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This dataset contains mercury concentrations and locations of wintering red-legged kittiwakes in the western subartic Pacific Ocean. These data support the following publication: Fleishman, AB, RA Orben, N Kokubun, A Will, R Paredes, JT Ackerman, A Takahashi, AS Kitaysky, and SA Shaffer. 2019. Wintering in the Western Subarctic Pacific increases mercury contamination of red-legged kittiwakes. Environmental Science and Technology, in press.
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Predation and habitat degradation by non-native species are principal terrestrial threats to the federally endangered Hawaiian Petrel (ʻuaʻu, Pterodroma sandwichensis) and Hawaiian Goose (nēnē, Branta sandvicensis) within Haleakalā National Park (HALE), Maui, Hawaiʻi. Since 1981, HALE has maintained a network of live-traps to control invasive mammalian predators and protect these endangered birds. To continue evaluations of trapping efficiency in HALE, we analyzed 2000 - 2014 trap events. Trap events were divided up into six event types classified into three event categories: no event, other event [bait lost, or trap triggered], or predator event [rat, cat, or mongoose caught]. Event type analysis was divided up...
As harmful algal blooms (HABs) increase in magnitude and duration worldwide, they are becoming an expanding threat to marine wildlife. Over the past decade, domoic acid (DA) and saxitoxin (STX) have been increasingly problematic bicoastally in the United States. We investigated pooled seabird mortality data from opportunistic sampling events between 2007-2018, across three states, to examine the patterns and role of DA and STX in seabird mortality events from the continental United States. Patterns in DA and STX levels and affected tissue type were reviewed, and two specific accounts of localized and pervasive event types were examined. There has been increased toxin detection with expanded tissue testing during...
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Background - Interest in developing alternative sources of renewable energy to reduce dependence on oil has increased in recent years. Some sources of renewable energy being considered will include power generation infrastructure and support activities located within continental shelf waters, and potentially within deeper waters off the U.S. Pacific coast and beyond state waters (i.e., outside three nautical miles). Currently, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is considering renewable energy proposals off the coast of Oregon, California, and Hawaii. From 1999–2002, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Humboldt State University (HSU) worked with BOEM (formely known as the Minerals Management Service,...
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Prey fish were collected at 17 Forster’s tern breeding colonies during colony visits from 2005-2015. Prey fish were identified to the lowest taxonomic category. We present relative abundances by colony and year for each of the 10 major species groups. Unidentified fish species or rarely observed species were combined into an “Other” category. We calculated an arithmetic mean, standard deviation (sd), 25th quantile, and 75th quantile for dry standard length (SL; mm) and dry mass (g) for each fish species at each colony. These data support the following publication: Peterson SH, Ackerman JT, Eagles-Smith CA, Herzog MP, Hartman CA (2018) Prey fish returned to Forster’s tern colonies suggest spatial and temporal differences...
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This dataset comprises GPS locations analyzed in Wilkinson et al. (2019): 14,478 deployed GPS locations, for 32 Eastern brown pelicans tracked during Hurricanes Irma, Florence, and Michael in autumn 2017 and 2018, respectively. Funding for this study was provided by the U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Missions Area, and facilitated by Mona Khalil (USGS). Among seabirds, the Eastern brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis) is a large-bodied coastal species inhabiting nearshore habitats. Breeding on sea islands free of mammalian predators in subtropical and tropical North America, colonies range in size from 10 - 5000 pairs. Egg laying (clutch size of 2-3 typical) occurs primarily in April and May, with...
About 62,000 dead or dying common murres (Uria aalge), the trophically dominant fish-eating seabird of the North Pacific, washed ashore between summer 2015 and spring 2016 on beaches from California to Alaska. Most birds were severely emaciated and, so far, no evidence for anything other than starvation was found to explain this mass mortality. Three-quarters of murres were found in the Gulf of Alaska and the remainder along the West Coast. Total mortality was estimated at 0.54 to 1.2 million birds. About two-thirds of murres killed were adults, a substantial blow to breeding populations. Additionally, 22 complete reproductive failures were observed at multiple colonies region-wide during (2015) and after (2016-2017)...
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Summary of Bering and Chukchi Seas seabird necropsies, 2017-2021. More than 14,000 dead seabirds were reported and a total of 117 carcasses were examined. 92 cases had emaciation identified as the Cause Of Death (COD), seven cases where COD was undetermined, and 17 cases where COD was determined as "Other", which included predation, trauma, encephalitis, peritonitis, and bacterial infection. Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza (n=4) and saxitoxin (n=15) were also detected; however, the virus and biotoxin were not determined to be the COD except for one case in 2020 where saxitoxin toxicosis was suspected.
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To focus nest-search efforts on Hispaniola and estimate the extent of the available nesting habitat, we analyzed the environmental characteristics of Black-capped Petrel (Pterodroma hasitata) nesting habitat and modeled suitable habitat on Hispaniola using openly available environmental datasets. Details on the methodology may be found in the associated publication (Satgé et al. 2020, Habitat modelling locates nesting areas of the Endangered Black-capped Petrel Pterodroma hasitata on Hispaniola and identifies habitat loss. Bird Conservation International). Here we share Supplementary Material referenced in the publication (Zip file): 1) Georeferenced (projected) raster file of habitat suitability for nesting Black-capped...
    map background search result map search result map Prey fish returned to Forster’s tern colonies in South San Francisco Bay during 2005-2015 GPS tracking of Brown Pelican in the South Atlantic Bight during cyclonic activity (2017-2018) Domoic acid and saxitoxin in seabirds from California and Rhode Island 2015-2017 Trap records used to analyze trends in mammalian predator control trapping events intended to protect ground-nesting, endangered birds at Haleakalā National Park, Hawai'i (2000 - 2014) Nesting habitat suitability for the Black-capped Petrel Pterodroma hasitata on Hispaniola, Supplementary Material USGS National Wildlife Health Center necropsy results to determine cause of illness/death for seabirds collected in Alaska from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2021 Trap records used to analyze trends in mammalian predator control trapping events intended to protect ground-nesting, endangered birds at Haleakalā National Park, Hawai'i (2000 - 2014) Prey fish returned to Forster’s tern colonies in South San Francisco Bay during 2005-2015 Nesting habitat suitability for the Black-capped Petrel Pterodroma hasitata on Hispaniola, Supplementary Material GPS tracking of Brown Pelican in the South Atlantic Bight during cyclonic activity (2017-2018) USGS National Wildlife Health Center necropsy results to determine cause of illness/death for seabirds collected in Alaska from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2021 Domoic acid and saxitoxin in seabirds from California and Rhode Island 2015-2017