Channel: SciFri

Category: Science & Technology

Tags: maineseabirdscientistpuffinsaudubontourismbirdingtouristcoastconservationpuffinscience fridaybirdfishternclimate change

Description: Surrounded by screeching, poop-bombing seabirds on a secluded island with no running water or electricity is not how most college students would chose spend their summer vacation. It takes real commitment to return 4 years in row. As supervisor for Eastern Egg Rock, a small island off the coast of Maine, Kay Garlick-Ott and her team of field researchers, spend several summer months censusing the seasonal breeding colonies of Puffins, Terns, and Guillemot, collecting data on their populations, chick survival, and tracking their diets as they return from hunting trips. The experience provides them all with a crash course in field research and an opportunity to directly contribute the decades-long conservation work of the Audubon Society's Project Puffin, which has helped manage and restore bird populations on several islands since the 1980s. But from their unique vantage on the island, Kay and the other researchers can already see that rough seas are ahead for the islands denizens; the Gulf of Maine, where the birds hunt for small fish, is heating up faster than nearly every other ocean on Earth, creating a cascade of changes in the local food chain. They've documented more and more puffins return to feed their chicks with inedible or low quality warm-water fish, such as Butterfish and rough scad, while their staple herring vanishes from the menu. Although she feels that there is little she can do to turn the tide of climate change, she hopes that shining a light on the struggles of these birds will help the public and future conservationists see the rocky shoals looming on the horizon.