Wilson (2024)
Author Information
Laurie Wilson: Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service
Laurie Wilson (Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) – Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), Delta, British Columbia (BC)) coordinated the Pacific CWS Seabird Colony Monitoring Program. In 2023, population trends of breeding Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) at three colonies (Pine Island in the Duke of Edinburgh Ecological Reserve, Lucy Island in the Lucy Islands Conservancy, and S’Gang Gwaay in the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site) were assessed by revisiting permanent plots and estimating occupancy rates.
Ancient Murrelet (Synthliboramphus antiquus) and Cassin’s Auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) colonies on Alder Island in the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site were re-censused to estimate current population status and trends. Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices (Lotek Argo Pinpoint 75 GPS tags) were deployed on non-breeding Ancient Murrelets on Alder Island to test methods for capturing non-breeding Ancient Murrelets at night at a colony, identifying breeding status of individual birds, and tag deployment on non-breeders. Tagging field work was led by Vivian Pattison. Vivian Pattison and Patrick O’Hara (ECCC-CWS, Sidney, BC) will assist with analyzing the tracklogs. Specifically, we will identify non-breeding Ancient Murrelet behaviour states from the GPS tracklogs, use these data to determine home range and foraging locations, and explore whether biophysical variables (such as bathymetry, sea surface height anomaly, and chlorophyll-a) correlate with the foraging locations. The Alder trip was conducted by ECCC-CWS staff in collaboration with Parks Canada, Council of Haida Nation, BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, and Laskeek Bay Conservation Society staff to help strengthened interagency partnerships and help build on-island capacity to conduct seabird colony research in the future.
Field crew included Laurie Wilson, Kerry Woo (ECCC-CWS, Delta, BC), Xiao Jun (Jim) Song (ECCC-CWS, Delta, BC), Rolanda Steenweg (ECCC-CWS, Delta, BC), Emily (Lily) Campbell (ECCC-CWS, Delta, BC), Patrick O’Hara (ECCC-CWS, Sidney, BC), Vivian Pattison (ECCC-S&T, Sidney, BC), Pete Sinkins (Parks Canada, Skidegate, BC), Elin Price (Parks Canada, Skidegate, BC), Charlotte Huston (Parks Canada, Skidegate, BC), Chavonne Guthrie (Parks Canada, Skidegate, BC), Elijah Gladstone (Parks Canada, Skidegate, BC), Jonas Prevost (Council of the Haida Nation, Skidegate, BC), Erica McClaren (BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Nanaimo, BC), Rian Dickson (Laskeek Bay Conservation Society, Skidegate, BC), and Glen Keddie (ECCC-CWS contractor, Smithers, BC).
Finally, Laurie continues with her monitoring of seabird bycatch in commercial salmon gillnet fisheries. Reports of bird entanglements from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) test fisheries with observer programs and bycatch events reported by fishers are tallied; these data will be used to derive seabird bycatch estimates.
