Hannahrose M. Nevins

Marine debris in central California : quantifying type and abundance of beach litter in Monterey Bay, CA

Monitoring beach litter is essential for reducing ecological threats towards humans and wildlife. In Monterey Bay, CA information on seasonal and spatial patterns is understudied. Central Californias coastal managers require reliable information on debris abundance, distribution, and type, to support policy aimed at reducing litter. We developed a survey method that allowed for trained citizen scientists to quantify the types and abundance of beach litter. Sampling occurred from July 2009-June 2010. Litter abundance ranged from 0.03 to 17.1 items m(-2). Using a mixed model approach, we found season and location have the greatest effect on litter abundance. Styrofoam, the most numerically abundant item, made up 41% of the total amount of litter. Unexpected items included fertilizer pellets. The results of this study provide a baseline on the types and abundance of litter on the central coast and have directly supported policy banning Styrofoam take out containers from local municipalities.

Summary of Birds Killed by a Harmful Algal Bloom along the South Washington and North Oregon Coasts During October 20091

Seabirds are known to be vulnerable to biotoxins produced by harmful algal blooms (HABs). The ingestion of prey contaminated with biotoxins such as domoic acid can cause disorientation, seizures, morbidity, and mortality (Work and others 1993). During November 2007 in Monterey Bay, California, an unprecedented stranding of live and dead seabirds highlighted plumage fouling as an emerging mortality factor during harmful algal bloom (HAB) events. The fouling agent was a proteinaceous foam derived from the cellular breakdown of the dinoflagellate Akashiwo sanguinea. This foam coated seabird plumage in a manner similar to fouling by petroleum oil (Hartung 1967; McEwan and Koelink 1973; National Research Council 1985), causing waterlogging, hypothermia, morbidity, and mortality in the California birds (Jessup and others 2009). During late October 2009 along the southern Washington and northern Oregon State coasts, algal blooms caused another seabird plumage fouling event, where several bird species were coated in a foam surfactant. Water and feather samples confirmed that this dinoflagellate bloom was also A. sanguinea (Dr. Raphael Kudela, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, pers. comm.). Du and others (in press) describe the conditions that facilitated the A. sanguinea bloom off the Oregon coast and propose that the source of the bloom was southward transport of cells from a massive September bloom that first occurred off the Washington coast. Similar to the 2007 California event, the foam produced by the WashingtonOregon bloom reduced the waterproofing of birds’ plumage, causing hypothermia in individual birds and leading to the stranding of hundreds of debilitated live and dying seabirds on public beaches. During this event, volunteers and federal, state, and local resource management agencies collected as many birds as possible for rescue and rehabilitation from the Long Beach Peninsula, WA; Fort Stevens State Beach, OR; and Cannon Beach, OR. Most of the birds collected were initially delivered to the Wildlife Center of the North Coast (WCNC) rehabilitation facility in Astoria, OR, where volunteers observed that birds were cold, weak, stressed, and starving. Due to the magnitude of this event, the WCNC facility was quickly overwhelmed by hundreds of collected seabirds, which included Common Loons (Gavia immer), Common Murres (Uria aalge), Pacific Loons (G. pacifica), Red-throated Loons (G. stellata), Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata), and Western and Clark’s Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis and A. clarkii). Birds were subsequently transferred to facilities that were better equipped to handle large numbers of seabirds for rehabilitation, including the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) in Cordelia, CA (n 5 479 birds), and Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in Lynnwood, WA (n 5 125). Some birds responded well to supportive care and were eventually 1 We dedicate this manuscript to the men and women at US Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento, who donated their time and use of the C-130 Hercules aircraft to transport seabirds. This same Coast Guard aircraft crashed off the coast of San Diego, CA on 30 October 2009, within days of responding to the HAB event documented in this manuscript. All hands on board that aircraft were lost. We honor their memory and service. GENERAL NOTES

Prey and plastic ingestion of Pacific Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis rogersii) from Monterey Bay, California

Marine plastic pollution affects seabirds, including Pacific Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis rodgersii), that feed at the surface and mistake plastic for prey or incidentally ingest it. Direct and indirect health issues can result, including satiety and possibly leading to inefficient foraging. Our objective was to examine fulmar body condition, identify cephalopod diet to species, enumerate and weigh ingested plastic, and determine if prey number and size were correlated with ingested plastics in beach-cast fulmars wintering in Monterey Bay California (2003, n=178: 2007, n=185). Fulmars consumed mostly Gonatus pyros, G. onyx, and G. californiensis of similar size for both years. We found a significant negative correlation between pectoral muscle index and average size of cephalopod beaks per stomach; a significant increase in plastic categories between 2003 and 2007; and no significant correlation between number and mass of plastic compared with number and size of prey for either year.

Chronic oiling of marine birds in California by natural petroleum seeps, shipwrecks, and other sources

We assessed temporal and spatial patterns of chronic oiling of seabirds in California during 2005-2010, using data on: (1) live oiled birds reported to the Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) from throughout the state, and (2) dead oiled birds found during systematic monthly beached-bird surveys in central California. A mean of 245 (± 141 SD) live miscellaneous oiled birds (not associated with known oil spills) were reported to the OWCN per year, and 0.1 oiled dead birds km(-1) per month were found on beach surveys in central California. Chemical fingerprinting of oiled feathers from a subset of these birds (n=101) indicated that 89% of samples tested were likely from natural petroleum seeps off southern and central California. There was a pronounced peak during late winter in the number of oiled birds reported in southern California, which we theorize may be related to large storm waves disturbing underwater seeps.

International and cross‐cultural management in conservation of migratory species

We live in an age defined by global access to information. This has rapidly increased the scale of our ecological and social awareness (e.g., fair trade movement) and helped us to identify ecological problems and conservation solutions beyond the typical scale of traditional knowledge (i.e., the foraging range of a human group) or political jurisdictions (i.e., state or national boundaries). For the first time, we can comprehend and accumulate biological knowledge for species on the scale of ocean basins (Prince et al. 1992; Burger & Shaffer 2008). Coincident with this knowledge has been the awareness of the global human footprint and some of its consequences, such as, resource over-exploitation, habitat degradation, and species extinctions. Presently, however, we have a mis-match between the scales at which management frameworks operate (local, regional, national) and the scales at which ecosystems or their components exist (Crowder et al. 2006). Significant conservation actions must be made at appropriate scales (ocean basin, continental) for migratory species, particularly when these resources (e.g., blue fin tuna) are subject to extraction by entities with a variety of national and international allegiances (Block et al. 1995). Geopolitical boundaries arbitrarily delineate sub-populations and hinder effective management and understanding of these species. This is particularly true for far-ranging or migratory species, where foraging, moulting, or nesting ranges can be widely dispersed. Knowledge about habitat connectivity among neotropical migratory songbirds and butterflies that breed in nearctic (North America) and winter in the neotropics (Central and South America) has led to the recognition of flyways or migratory corridors and the development of international conservation consortiums. In 1990, the “Partners in Flight/Companeros en Vuelo/Partenaires d’Envo”, an international conservation programme, was formed in response to growing knowledge of wintering area habitat loss and concerns about population declines. Such international programmes can address conservation issues at the appropriate (and in some cases, global) ecological scale and can be used as models for species not covered by such conservation initiatives. The Kia Mau te Tītī mo Ake Tōnu Atu (Keep the Tītī Forever) project exemplifies a crosscultural collaboration of scientists and Māori community members to inform co-management of an important seabird resource (Moller et al. 2009a,b). Building upon this established partnership, we initiated the Rakiura Tītī Islands Restoration Project, an international collaboration between a United States non-profit conservation organisation, University of Otago scientists, and Rakiura Māori, with support from New Zealand conservation managers. Our shared resource, taonga tītī (the treasured sooty shearwater, Puffinus griseus), brought us together and

Revisiting Winter Wing Molt in Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark's Grebes (A. clarkii)

Abstract. Species that undergo simultaneous flight-feather molt are susceptible to mortality during the flightless period. Remigial molt was examined in non-breeding Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clarks Grebes (A. clarkii) using beachcast carcasses from California to Washington to determine wrhere and when molt occurs and help identify regions of maximum risk. Molt occurred in 18% of individuals and in all age classes and months examined, including winter, not previously recognized as a significant period for Western and Clarks grebe molt. Molt was encountered in all regions, with the highest proportions in Oregon/Washington during fall (35%), and central (18%) and southern (17%) California during winter. The percentage of Western and Clarks grebes in molt collected during the first 3 days of an oil spill was greater than later in the response (27% vs. 12%), suggesting a greater vulnerability to oiling during this part of their life cycle. Oil spills and other mortality events can provide insights into avian biology not otherwise available, and knowledge of molting regions can minimize wildlife impacts of spills through prevention and response. Received 15 November 2012, accepted 6 August 2013.