Unsung seabirds could help track Puget Sound health – Salish Sea Currents

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Al Bergstein

You’ve likely seen them when you’ve taken a ferry across Puget Sound or the the San Juans. They are one of our common seabirds. Now, scientists are focusing on them to help determine the health of our waters. Good overview, especially to read to kids during your summer break or car trip around the Sound. Pigeon Guillemots are easy to find so help your kids become interested in why they are an important indicator species.

Pigeon guillemots have attracted relatively little scientific attention compared to other seabirds in Puget Sound. That may be because their population is generally stable, but a group of citizen scientists is helping to put guillemots on the conservation radar. They hope the birds can be used as an indicator of Puget Sound health.

Read the whole story here:

https://www.eopugetsound.org/magazine/pigeon-guillemots

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Little seabird’s advocates hope protection plan is near – Seattle Times

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Al Bergstein

The Marbled Murrelet has been at the center of one of the most contentious environmental controversy’s in this country’s history, along with the spotted owl. The battle to save this small bird, has focused on it’s habitat, the shrinking world of old growth timber. There likely are other causes, from dwindling food sources in our warming oceans, pollution at sea and other issues, but the old growth battle has been intense. It went to court last year in an unsuccessful attempt to set aside larger tracts of timber. Here’s an update from the Seattle Times.

In 1992, a small, speedy seabird called the marbled murrelet was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Its home — the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest — had dwindled, leaving it few places to nest. Twenty-three years later, the population of the bird has continued to decline. By some counts, its numbers are 50 percent lower than they were a decade ago. … The Murrelet Survival Project, which started last August, is pressuring the state and federal governments to come up with a long-term conservation plan, aimed at increasing the murrelet’s nesting habitat. Miguel Otarola reports. (Seattle Times)

Read the whole story and subscribe to the Times. Keep journalism local.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/little-seabirds-advocates-hope-protection-plan-near/

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