Hipfner (2024)
Author Information
Mark Hipfner: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Mark Hipfner (Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Delta – Wildlife Research Division (WRD)) reports that summer 2023 marked the 30th year of operation of the Centre for Wildlife Ecology’s (CWE) seabird research program on Triangle Island. The 2023 field crew consisted of Hannah Avenant and Alice Domalik (ECCC, Delta – Canadian Wildlife Service), Sarah Hudson (ECCC, Delta – WRD), Mason King (Simon Fraser University, Burnaby), Christine Rock (ECCC, Nanaimo – CWS) and two volunteers, Ben Boulton (Masset) and Brendan Toews (Vancouver). The research program in 2023 was designed to collect information on growth rates and diets of nestling Cassin’s Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) and Rhinoceros Auklets (Cerorhinca monocerata), adding to long-term datasets for those species. Other projects included deploying GPS tags on seven Tufted Puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) and ten Rhinoceros Auklets as part of a multi-year program to assess how effectively the boundaries of the Scott Islands Marine National Wildlife Area envelop key foraging areas for seabirds in the region. The crew also deployed ten GLS tags on Tufted Puffins in collaboration with PhD student Katelyn Stoner (Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR).
Research was also conducted on other major Rhinoceros Auklet colonies in 2023. Vivian Pattison, Hannah Hall, and Sonya Pastran (ECCC, Delta – WRD), along with Jonas Prevost (Council of the Haida Nation, Old Masset) visited SGang Gwaay in the Haida Gwaii archipelago; Hipfner and Anneka Vanderpas (ECCC, Delta – WRD), along with veterinary intern Neena Pradal (Université de Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France) and a volunteer, Regis Boucher (Toronto), visited Pine Island off BC’s Central Coast; and Hipfner, Pradal, and Boucher, along with Kevin Kardynal (ECCC, Saskatoon – WRD), visited Lucy Island off BC’s North Coast. The main goal of this program, which was started in 2006, is to study effects of oceanographic variation across multiple trophic levels – the diets fed to nestling auklets and the diets of their major fish prey, Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus) and Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii). Field crews also deployed GPS tags on 20 Rhinoceros Auklets on SGang Gwaay. We concurrently also completed the 11th of a project investigating the consumption of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) by seabirds in BC waters, in collaboration with Strahan Tucker (Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Nanaimo – Pacific Biological Station); and completed the 15th year of a project investigating the distribution and abundance of microplastics in northeastern Pacific Ocean food webs in collaboration with Moira Galbraith (DFO, Sidney – Institute of Ocean Sciences).
There was also winter field work completed in early January to early March of 2023. Domalik, Hall, Hipfner, Hudson, Pattison, Pradal, and Vanderpas, along with Sarah Popov and Guy St.-Amour (ECCC, Delta – WRD) and PhD student Shabnam Shadloo (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), trapped Glaucous-winged Gulls (Larus glaucescens) around the BC portion of the Salish Sea. The main goal of this project is to examine food-web contamination and its implications for the physiological health of gulls that spend winter in the region. For outgroups, the crews also sampled on the west (Tofino and Ucluelet area) and north (Campbell River to Port Hardy) coasts of Vancouver Island, along BC’s North Coast (Prince Rupert area), and in Haida Gwaii. A particular focus in 2023 was to quantify age-related variation in gull health, in support of Pradal’s MSc and veterinary theses. Lastly, Domalik, Pattison, and Mari Lannon (ECCC, Delta – WRD) deployed GPS tags on ten California Gulls (Larus californicus) in Nanaimo to assess habitat use in winter and timing of movements between the Pacific coast and inland breeding areas. A particular focus of this program is to assess the gulls’ reliance on the herring spawning events in the Salish Sea.
