Fact Sheet 2009–3067
From the cold, high Arctic area of Alaska to the warm, tropical
Pacific area of Hawai`i, a diverse array of seabird species numbering
in the millions of individuals live off the bounty of the Pacific
Ocean. Many come to land only to nest and raise their young—
these are species supremely adapted for life on the water, whether
it be near the coast or hundreds of miles at sea. Those seabirds that
reside in the North Pacific year-round are joined each summer by
millions of migrant birds that leave the southern hemisphere in
winter for better feeding conditions in the north. Seabirds in the
Pacific remain one of the great wildlife spectacles on the earth. Yet,
seabirds face a number of threats such as oil spills, introduction of
predators to their nesting islands, and conflicts with fisheries. State
and Federal agencies require increasingly sophisticated information
on population dynamics, breeding biology, and feeding ecology to
successfully manage these species and their ecosystems. Within the
Western Region of the USGS, scientists from the Alaska Science
Center (ASC), Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), and
Pacific Islands Ecosystems Research Center are leading the way in
conducting research on many of these little known species. Their
aim is to improve our understanding of seabirds in the Pacific and to
provide information to support informed management of the birds and
their ecosystems.
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Kinsinger, A.E., 2009, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Western Region: Seabirds, Coastal and Ocean Science: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2009-3067, 4 p.
Monitoring Breeding, Behavior, and Population Ecology of Seabirds in Alaska
Providing Science for Resource Managers to Assess Seabirds and Their Habitats Along the Pacific Coast
Seabird Monitoring for Hawai`i and Pacific Islands
Leading the Way: Developing Pacific Seabird Databases to Facilitate Dissemination of Data