SEANET BEACHED BIRD
SURVEYS
Seabird Monitoring Program Seeks Volunteers at Long Island, NY
Landmark Program Aims to
Protect Aquatic Birds and Prepare for Environmental
Emergencies
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SEANET News
CRESLI and Dowling College are teaming up with the Tufts Cummings School
of Veterinary
Medicine’s Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (http://www.tufts.edu/vet/seanet)
to study the health of seabirds on Long Island through beached bird surveys
conducted by volunteers. The surveys will provide baseline information about
bird health in this region and help identify and monitor mass mortality events
caused by environmental contamination. Survey volunteers will walk designated
stretches of beach once or twice per month in search of dead birds and record
their findings. Tufts faculty will offer training to volunteers from 10:00AM to
2:00 p.m., on Sunday, December 9, at Dowling’s Oakdale Campus, in Kramer Science
Center, room 027 (basement).
“Because seabirds are so sensitive to petroleum and
other pollution, they are excellent indicators of
environmental health,” said Julie Ellis, Ph.D., Tufts
Department of Environmental and Population Health. “The
surveys our volunteers conduct are important because
they will help us detect diseases and contaminants that
threaten both animal and human health.”
Noting that regular die-offs of Common Loons have
occurred at Long
Island during the past couple of years, Ellis hopes that more people will join
the SEANET team to help document the timing of these mortality events and
determine the causes.
Since
initiating SEANET in Massachusetts in 2002, Tufts researchers collaborated with
numerous agencies and organizations to establish long-term seabird monitoring
from New Jersey to northern Maine and Canada’s Bay of Fundy shores. Researchers
are sharing information with communities and agencies to develop regional
efforts that will protect aquatic birds and habitats as well as prevent and
prepare for future emergencies such as oil spills.
SEANET will host the December 9, 2007 training
session and teach volunteers how to identify and measure
any specimens they find, as well as provide tips on
general survey protocols. In some areas this project has
been integrated into school science classes, and is a
good way to get students of many ages involved in field
research. To register and for specific information about
the training schedule, contact Peg Hart (Long Island
SEANET Coordinator) at:
mhart@amnh.org.
For additional information, feel
free to contact Dr. Julie Ellis,
508-887-4933
julie.ellis@tufts.edu
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS!
Wildlife Trust and
Tufts Center for Conservation Medicine are
working with numerous non-profit organizations and
agencies including
CRESLI, and the
Riverhead Foundation,
SEANET is conducting volunteer-based beached
bird surveys throughout the NY-NJ-CT coast.
Volunteers walk a designated stretch of beach,
generally a mile or two, at approximately the same
time every month, once or twice per month. We
provide a kit for each volunteer including
datasheets, a ruler, calipers, and latex gloves.
Volunteers record location information, date,
conditions, and if they find a bird carcass, as much
detail on the specimen as possible, including basic
measurements and condition. Trainings on
identification, measurement technique, and general
protocol will be held for those interested in
volunteering. If possible, volunteers take
photographs of specimens they find, for confirmation
of identification and for possible use in an
Atlantic coast guide to beached birds that we are
producing. If specimens are fresh enough, and we
have identified a nearby collaborating facility,
specimens can be collected for necropsy. We also
encourage those volunteers with bird ID skills to
keep track of live birds seen while doing the
surveys.
SEANET Background
The monitoring system this project creates will be part
of a larger regional effort that Tufts has established
with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s North American
Waterbird Conservation Plan, the regional U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, national and state
Audubon Society, and others. From 2002-05, volunteers
completed a total of 2,278 surveys covering 4,406 km. A
total of 716 carcasses were encountered by volunteers.
SEANET volunteers have found a total of 62 different
species, with gulls, loons, and sea ducks the most
common species encountered. SEANET also compiles various
records from wildlife rehabilitators and other observers
throughout the northeast to address large scale
mortality events, including paralytic shellfish
poisoning (red tide), Salmonella outbreaks, and
fisheries bycatch incidence. Among birds examined to
date, the most common causes of death included
starvation, ingestion of fishing line and gear, and
gunshot wounds.
