensible without
immediate reference to the text. Define
all symbols in a legend or the caption.
Shading in figures should be black,

white, or coarse cross-hatching; do not
use half-tone shading or background.

For each figure, a high-quality
graphics file or original drawing must
be submitted with the final version of the
manuscript. Graphics files should be in
TIFF (preferably), GIS, or EPS format,
separate from the text document. A high-
resolution JPG file may work; graphics in
Word format are not acceptable.

Photographs — Pacific Seabirds
occasionally publishes photos. The best
ones are very sharp, with good detail
and a range of dark/light values. Digital
images submitted by e-mail must be at
least 250 ppi (when reduced to publica-
tion size). The common low -resolution
snapshot (often 72 ppi) does not repro-
duce well in publication; most cameras
give the option of higher resolution.
Do not submit half-tone originals. If
the original is in color, submit it in that
format; the editor will convert it to black
and white.

Art work— Original art work is
welcomed. The original or a high-resolu-
tion scan should be sent.

REVISIONS AND PROOFS

Materials that are sent for peer
review will be returned to the author,
along with reviewers’ and editorial sug-
gestions . If the Editor has accepted the
article, he or she will endeavor to return
the manuscript within 60 days. If the
article needs major work, the author may
be invited to revise and re-submit it for
future acceptance.

For peer-reviewed articles, proofs
will be mailed to the author before pub-
lication. Corrections should be returned
within one week. Proofs of other materi-
als will not be sent to the author unless
he or she requests them.

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 72

PUBLICATIONS OF THE PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP

The Pacific Seabird Group publishes symposia and other works. PSG Symposia are occasionally held at
Annual Meetings; those which have been published are listed below. Technical Reports prepared by PSG
working groups also are listed. To order one of these PSG publications , please see instructions after each item.

Abstracts of papers and posters given at PSG meetings are published annually. Abstracts for meetings of
1974 through 1993 appeared in the PSG Bulletin (Volumes 2-20); for meetings of 1994 through 2003, in
Pacific Seabirds (Volumes 21-30); and for meetings of 1997 and later, at www.pacificseabirdgroup.org

PSG publishes the journals Pacific Seabirds (www.pacificseabirdgroup.org) and Marine Ornithology (www.
marineornithology.org). Current and past issues of both journals are available online or by subscription. Back issues
may be obtained online; those of Pacific Seabirds also are available from the PSG Treasurer (order form on last page) .

SYMPOSIA

SHOREBIRDS IN MARINE ENVIRONMENTS. Frank A. Pitelka (Editor). Proceedings of an International Symposium of
the Pacific Seabird Group. Asilomar, California, January 1977. Published June 1979 in Studies in Avian Biology, Number 2 .Available free of
charge at http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/cooper/sab.php

TROPICAL SEABIRD BIOLOGY. Ralph W. Schreiber (Editor). Proceedings of an International Symposium of the Pacific
Seabird Group, Honolulu, Hawaii, December 1982. Published February 1984 in Studies in Avian Biology, Number 8. Available
free of charge at http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/cooper/sab.php

MARINE BIRDS: THEIR FEEDING ECOLOGY AND COMMERCIAL FISHERIES RELATIONSHIPS. David N.
Nettleship, Gerald A. Sanger, and Paul F. Springer (Editors). Proceedings of an International Symposium of the Pacific Seabird
Group, Seattle, Washington, January 1982. Published 1984 as Canadian Wildlife Service, Special Publication. Out of print;
available free of charge at www.pacificseabirdgroup .org

THE USE OF NATURAL VS. MAN-MODIFIED WETLANDS BY SHOREBIRDS AND WATERBIRDS. R. Michael
Erwin, Malcolm C. Coulter, and Howard L. Cogswell (Editors). Proceedings of an International Symposium at the first joint
meeting of the Colonial Waterbird Society and the Pacific Seabird Group, San Francisco, California, December 1985. Colonial
Waterbirds 9(2), 1986. $12.00. Order from: Ornithological Societies of North America, PO Box 1897, Lawrence, Kansas 66044;
phone (800) 627-0629; no online orders.

ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF GULLS. Judith L. Hand, William E. Southern, and Kees Vermeer (Editors). Proceedings
of an International Symposium of the Colonial Waterbird Society and the Pacific Seabird Group, San Francisco, California,
December 1985. Published June 1987 in Studies in Avian Biology, Number 10. $18.50 . Available free of charge at http://elibrary.
unm.edu/sora/Condor/cooper/sab.php

AUKS AT SEA. Spencer G. Sealy (Editor). Proceedings of an International Symposium of the Pacific Seabird Group, Pacific
Grove, California, December 1987. Published December 1990 in Studies in Avian Biology, Number 14 .Available free of charge
at http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/cooper/sab.php

STATUS AND CONSERVATION OFTHE MARBLED MURRELET IN NORTH AMERICA. Harry C. Carter, and Michael
L. Morrison (Editors). Proceedings of a Symposium of the Pacific Seabird Group, Pacific Grove, California, December 1987.
Published October 1992 in Proceedings of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, Volume 5, Number 1 . $20.00. Order
from PSG Treasurer (order form on last page), or available free of charge at www.pacificseabirdgroup.org

THE STATUS, ECOLOGY, AND CONSERVATION OF MARINE BIRDS OF THE NORTH PACIFIC. Kees Vermeer,
Kenneth T. Briggs, Ken H. Morgan, and Douglas Siegel-Causey (editors). Proceedings of a Symposium of the Pacific Seabird

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 73

PSG PUBLICATIONS

Group, Canadian Wildlife Service, and the British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, Victoria, British Columbia,
February 1990. Published 1993 as a Canadian Wildlife Service Special Publication, Catalog Number CW66-124-1993E. Order
free of charge from : Publications Division, Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A OH3, Canada.

BIOLOGY OF MARBLED MURRELETS- INLAND AND AT SEA. S. Kim Nelson and Spencer G. Sealy (Editors). Pro-
ceedings of a Symposium of the Pacific Seabird Group, Seattle, Washington, February 1993. Published 1995 in Northwestern
Naturalist, Volume 76, Number 1 . $12.00. Order from PSG Treasurer (order form on last page), or available free of charge at
www.pacificseabirdgroup .org

BEHAVIOUR AND ECOLOGY OFTHE SEADUCKS. Ian Goudie, Margaret R. Petersen and Gregory J. Robertson (editors).
Proceedings of the Pacific Seabird Group Symposium, Victoria, British Columbia, 8-12 November 1995. A special publication
compiled by the Canadian Wildlife Service for the Pacific Seabird Group. Published 1999 as Canadian Wildlife Service Occasional Paper
number 100, catalog number CW69-1/100E. Order free of charge from : Publications Division, Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, Ontario,
K1 A OH3 , Canada, or available free of charge at www.pacificseabirdgroup .org

SEABIRD BYCATCH: TRENDS, ROADBLOCKS AND SOLUTIONS. Edward F. Melvin and Julia K. Parrish (editors).
Proceedings of an International Symposium of the Pacific Seabird Group, Blaine, Washington, 26-27 February 1999. Published
2001 by University of Alaska Sea Grant, Fairbanks, Alaska. Publication no. AK-SG-01-01 . $40.00. Order from publisher.

BIOLOGY, STATUS, AND CONSERVATION OF JAPANESE SEABIRDS. Nariko Oka (editor). Proceedings of an Inter-
national Symposium of the Japanese Seabird Group and Pacific Seabird Group, Lihue, Hawaii, February 2001. Journal of the
Yamashina Institute of Ornithology 33(2); Symposium (5 papers), pp 57-147, other papers pp. 148-213 . In English with Japanese
abstracts. $75.00. Order from PSG Treasurer (order form on last page).

OIL AND CALIFORNIA’S SEABIRDS. Harry R. Carter (convener) and Anthony J. Gaston (editor). Proceedings of a Sym-
posium of the Pacific Seabird Group, Santa Barbara, California, February 2002. Published 2003 in Marine Ornithology 31(1).
Available free of charge at www.marineornithology.org

THE BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF THE AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. Daniel W. Anderson, D. Tommy
King, and John Coulson (editors). Proceedings of a Symposium of the Pacific Seabird Group. Waterbirds, Volume 28. Special
Publication 1, 2005. Published by the Waterbird Society. $15.00. Order from PSG Treasurer (order form on last page).

BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF XANTUS’S MURRELET. Harry R. Carter, Spencer G. Sealy, Esther E. Burkett, and
John F. Piatt (editors). Proceedings of a symposium of the Pacific Seabird Group, Portland, Oregon, January 2005. Published
2005 in Marine Ornithology 33(2):81-159. Available free of charge at www.marineomithology.org

Information on presenting symposia: Pacific Seabird Group Symposia or Paper Sessions may be arranged by any member
who is interested in a particular topic. Before planning a special session, refer to Meetings/Symposia Guidelines at www.paci-
ficseabirdgroup .org; also contact the Coordinator of the Publications Committee and the Scientific Chair for the meeting.

TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS

EXXON V AL DEZ OIL SPILL SEABIRD RESTORATION WORKSHOP. Kenneth I. Warheit, Craig S. Harrison, and
George J. Divoky (editors). Exxon Valdez Restoration Project Final Report, Restoration Project 95038. PSG Technical Publi-
cation Number 1. 1997 . Available free of charge at www.pacificseabirdgroup.org

METHODS FOR SURVEYING MARBLED MURRELETS IN FORESTS: A REVISED PROTOCOL FOR LAND
MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH. Pacific Seabird Group, Marbled Murrelet Technical Committee. PSG Technical Pub-
lication Number 2. 2003 . Available free of charge at www.pacificseabirdgroup.org

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 74

PACIFIC SEABIRD GROUP
COMMITTEE COORDINATORS

Committees do much of PSG’s business, as well as the conservation work for
which PSG is respected. The committees welcome (and need) information
concerning their issues; please contact the coordinators with input and updates.

AWARDS COMMITTEE

The Awards Committee consists of the Past Chair, Chair, and Chair-elect. Committee members for 2009 are Doug Bertram
(chair), Greg Balogh, and Tom Good; contact information is on inside back cover.

CONSERVATION COMMITTEE

Craig S. Harrison, 4953 Sonoma Mountain Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404, USA. Telephone: (202) 778-2240, e-mail:
charrison@hunton.com

CONSERVATION SMALL GRANTS COMMITTEE

Verena Gill, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Marine Mammals Management, 1011 E. Tudor Rd., MS 341, Anchorage, AK
99503-6199, USA. Telephone: (907) 786-3584; fax: (907) 786-3816; cell phone: (907) 250-3721; e-mail: Verena_Gill@fws.gov

ELECTION COMMITTEE

Pat Baird, Simon Fraser University, Centre for Wildlife Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, Burnaby, BC, Canada
V5A 1S6. Telephone: (604) 928-5510, e-mail: pabaird@sfu.ca

JAPAN SEABIRD CONSERVATION COMMITTEE

Motohiro Ito, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1, Minato-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido 041-8611, Japan. Telephone and fax: 0138-40-
8863, e-mail: f010060b@ec.hokudai.ac.jp

KITTLITZ’S MURRELET TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

Michelle L. Kissling, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 3000 Vintage Blvd, Suite 201, Juneau, AK 99801, USA. Telephone:
(907) 780-1168, Fax: (907) 586-7154, e-mail: michelle_kissling@fws.gov

LOON/GREBE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

Joel Schmutz, U.S. Geological Survey, 1011 E. Tudor Rd., Anchorage, AK 99503, USA. Telephone: (907) 786-3518, e-mail:
joel_schmutz@usgs.gov

MARBLED MURRELET TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

William P. Ritchie, P.O. Box 1102, Port Angeles, WA 98362-0209, USA. Telephone: (360) 902-2365, fax: (360) 417-3302,
e-mail: ritchwpr@dfw.wa.gov

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

Verena Gill, U.S . Fish and Wildlife Service, Marine Mammals Management, 101 1 E. Tudor Rd., MS 341 , Anchorage, AK 99503-
6199, USA. Telephone: (907) 786-3584; fax: (907) 786-3816; cell phone: (907) 250-3721; e-mail: Verena_Gill@fws.gov

SEABIRD MONITORING COMMITTEE

Scott Hatch, Biological Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Biological Science Center, 1011 E. Tudor Rd.,
Anchorage, AK 99503 USA. Telephone: (907) 786-3529, fax: (907) 786-3636, e-mail: scott_hatch@usgs.gov

XANTUS’S MURRELET TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

Shaye Wolf, Center for Biological Diveristy, 351 California St., Ste. 600, San Francisco, CA 94104. Telephone: (415) 632-
5301 (office), (415) 385-5746 (cell), fax: (415) 436-9683, e-mail: swolf@biologicaldiversity.org and Harry R. Carter, Carter
Biological Consulting, 1015 Hampshire Road, Victoria, BC V8S4S8, Canada; carterhr@shaw.ca; phone (250) 370-7031

PSG DELEGATES TO THE AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY
Craig S. Harrison, 4953 Sonoma Mountain Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404, USA. Telephone: (202) 778-2240, e-mail:
charrison@hunton.com and Malcolm C. Coulter, P.O. Box 48, Chocorua, NH 03817 USA. Telephone: (603) 323-9342,
e-mail: coultermc@aol.com

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 75

PSG LIFE MEMBERS 2009

David Ainley
Sarah G. Allen
Daniel W. Anderson
Edgar P. Bailey
Pat Herron Baird
Lisa Ballance
Mrs. Don Bishop
Kenneth T. Briggs
Joanna Burger
Douglas Causey
Ellen W. Chu
Roger B. Clapp
Cheryl Conel
Malcolm C. Coulter
Kathy Cousins
Theodore L. Cross
Jeff Davis
Robert H. Day
Tony DeGange
Jan Dierks
George J. Divoky
Stewart Fefer
Lloyd C. Fitzpatrick
Elizabeth Flint
Douglas J. Forsell
Michael Fry

Adrian Gall
Lisa Haggblom
Judith Latta Hand
Craig S. Harrison
Scott A. Hatch
Monica Herzig Ziircher
Nancy Hillstrand
Joel D. Hubbard
David B. Irons
Ronald Javitch
Sarah Keller
James G. King
Kathy Kuletz
James Kushlan
Lora Leschner
David B. Lewis
Peter Major
Eugene Y. Makishima
Vivian Mendenhall
Godfrey Merlen
Pat Mock
Ken Morgan
Edward C. Murphy
Maura Naughton
S. Kim Nelson

RECIPIENTS OF PSG’S LIFETIME
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Philip and Myrtle Ashmole
James C. Bartonek
W.R.P. Bourne
Richard G.B. Brown
G. Vernon Byrd
John Croxall

Charles Guiguet +
Michael P. Harris
Thomas R. Howell *
George L. Hunt, Jr.
Karl W. Kenyon +

^Deceased

Malcolm Coulter
George J. Divoky
Craig S. Harrison
Hiroshi Hasegawa

RECIPIENTS OF PSG’S SPECIAL
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Lora Leschner
Edward Melvin
S. Kim Nelson

David R. Nyse wander
Haruo Ogi
Koji Ono
Katie O’Reilly
Julia K. Parrish
Robert Pitman
C. John Ralph
William P. Ritchie
Chad Roberts
Daniel D. Roby
Gerald A. Sanger
Palmer C. Sekora
Nanette Seto
Kouzi Shiomi
Kitty Simonds
William E. Southern
Arthur L. Sowls
Jeffrey A. Spendelow
Takaki Terasawa
W. Breck Tyler
Enriqueta Velarde Gonzalez
Kees Vermeer
John S. Warriner
Yutaka Watanuki
Jennifer Wheeler
Jeff Williams

James G. King
Haruo Ogi
Spencer G. Sealy
Robert E. Ricklefs
Miklos D.F. Udvardy +
John Warham

Arthur L. Sowls
Steven M. Speich +
Mark J. Rauzon
Yutaka Watanuki

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 76

Pacific Seabird Group

Membership Application/Publication Order Form
(Please copy)

Membership (includes subscription to Pacific Seabirds)

(You may also join or renew online at www.pacificseabirdgroup.org)

Individual and Family $30.00

Student (undergraduate and graduate) $24.00

Life Membership 1 $900.00 (optional payment plan: five $180 installments)

Sponsored Membership $30.00

Name of Sponsored Member $.

Donations 2

To the Endowment Fund 1 $_

Other (please specify) $_

Pacific Seabird Group publications

A full list of PSG publications appears on preceding pages. If the publication you want is not
listed on this page, please order according to information in the publications list.

Back issues of Pacific Seabirds (can also be downloaded from www.pacificseabirds.org)

Vols. 1-8 (1974-1981) x $2.50 $.

Vols. 9 (1982 to present) x $5.00 $

PSG Symposia

Status and Conservation of the Marbled Murrelet in North America x $20.00 $.

Biology of Marbled Murrelets: Inland and at Sea x $12.00 $.

Biology, Status, and Conservation of Japanese Seabirds x $75.00 $.

The Biology and Conservation of the American White Pelican x $15.00 $.

TOTAL ENCLOSED

Prices include postage (surface rate) and handling.

SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER (payable in US dollars to the Pacific Seabird Group) to: Ron Le Valley, PSG
Treasurer, PO. Box 324, Little River, CA 95456-0519, USA.

MEMBERSHIPS ( new and renewing) and DONATIONS may also be paid online at www.pacificseabirdgroup.org

1 Proceeds from Life Memberships go to the Endowment Fund, which supports the publications of the Pacific Seabird Group. Contributions
may be given for a specified purpose; otherwise they also go to the Endowment Fund.

2 Donations may be tax-deductible; see inside front cover for more information.

Member/Sponsor or Order Deliver/Ship to (if different)

Name Name

Address Address

Telephone.

Fax

E-mail

Telephone.

Fax

E-mail

Pacific Seabirds • Volume 36, Number 2 • Fall 2009 • Page 77

PSG EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 2009

For Executive Council members in current year (if different), see PSG ’s web site, http://www.pacificseabirdgroup.org

Chair

Officers

Greg Balogh, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 605 W. 4th Ave. Rm G-61, Anchorage, AK
99501, USA. Telephone: 907-271-2778; Fax: 907-271-2786; e-mail: Greg_Balogh@fws.gov

Past Chair

Doug Bertram, Canadian Wildlife Service, Institute of Ocean Sciences, 9860 West Saanich
R., P.O. Pox 6000, Sidney, BC, Canada V8L 4B2. Telephone: (250) 363-6735; fax: (250) 363
-6390; e-mail: bertramd@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Chair-Elect

Tom Good, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, 2725 Montlake Blvd. E., Seattle, WA 98112,
USA. Telephone (206) 860-3469; fax: (206) 860-3335; e-mail: tom.good@noaa.gov

Vice-Chair for Conservation

Craig S. Harrison, 4953 Sonoma Mountain Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404, USA. Telephone:
(202) 778-2240; e-mail: charrison@hunton.com

Treasurer

Ron LeValley, P.O. Box 324, Little River, CA 95456-0519, USA. Telephone: (707) 496-3326
(cell), (707) 937-1742 (work); fax: (707) 937-2868; e-mail: ron@madriverbio.com

Secretary

MarkHipfner, Pacific Wildlife Research Centre, Environment Canada, RR#1, 5421 Robertson
Rd., Delta, BC, Canada V4K 3N2. Telephone: (604) 940-4720; Fax: (604) 946-7022; e-mail:
Mark.Hipfner@ec.gc.ca

Editor, Pacific Seabirds

Vivian Mendenhall, 4600 Rabbit Creek Rd., Anchorage, AK 99516, USA. Telephone: (907)
345-7124; fax (907) 345-0686; e-mail: fasgadair@attalascom.net

Alaska and Russia

Regional Representatives

Heather Renner, Alaska Maritime NW, 95 Sterling Highway, Suite 1, Homer, AK 99603,
USA. Telephone: (907) 226-4623; fax: (907) 235-7783; e-mail: Heather_Renner@fws.gov

Canada

Ken Morgan, Institute of Ocean Sciences. P.O. Box 6000, 9860 W. Saanich Rd., Sidney, B.C.,
Canada V8L 4B2. Telephone: (250) 363-6537; fax: (250) 363-6390; e-mail: morgank@pac.
dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Washington and Oregon

Don Lyons, Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Dept, of Fisheries and
Wildlife, Oregon State University, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. Telephone: (503)
791-2958; e-mail: lyonsd@onid.orst.edu

Northern California

Craig Strong, Crescent Coastal Research, P.O. Box 2108. Crescent City, CA 95531, USA.
Telephone: (707) 487-0246, or (707) 954-3500 (cell); e-mail: cstrong.ccr@charter.net

Southern California

Dan Robinette, PRBO Conservation Science, Vandenberg Field Station, 205 N. H St., Suite
217, Lompoc, CA 93436, USA. Telephone (805) 735-7300; fax (805) 735-8817; e-mail
drobinette@prbo . org

Non-Pacific United States

Julie C. Ellis, Tufts University, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Barbour Building,
200 Westboro Rd., North Grafton, MA 01536, USA. Telephone: (508) 887-4933, Fax: (508)
839-7946; e-mail: julie.ellis@tufts.edu

Hawai‘i and Pacific Rim

Linda Elliott, Hawaii Wildlife Center, P.O. Box 5006, Hawi, HI 96719. Telephone and fax:
(808) 884-5576; e-mail: lindae808@yahoo.com

Old World

Linda Wilson, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Dunnet House, 7 Thistle Place, Aberdeen,
AB10 1UZ, Scotland. Telephone: +44 (0) 1224 655713; Fax: +44 (0) 1224 621488; e-mail:
Linda.Wilson@jncc.gov.uk

Student Representative

Heather Major, Dept, of Biological Science, 8888 University Dr., Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6. Telephone (778) 782-5618; Fax (778) 782-3496; e-mail:
hmajor@sfu.ca