WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en-US

00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:09.240
OK, we're right at five o'clock, and I see
there are still several folks joining.

00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.880
[Chris] So, I'm just gonna put up our,  

00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:18.960
a first cover
slide and maybe give folks one more minute,

00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.413
if that's OK with you, Scott?

00:00:21.413 --> 00:00:27.540
We are now at 5:01, so I'm
ready to get this show on the

00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:28.200
road, if you will.

00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:29.220
So welcome, everyone.

00:00:32.940 --> 00:00:35.820
We're pleased to have you join us this evening.

00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:40.680
We're pleased to have you join us
for Tufted Puffin Natural History

00:00:40.680 --> 00:00:45.900
Research and Conservation Status . And we're
using the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

00:00:45.900 --> 00:00:47.160
Webinar Series Platform.

00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:52.500
I would like to start with an acknowledgement
that we are broadcasting from the traditional

00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:59.100
lands of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and
near the site of their historical village

00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:02.160
Tse-whit-zen (ch-WHEET-son).

00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:07.500
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is a sovereign,
federally-recognized Indian Nation, with its

00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:08.640
own constitution and government.

00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:14.520
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe resides in the
Lower Elwha River Valley and adjacent bluffs

00:01:14.520 --> 00:01:16.620
on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula,

00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:19.800
just west of Port Angeles, Washington.

00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:25.200
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has lived in
this area since time immemorial.

00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.560
And today, tribal lands include about a thousand 

00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:31.800
acres of land on or near 
the Elwha River where they

00:01:31.800 --> 00:01:38.040
continue to be active in stewardship
that protects, enhances and restores land,

00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:41.880
air, and water resources and environmental
health for generations to come.

00:01:41.880 --> 00:01:46.980
And I hope you'll join me in supporting their
efforts and successes to meet these goals.

00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:50.040
So, I'm Chris Butler Minor.

00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:54.180
I'm the Community Engagement Specialist for
Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:57.060
And I'll be facilitating today's webinar.

00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:01.980
Also joining us is Rachele Brown, Education
Manager with Feiro Marine Life Center.

00:02:01.980 --> 00:02:06.660
This event is co-hosted by Olympic Coast
National Marine Sanctuary and Feiro Marine

00:02:06.660 --> 00:02:11.160
Life Center as the second installment of our
2023 Speaker Series.

00:02:11.160 --> 00:02:16.500
And the speaker series brings you marine focused
topics of interest from subject matter experts.

00:02:17.940 --> 00:02:23.700
Just a little housekeeping, if you will, during
the presentation, all attendees will be in

00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:25.860
listen only mode and, but we'll have time 

00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:27.900
to answer questions at the 
end of the presentation.

00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:30.480
But you are welcome to tw...

00:02:30.480 --> 00:02:35.940
Excuse me, to type your questions into the
question box, in the bottom of the control

00:02:35.940 --> 00:02:38.880
panel, which is generally on the right-hand
side of your screen.

00:02:39.540 --> 00:02:44.880
You can also use that question box to let
us know if you're having any technical issues,

00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:50.340
and we'll be monitoring the questions and
technical issues, and we'll respond to them

00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:51.300
as quickly as we can.

00:02:52.140 --> 00:02:57.060
We are recording this session and will share
the recording with registered participants

00:02:57.060 --> 00:03:01.860
via e-mail, and it will also be posted on
the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

00:03:01.860 --> 00:03:04.680
website along with closed captioning.

00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:09.240
Also, after the session, 
we would really appreciate 

00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:12.420
any feedback that you might have for us, that

00:03:12.420 --> 00:03:13.920
will help improve the experience.

00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:19.680
So please, take a few moments to complete
the short evaluation that will be presented

00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:21.120
to you after this presentation.

00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:24.540
Or, I should say, actually, after Scott's
presentation.

00:03:25.620 --> 00:03:29.880
So, really quickly, for those of you that
are not familiar with the sanctuary system,

00:03:29.880 --> 00:03:32.160
I'd like to introduce it to you.

00:03:32.820 --> 00:03:41.880
Over 50 years ago, the US ushered in a new
era of marine and ocean conservation by creating

00:03:41.880 --> 00:03:43.320
the National Marine Sanctuary System.

00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:49.920
Now the Office of National Marine Sanctuary
serves as Trustee for a network of underwater

00:03:49.920 --> 00:03:55.620
areas encompassing more than 620,000 square
miles of marine and Great Lakes waters.

00:03:55.620 --> 00:03:57.780
So that's pretty close to the size of Alaska.

00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:02.820
Now, as you can see from the map, sanctuaries
are located all around the US

00:04:02.820 --> 00:04:03.900
shorelines and coasts.

00:04:05.100 --> 00:04:10.020
The sanctuary, I work for Olympic Coast National
Marine Sanctuary, is located along the outer coast

00:04:10.020 --> 00:04:10.980
of Washington State.

00:04:10.980 --> 00:04:16.500
And it's within the usual and accustomed fishing
and hunting areas of the Hoh Tribe, Makah

00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:19.440
Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and the Quinault Indian
nation.

00:04:20.520 --> 00:04:23.700
I also want to share a little bit information
with you about Olympic Coast National Marine

00:04:23.700 --> 00:04:24.180
Sanctuary.

00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:28.920
As I mentioned, it's located off the outer coast
of Washington state.

00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:31.560
And you can see kind of the reddish boundary.

00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:38.280
It starts from just west of Neah Bay in the
north, and goes all the way down to the mouth

00:04:38.280 --> 00:04:43.200
of the Copalis River in the 
south and extends 45 to 25 miles

00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:44.460
seaward.

00:04:44.460 --> 00:04:49.200
Most of the sanctuary lies on Washington's
broad continental shelf in waters less

00:04:49.200 --> 00:04:54.420
than 200 meters, but it also includes, parts
of deep submarine canyons that can reach depths

00:04:54.420 --> 00:04:57.180
of more than 1,500 meters, or about 5,000 feet.

00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:03.780
The sanctuary covers an area that's more than
twice the size of Olympic National Park, and

00:05:03.780 --> 00:05:06.960
it's approximately 1.7 times larger than Puget
Sound.

00:05:07.860 --> 00:05:13.200
It was established in 1994, because it's home
to one of North America's most productive

00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:14.280
marine ecoregions.

00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:19.260
Sanctuary protects
excuse me, a productive upwelling zone that's

00:05:19.260 --> 00:05:22.320
a seasonal host or is home to marine mammals
and seabirds.

00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:27.420
And along its shores are thriving kelp and
intertidal communities, teeming with fishes

00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:32.820
and other sea life. In the darkness of the
sea floor, scattered communities of deep-sea

00:05:32.820 --> 00:05:37.140
corals and sponges form habitats for fish
and other important marine wildlife.

00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:44.100
Also, because of the significant natural and
cultural resources found along this spectacular,

00:05:44.100 --> 00:05:48.540
largely undeveloped shoreline, which represents
some of the last remaining wilderness coastline

00:05:48.540 --> 00:05:49.860
in the lower 48 states.

00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:56.400
Now, I'd like to hand the mic over to Rachele
for an introduction to Feiro Marine Life Center.

00:05:56.400 --> 00:05:57.020
Rachele?

00:05:57.020 --> 00:06:01.860
[Rachele] Thank you, Chris, and thank you
everyone for joining us this evening.

00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:03.060
I'm Rachele.

00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:07.500
I'm the Education Manager with Feiro Marine
Life Center and I'm going to keep it really brief.

00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:12.300
But Feiro is a community aquarium, located in Port
Angeles.

00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:20.100
We were founded in 1981 by a community leader
and educator, Arthur D. Feiro, and we specialize

00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:24.060
in local fish and marine invertebrates.

00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:30.060
It's also my pleasure tonight to introduce
our presenter, Scott Pearson.

00:06:33.660 --> 00:06:39.360
Dr. Scott Pearson is a Senior Research
Scientist at Washington Department of Fish

00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:39.960
and Wildlife.

00:06:40.740 --> 00:06:46.740
He received his PhD from the University of
Washington and Bachelors and Masters of Science

00:06:46.740 --> 00:06:48.240
from the University of Michigan.

00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:55.620
His recent research is focused on assessing
wildlife population status and trends and

00:06:55.620 --> 00:06:59.880
the underlying mechanisms driving declines
to help inform conservation.

00:07:00.900 --> 00:07:06.000
His recent work is focused on gathering a
better understanding of marine birds and mammals

00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:09.540
diet, habitat use, and 
quality and the effectiveness 

00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:12.240
of conservation efforts with a focus on

00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.940
several species of conservation concern.

00:07:15.780 --> 00:07:20.880
Scott also supervises the West Side Research
Team for the wildlife program.

00:07:21.900 --> 00:07:26.040
Without further ado, I give you Dr Scott Pearson.

00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:29.700
[Scott] Thank you, Rachele.

00:07:32.280 --> 00:07:33.000
Well, thank you.

00:07:37.200 --> 00:07:42.240
Today I'll be presenting Tufted Puffin
Natural History, Research and Conservation

00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:42.600
Status.

00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.500
The outline of my talk: 
I'll introduce Washington's 

00:07:46.500 --> 00:07:47.160
marine environment.

00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:52.200
I'll start in the Salish Sea and then I'll
move into that coastal environment we were

00:07:52.200 --> 00:07:56.580
just talking about - the large marine ecosystem.

00:07:58.260 --> 00:08:05.100
Then I'll talk a bit about what is a puffin,
move into history about the Tufted puffin,

00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:07.620
and a little bit about the research we're
doing.

00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:11.940
Finally get into habitats,  

00:08:17.760 --> 00:08:21.300
starting with introducing
you to the marine environment that I mostly

00:08:21.300 --> 00:08:24.480
work in. I work in both the 
Salish sea and the outer 

00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:25.020
coast of Washington.

00:08:26.820 --> 00:08:33.960
The Salish Sea includes the Strait of Juan de
Fuca, Strait of Georgia in Puget Sound. In

00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:36.120
this inner marine waters of Washington,

00:08:38.160 --> 00:08:42.660
we know this is, for those of us who live
here and visit it, and know this is a pretty

00:08:42.660 --> 00:08:52.440
highly urbanized area with large cities like
Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, et cetera.

00:08:52.440 --> 00:08:56.400
And as a result, much of the shoreline in
certain areas is developed.

00:08:56.400 --> 00:09:00.720
But there still are portions of the shoreline
in the Salish Sea. which are remote.

00:09:05.160 --> 00:09:10.860
And there are two islands in particular within
the Salish Sea I want to focus on, and they're

00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:14.100
really the islands that are the most important
to seabirds.

00:09:15.180 --> 00:09:20.760
One is Protection Island, which is just off
Discovery Bay, very close to Sequim, east

00:09:20.760 --> 00:09:24.960
from Port Angeles, and the 
other one, I mean Port Townsend.

00:09:25.740 --> 00:09:30.840
And then, the other one is Smith Island. And
Smith Island that's found off of Whidbey Island

00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:33.180
and south of the San Juan archipelago.

00:09:33.900 --> 00:09:41.520
And, arguably, these are the two most important
seabird islands within the entire Salish Sea,

00:09:41.520 --> 00:09:42.780
both the US and Canadian.

00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:48.000
And that's if you measure importance by the
total number of seabirds using them.

00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:51.480
We have thousands of seabirds using both islands.

00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:56.280
Both islands are largely managed by US Fish
and Wildlife Service.

00:09:56.280 --> 00:10:01.980
Here's a view of Smith Island, and you can
see there's these coastal lots.

00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:05.460
You can see Mount Baker in the 
background. And the puffins 

00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:07.440
use the upper rim of this island.

00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:11.520
This is Protection Island.

00:10:11.520 --> 00:10:12.960
Protection is much larger.

00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:17.580
It's actually nearly two miles long and nearly
three quarters of a mile wide.

00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:25.380
And as I mentioned, both islands are managed
primarily by the Washington Maritime National

00:10:25.380 --> 00:10:32.100
Wildlife Refuge Complex, 
out of the Sequim area and, 

00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.440
it's the part of, Protection is also managed

00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:41.160
by Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. 
Plus there's one private lease holding.

00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:46.560
These islands are important to a variety of
sea birds.

00:10:46.560 --> 00:10:50.520
One of the most notable is the Rhinoceros auklet,
which you see in the foreground.

00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:56.180
And when you get on the island and walk up
on the slopes and looking towards Discovery Bay

00:10:56.180 --> 00:10:58.380
on the Olympic Peninsula,

00:10:58.920 --> 00:11:00.180
you get a view like this.

00:11:00.780 --> 00:11:04.740
And if I turn and look into the slope, I see
all of these burrows.

00:11:05.940 --> 00:11:11.460
These burrows were dug into that slope by a
species known as the Rhinoceros Auklet, which

00:11:11.460 --> 00:11:16.740
you see pictured here. They only come to the
island at night, and they come after sunset.

00:11:16.740 --> 00:11:19.020
And they are coming throughout the night.

00:11:19.020 --> 00:11:22.560
And a lot of activity, up until around four
in the morning.

00:11:24.060 --> 00:11:29.700
So, when you look at the slope on Protection
Island we see it riddled with holes in

00:11:29.700 --> 00:11:35.280
those holes or burrows that were dug by the
Rhinoceros auklet. And the Rhinoceros auklet is

00:11:35.280 --> 00:11:38.340
pictured here, and its named because of this
bumped on its beak.

00:11:38.340 --> 00:11:41.040
And they have a very wide beak.

00:11:41.040 --> 00:11:42.300
And they're, actually a puffin.

00:11:42.300 --> 00:11:43.380
I'll talk more about that in a minute.

00:11:43.380 --> 00:11:47.280
And they visit the island where they carry
their fish crosswise and their beak and to

00:11:47.280 --> 00:11:49.260
deliver to their chicks inside the burrows.

00:11:50.700 --> 00:11:51.660
In addition to  

00:11:51.660 --> 00:11:54.720
the Rhinoceros auklet, there are a couple
of different species of cormorants on these

00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:57.000
islands, including double-crested and pelagic
cormorants.

00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:03.240
Also, on the shores, you find the eggs and
nests of the black oystercatcher. And this is

00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:06.900
a species you only find on these more, these
uninhabited islands.

00:12:06.900 --> 00:12:11.220
They do visit areas that are inhabited, but
they don't do well in those environments.

00:12:11.220 --> 00:12:16.680
Because if you imagine that nest on a beach
where people are walking and have dogs, they're

00:12:16.680 --> 00:12:18.420
very likely to have those nests get crushed.

00:12:18.420 --> 00:12:21.900
People would in their animals who are disturbed
the birds and flush them away.

00:12:21.900 --> 00:12:26.760
Incubation would be poor, and also, they're
more likely to have their, both their chicks

00:12:26.760 --> 00:12:31.980
and eggs, depredated by things like crows,
gulls, and other species.

00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:36.900
So, they tend to be on these refuge complex,
and they do very well there.

00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:42.660
So, as we leave the inner marine waters and
move to the outer coast of Washington, out

00:12:42.660 --> 00:12:48.840
to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and arrive
at Cape Flattery, the land that is part of

00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:50.040
the Makah Tribal land.

00:12:50.040 --> 00:12:55.620
And we look out towards the ocean, we see
Tattoosh Island - a very important island

00:12:55.620 --> 00:13:01.140
to the Makah Tribe, belongs to the Makah Tribe,
but also an important seabird colony.

00:13:02.160 --> 00:13:06.000
As we go down the coast, we will find one
colony after another, after another.

00:13:06.900 --> 00:13:11.700
These colonies on the outer coast face a very
different environment than the inner marine

00:13:11.700 --> 00:13:12.240
waters do.

00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:15.960
This is a very harsh environment, particularly
in the fall, throughout the winter.

00:13:16.680 --> 00:13:23.340
Where we can have very severe coastal storms.
Those storms can result in over 30-foot combined

00:13:23.340 --> 00:13:29.580
seas, 80 to 90 mile-an-hour winds hitting
these islands can cause significant erosion

00:13:29.580 --> 00:13:31.980
if the plant community is disturbed.

00:13:33.540 --> 00:13:38.220
And most people, when they think about the
coast of the Pacific Northwest, they think of

00:13:38.220 --> 00:13:39.540
views like this from Oregon.

00:13:40.860 --> 00:13:44.880
They often think of views like this from Oregon
because it's a very accessible coastline.

00:13:44.880 --> 00:13:47.040
It has a highway running right down it.

00:13:47.040 --> 00:13:52.080
It has a lot of state parks that you can access.
It has areas like Cannon Beach just to the  

00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:52.680
south and

00:13:52.680 --> 00:13:57.000
you're looking here towards Haystack Rock,
which is also an important Tufted puffins

00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:57.720
nesting colony.

00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:04.140
In Washington, in contrast, it's not a very
accessible coast, but it's just this beautiful

00:14:04.140 --> 00:14:09.840
or even more spectacular! It has as many offshore
rocks and islands, and just a beautiful place.

00:14:10.680 --> 00:14:13.800
And one of the reasons it's not as accessible,
we don't have a coastal highway.

00:14:13.800 --> 00:14:16.140
We have both national parkland.

00:14:16.140 --> 00:14:18.960
We have private land. We have tribal land.

00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:26.340
And all of that affects one's ability to access
the coast. The people who know the coast best

00:14:26.340 --> 00:14:30.840
usually go in boats or multi-day backpacking
trips along the coast.

00:14:32.280 --> 00:14:34.140
But it's a fairly, really a special place.

00:14:34.140 --> 00:14:40.230
These offshore rocks and islands are really
ideal, nesting habitat are a variety of sea

00:14:40.230 --> 00:14:43.080
birds and they're also used by a variety of
marine mammals.

00:14:50.640 --> 00:14:54.900
When you get onto these offshore rocks and
islands, you find that the intertidal community,

00:14:54.900 --> 00:14:58.800
it's absolutely spectacular. You find anemones,
like you see here.

00:14:59.520 --> 00:15:03.720
You see the sea stars, that pisaster, sea
stars.

00:15:03.720 --> 00:15:07.080
These were nearly disappeared from the island
where I took this picture.

00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:09.840
I should point out that most of the pictures
I'm showing I have taken.

00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:14.760
A few are taken by other people, and I tried
to make sure I attributed those appropriately.

00:15:16.140 --> 00:15:21.060
Um, the piaster on Destruction almost completely
disappeared as a result of sea star wasting

00:15:21.060 --> 00:15:24.840
disease, and the numbers have been increasing
just dramatically.

00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:28.860
Now, we're seeing a lot of both the bright
orange ones like you see here, as well as

00:15:28.860 --> 00:15:29.640
the purple one.

00:15:31.380 --> 00:15:34.080
You see in the inter tidal areas, you see
sea otters.

00:15:34.860 --> 00:15:38.040
This species was extirpated from the state
of Washington.

00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:43.380
The state of Washington, working with the
US Fish and Wildlife Service ended that and

00:15:43.380 --> 00:15:46.500
local tribes introduced them, re-introduced
them back to Washington.

00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:49.440
And their numbers are now doing very well.

00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:52.320
You see a variety of pinnipeds species.

00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:54.000
These are seals and sea lions here.

00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.460
We see Steller Sea Lions on Caroll Rock.

00:15:57.420 --> 00:16:00.720
You can see the male in the background, two
females, and their pups.

00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.500
This is one of the few spots in Washington
where Stellers actually pup.

00:16:06.300 --> 00:16:11.040
The islands and rocks are also used by migratory
species, like the Ruddy turnstone.

00:16:11.040 --> 00:16:13.560
You see here and also its cousin, the Black
turnstone.

00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:17.160
Species that use it when they're done breeding.

00:16:17.160 --> 00:16:23.520
So, they move up north when they're finished
breeding, like the Brown Pelican and Heermann's

00:16:23.520 --> 00:16:24.000
gulls.

00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:27.960
And they'd come up here to do things like
molt and put weight on.

00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:32.340
If you look at this bird, you can see it's
in active molt. Notice how uneven the edge

00:16:32.340 --> 00:16:34.920
of the feathers are, how it has gaps in others.

00:16:34.920 --> 00:16:39.000
This bird's in the process of replacing most
of its primary feathers.

00:16:39.660 --> 00:16:44.040
And that's metabic, metabolically
very costly to the bird.

00:16:44.040 --> 00:16:50.160
It can increase its metabolism by as much
as 50, 50% to replace all those feathers.

00:16:50.160 --> 00:16:54.300
So, they come to great areas, areas with
good forage,

00:16:54.300 --> 00:16:56.340
and they feed in this area.

00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.940
We also see species like the Harlequin duck.

00:16:59.940 --> 00:17:04.500
They breed inland and then come back to the
coast. And this bird is actively molting,

00:17:04.500 --> 00:17:04.980
as well.

00:17:06.300 --> 00:17:11.460
Young birds come to spend time on the
coast, like this young gull.

00:17:11.460 --> 00:17:19.020
And this particular species takes four years
to mature, and so it's actively foraging along

00:17:19.020 --> 00:17:21.180
the coast, eating a crab dinner like you see
here.

00:17:22.560 --> 00:17:26.940
You see species like the Pigeon guillemot,
signing in the rain on Destruction Island.

00:17:28.560 --> 00:17:32.160
and, of course, you see the black oystercatcher,
which I introduced you to earlier.

00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:37.620
You see Brant's cormorants, like you see here,
double-crested and pelagic cormorants. You see

00:17:37.620 --> 00:17:41.460
Common murres on the slopes of Tattoosh Island.

00:17:41.460 --> 00:17:47.880
Here we are on up on Tattoosh, looking at
the cliff face it and you can see hundreds

00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:51.300
of Common murres on those ledges where they
have a single egg.

00:17:52.320 --> 00:17:56.760
Here's a Common murre on the water, just off shore
of Tattoosh.

00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:05.220
Then, when you leave that intertidal, local,
sort of nearshore environment, then move

00:18:05.220 --> 00:18:07.860
into the offshore environment which the puffin
also uses.

00:18:08.700 --> 00:18:10.380
And you start to look around you.

00:18:11.280 --> 00:18:15.540
You see in the nearshore environment things
like the Rhinoceros auklet which I already

00:18:15.540 --> 00:18:21.120
introduced you to, and the Common murre
and eventually, you end out in the deep blue

00:18:21.120 --> 00:18:21.360
water.

00:18:21.360 --> 00:18:23.820
This is where the continental shelf drops
off.

00:18:24.600 --> 00:18:29.460
The water literally does become blue and this
is where we see species like the Laysan albatross.

00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:32.460
And the Black Footed albatross.

00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:36.300
There's a Black Footed albatross eating a
rockfish.

00:18:38.340 --> 00:18:43.080
You see a variety of shearwaters soaring just
above the water, like the Sooty shearwater

00:18:43.080 --> 00:18:48.600
Short-tailed shearwater, pink-footed shearwater,
Manx Shearwater, et cetera.

00:18:48.600 --> 00:18:51.060
Then if you're lucky, you'll see Blue sharks
on a calm day.

00:18:51.060 --> 00:18:54.600
You see their feathers, or sorry, their dorsal
fin just breaking the water.

00:18:55.740 --> 00:19:01.140
And if you're extremely lucky, you've essentially
won the lottery, you see Leatherback Sea turtles,

00:19:01.140 --> 00:19:02.700
like I saw one day on the outer coast.

00:19:02.700 --> 00:19:04.620
This is about 30 miles off shore.

00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:12.420
And you see species like the fur seals
the Northern fur seal, and its cousin, the

00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:18.120
Guadalupe fur seal; a variety of whales, the
most common being the gray and the humpback,

00:19:18.120 --> 00:19:19.260
which you see pictured here.

00:19:19.260 --> 00:19:24.540
A number of dolphins and porpoises. Here's the
White-sided dolphin riding our bow wave.

00:19:26.280 --> 00:19:29.220
Then out there, particularly 
during the non-breeding 

00:19:29.220 --> 00:19:31.320
season, very far off shore, you'll find the

00:19:31.320 --> 00:19:32.100
Tufted puffin.

00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:37.680
The Tufted puffins says it spends the vast
majority of its life at sea.

00:19:38.460 --> 00:19:43.500
And it's a very different looking species
during the winter, during the non-breeding

00:19:43.500 --> 00:19:44.940
season. So seven months of the year.

00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:45.720
It looks like this.

00:19:46.320 --> 00:19:49.920
Notice how the white face patches mostly gone,
the tufts are gone.

00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:54.240
It's lost that upper plate on its beak - its
gone.

00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:57.180
And all of that will come back the next spring.

00:19:57.180 --> 00:20:01.980
And I took this picture this last, I think,
October about 30 miles offshore.

00:20:04.260 --> 00:20:09.060
So that introduced you to kind of got you
warmed up for where the puffin lives and spends

00:20:09.060 --> 00:20:09.480
its time.

00:20:10.080 --> 00:20:12.660
Let's talk just a little bit about, what is
a puffin.

00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:22.140
When we talk about puffins (I'm not sure -
it's too bad, this Tufted puffin wasn't supposed

00:20:22.140 --> 00:20:23.640
to come in yet, but it did.)

00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:30.900
We create these trees based on genetic
information and this tree is a rooted tree.

00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:35.520
It's been rooted by two species at the very
bottom, which are not related to all the others.

00:20:36.600 --> 00:20:37.620
They help route the tree.

00:20:37.620 --> 00:20:40.500
And then we look at patterns of ancestry and
descent.

00:20:40.500 --> 00:20:42.240
And that's what you're seeing above.

00:20:42.780 --> 00:20:46.080
And all of those individuals, they're all
related to each other.

00:20:46.800 --> 00:20:50.280
They're all in one family, and 
we call that family the Alcidae.

00:20:50.280 --> 00:20:54.300
And that family, we call the Alcids. That 

00:20:54.300 --> 00:20:57.000
family includes the dovekie, 
the razorbill, the common

00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:02.100
murre, the murrelets, the 
guillemots, the auklets, and then 

00:21:02.100 --> 00:21:04.560
the puffins are all the way down at the bottom.

00:21:06.060 --> 00:21:11.520
And the most basal member of that group at
the very bottom if you look, the first one

00:21:11.520 --> 00:21:13.980
branching off is the Rhinoceros auklet.

00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:19.440
So, when I mentioned earlier that it's actually
a puffin, it is. It's not an auklet. It's poorly

00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:19.860
named.

00:21:19.860 --> 00:21:21.060
It's a puffin.

00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:25.140
And so, it's the basal member of all the other
puffins.

00:21:25.140 --> 00:21:27.660
And from that comes the Tufted  

00:21:27.660 --> 00:21:29.820
Puffins as you see in
Peter's picture above.

00:21:31.560 --> 00:21:35.040
And then you have coming two sister species.

00:21:35.040 --> 00:21:39.480
One is the Atlantic puffin, which seems to
be the puffin that everybody knows and loves

00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:41.640
and it ends up on cereal boxes.

00:21:44.460 --> 00:21:49.200
Then, then there's the Horned puffin, which
is found primarily just north of where I am.

00:21:50.520 --> 00:21:53.700
It breeds on Vancouver Island, all the way
up through Alaska.

00:21:54.420 --> 00:21:56.880
But we get them regularly 
in our waters, particularly 

00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:58.440
in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the Northern

00:21:58.440 --> 00:21:58.680
Coast.

00:21:59.760 --> 00:22:05.280
There's been a 1 or 2 hanging out recently.
This individual, I took off, a picture I shot

00:22:05.280 --> 00:22:10.320
this picture, in Washington. This individual
was going in and out of burrows in Washington

00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:13.260
and hanging out with other tufted puffins.

00:22:13.260 --> 00:22:14.700
It wasn't actively breeding.

00:22:14.700 --> 00:22:18.360
But it makes me wonder if it isn't prospecting
and thinking about bringing locally.

00:22:20.940 --> 00:22:23.580
All right, now you know a bit about what
is a puffin.

00:22:23.580 --> 00:22:29.280
Let's move into a bit about the natural history
of the tufted puffins. And let me start by

00:22:29.280 --> 00:22:35.580
introducing you to where the bird is found.
And the breeding range is sort of this coral

00:22:35.580 --> 00:22:36.720
or brownish color.

00:22:37.620 --> 00:22:40.140
It is not the best one to ask about colors.

00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:42.720
I don't see color the same way everyone else
does.

00:22:44.760 --> 00:22:52.260
But you can see that, where you have this
brownish or coral color, that's breeding range.

00:22:52.800 --> 00:22:58.740
And it breeds from Japan, all the way up through
Alaska all the way through Russia, through

00:22:58.740 --> 00:23:04.680
the Aleutian Islands, up into the Bering Sea,
through the Gulf of Alaska, to the panhandle

00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:10.140
of Alaska, off the coast of British Columbia,
down to Washington, Oregon, and all the way

00:23:10.140 --> 00:23:11.820
down to the Farallon Islands in California.

00:23:12.660 --> 00:23:15.540
And it spends its non-breeding season out
here in the blue.

00:23:16.560 --> 00:23:20.700
We really don't have a lot of information
about where it spends it's non-breeding season.

00:23:20.700 --> 00:23:25.860
And fortunately, there's a graduate student
working in the Gulf of Alaska, and she has

00:23:25.860 --> 00:23:28.920
marked some individuals, and we're starting
to learn where they spend their winter.

00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:33.540
And we have some new tracking information
spending/showing that the birds in the Gulf

00:23:33.540 --> 00:23:37.860
of Alaska are hanging out kind of in this
area in the middle of the winter.

00:23:42.060 --> 00:23:44.400
And this again, is what they looked like during
the winter.

00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:47.820
And this is that same individual a different
picture of that same individual I showed you

00:23:47.820 --> 00:23:49.440
earlier, which I took in October.

00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:53.760
And then this is what an individual looks
like during the breeding season.

00:23:55.020 --> 00:23:57.060
So where are they found in 
Washington? In Washington,

00:23:57.060 --> 00:24:00.300
they're found on those two islands I mentioned
in the Salish Sea.

00:24:00.300 --> 00:24:03.060
They're found on both Smith 
and Protection Islands.

00:24:04.200 --> 00:24:08.640
Then also from Cape Flattery all the way down
to Point Grenville.

00:24:09.840 --> 00:24:12.180
That rocky coastline, I showed you pictures of.

00:24:12.900 --> 00:24:14.340
They breed on the islands like this one.

00:24:14.340 --> 00:24:17.580
This is Carroll Island. And it's hard to get
a feel for size.

00:24:17.580 --> 00:24:24.480
Steve took this out of the airplane when
he was doing pinniped counts, and it's hard

00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:28.860
to tell, but I don't know 
if you can see my cursor,  

00:24:28.860 --> 00:24:33.420
but there are, [Chris] Yes, we 
can. [Scott] Oh, good, there's a

00:24:33.420 --> 00:24:37.140
group of Steller Sea Lions right here, which
you can barely see, there are little dots.

00:24:37.140 --> 00:24:41.220
And Steller Sea Lions can weigh up to 2,000 pounds
and it can be 12 feet

00:24:42.180 --> 00:24:45.000
going from one tip of one flipper to the other.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:47.580
And they're dots on here - very small.

00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:51.420
So, it gives you a feel for how big this island
actually is.

00:24:51.420 --> 00:24:56.100
And the Tufted puffins are mostly up here,
in this, on this side of the island.

00:24:58.020 --> 00:25:00.540
They're also found on Islands, like this one,
Alexander.

00:25:00.540 --> 00:25:05.880
Here, I'm up on the slope of Alexander in
this beautiful, native, luxuriant tufted hair

00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:06.780
grass.

00:25:06.780 --> 00:25:11.220
At the base of each one of these tufts, and
this is what the this is what a natural island

00:25:11.220 --> 00:25:16.920
should look like if it hasn't been disturbed
with a lot of non-native vegetation,

00:25:18.060 --> 00:25:22.560
you'll notice that all these little clumps
of grass here, at the base of each one of these

00:25:22.560 --> 00:25:27.060
clumps is a variety of holes and those holes
include Cassin's auklets, and

00:25:27.060 --> 00:25:30.120
Storm petrels and behind me are the Tufted
puffins.

00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:34.080
So where are they, when they're here locally?

00:25:34.080 --> 00:25:37.500
Well, we can use at sea data to find out
where they spend their time.

00:25:37.500 --> 00:25:42.600
So, here's a bunch of surveys we've done at
sea that we have done, and then a bunch of

00:25:42.600 --> 00:25:45.000
cruises that NOAA has done.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.680
And we combined all of that data to predict/
create these predicted density surfaces.

00:25:50.460 --> 00:25:56.100
And we can see these hotspots, the red areas are
where we expect to see higher densities of

00:25:56.100 --> 00:25:57.600
puffins and the cold spots,

00:25:57.600 --> 00:25:59.640
and blue is where we expect to see fewer.

00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:04.260
And notice that their are all around the colonies
along the coastline.

00:26:04.260 --> 00:26:09.720
And they're even the really small colonies that
we know about, actually light up in yellow.

00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:16.260
So down here by Aaron and Aaron's Bride, that's a
very small colony that shows up in yellow.

00:26:16.920 --> 00:26:21.300
So, they spend time near the colony, but they
also go way out here into the shelf break

00:26:21.300 --> 00:26:22.320
where they forage.

00:26:25.500 --> 00:26:30.360
And when they're on the colony, they're nesting
in burrows just like the Rhinoceros auklet.

00:26:30.360 --> 00:26:35.700
So, they dig that with their beaks carving
into that dirt, and then pushing it out that

00:26:35.700 --> 00:26:38.340
dirt out with their sharp claws on their feet.

00:26:38.940 --> 00:26:44.340
They will also nest and crevices, which
you see, I, I stole this picture from the

00:26:44.340 --> 00:26:46.260
Internet, as I labeled it.

00:26:47.160 --> 00:26:51.840
I don't know exactly where this picture was
taken, but crevice nesting occurs in a few

00:26:51.840 --> 00:26:55.020
places that occurs down in the Farallon Islands
down in California.

00:26:55.020 --> 00:27:01.020
It also occurs way up in the Bering Sea up
in Alaska. Throughout the vast majority of

00:27:01.020 --> 00:27:04.140
the puffin's range, though, it digs burrows
like you see here.

00:27:04.740 --> 00:27:07.380
The pair bond is associated with that burrow.

00:27:07.380 --> 00:27:09.900
So, they're often separated from each other
throughout the winter.

00:27:09.900 --> 00:27:12.240
They'll come back together to that same burrow.

00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:16.440
They'll lay a single egg. And usually they
don't start laying eggs until they're about

00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:17.280
four years of age.

00:27:18.660 --> 00:27:20.100
They lay only one egg per year.

00:27:20.100 --> 00:27:24.180
They incubate that egg taking turns, in 24-hour
shifts

00:27:24.180 --> 00:27:30.780
for about 40 some days. They then, that egg
will hatch, hopefully, and then they'll take

00:27:30.780 --> 00:27:35.220
care of that chick for another month or so.
And then eventually, it will fledge - it will go

00:27:35.220 --> 00:27:37.920
out to sea and be independent at that stage.

00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:43.140
When you're on a colony and you look off on
the outer shore, you see individuals' floating

00:27:43.140 --> 00:27:45.660
on the water, like, this, this bird at Smith
Island.

00:27:47.040 --> 00:27:50.340
Then, last summer, I was lucky enough to go
out into the Aleutian Islands, and you can

00:27:50.340 --> 00:27:54.420
see, just off of the colonies, you will see
birds hanging out in the water, where they're

00:27:54.420 --> 00:27:57.660
bathing, and they're preening, 
they're often hanging 

00:27:57.660 --> 00:27:59.220
out on the water, when they've already delivered

00:27:59.220 --> 00:28:01.740
food to their chicks, or they're just resting.

00:28:03.780 --> 00:28:08.220
Then there are also birds flying in the air.
This is a picture I took of a bird off right

00:28:08.220 --> 00:28:09.300
off of Destruction Island.

00:28:10.980 --> 00:28:15.300
Then if you go to big colonies like those
in Alaska, it looks more like this, where you'll

00:28:15.300 --> 00:28:19.260
see clouds in the sky and many puffins on
shore.

00:28:20.220 --> 00:28:24.960
You can look closely and see all of these
puffins, sort of, lined up on the shore,

00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:29.760
and they have their burrows in those, in that
really dense grass.

00:28:31.800 --> 00:28:35.640
Then moving back to Destruction, here's a
picture of a, a pair of birds.

00:28:35.640 --> 00:28:39.540
This, you can see if you look carefully, you'll
see one bird through the legs of the other.

00:28:40.200 --> 00:28:42.420
And one is down in its burrow and the other
one

00:28:42.420 --> 00:28:46.140
is in the process of coming out. This pair
didn't breed this year.

00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:48.060
In this particular year, in 
the year I took this picture.

00:28:48.060 --> 00:28:53.220
They were actively digging 
this nest or the burrow.

00:28:53.220 --> 00:28:55.890
And this was happening in late July and August.

00:28:55.890 --> 00:28:57.240
So, I knew they weren't breeding.

00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:01.500
But when they come out of the burrow, sometimes
their tufts are kind of dirty and their

00:29:01.500 --> 00:29:02.280
beaks are dirty.

00:29:02.280 --> 00:29:04.740
But eventually, they clean themselves off.

00:29:04.740 --> 00:29:07.620
Here's a bird on Jagat Island that I took
a shot of.

00:29:07.620 --> 00:29:11.700
This bird had just come out of the burrow
and dropped a very large rock out of the burrow.

00:29:13.740 --> 00:29:18.240
Then when they're done building their burrows
or using another burrow that's no longer occupied,

00:29:19.020 --> 00:29:21.660
they sometimes bring in nesting material.

00:29:21.660 --> 00:29:26.820
They don't form a cup like most birds, and
some birds don't really use any nesting material

00:29:26.820 --> 00:29:27.240
at all.

00:29:27.240 --> 00:29:29.820
It seems to be somewhat unpredictable.

00:29:29.820 --> 00:29:32.400
This is the only bird I've ever seen

00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:34.560
bring in seagrass to line its burrow.

00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:39.420
Other puffins I've seen use just grass that's
adjacent to them -

00:29:39.420 --> 00:29:40.680
the burrow on the island.  

00:29:41.760 --> 00:29:45.720
On the island surface, you will
see birds stretching their wings and preening.

00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:48.120
You'll see a lot of social interaction.

00:29:48.120 --> 00:29:53.460
The birds will come together and you see the
two birds with the beak spread wide open.

00:29:53.460 --> 00:29:58.440
It seems to be a pair formation activity
that we're seeing there.

00:29:58.440 --> 00:29:59.340
It's not aggressive.

00:29:59.340 --> 00:30:01.860
They will then come together and they'll do 

00:30:01.860 --> 00:30:04.800
what we call bill claps, 
where they'll clap their beaks

00:30:04.800 --> 00:30:07.260
together back and forth and back and forth.

00:30:07.260 --> 00:30:11.100
One bird's just looking on. The other two are
clapping their beaks.

00:30:12.660 --> 00:30:16.680
Sometimes in that clapping, you'll see them
sort of nibble at the base of each other's

00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:17.040
beak.

00:30:17.040 --> 00:30:20.400
It seems almost intimate if you were to put
human terms on it.

00:30:21.720 --> 00:30:25.740
Then they do what I technically call the silly
clown walk where they do this exaggerated

00:30:25.740 --> 00:30:30.840
walk putting one foot out in front of the
other and sort of wobbling back and forth

00:30:30.840 --> 00:30:31.500
together.

00:30:33.780 --> 00:30:37.800
So that's a little bit of feeling for what
it's like to be on a puffin colony.

00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:41.880
And now, let me just introduce you to a little
bit of the research we're doing.

00:30:43.620 --> 00:30:48.600
And there's a lot of work going on throughout
the puffins' range. A lot of work around in

00:30:48.600 --> 00:30:54.120
British Columbia and Alaska right now,
as well as work all the way down through Oregon

00:30:54.120 --> 00:30:54.720
and California.

00:30:55.380 --> 00:30:58.440
So, I'm just going to give you a couple of
examples of things that we're doing.

00:30:59.100 --> 00:31:03.180
And, as we're doing this work on puffins,
we're always working with partners.

00:31:03.180 --> 00:31:05.400
We have a variety of partners.

00:31:05.400 --> 00:31:10.800
I work a lot with the Refuge system - the US Fish
and Wildlife Service.

00:31:10.800 --> 00:31:16.500
I worked with university partners, both the
University of Washington and University of

00:31:16.500 --> 00:31:21.180
Puget Sound, NGO's like 
Oikonos, and then of course, 

00:31:21.180 --> 00:31:23.040
other government agencies like NOAA.

00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:31.740
And a lot of the work we're doing right now
is also, in addition to the inner marine water,

00:31:31.740 --> 00:31:36.240
colonies were also working on the other coast
of Washington on Destruction Island.

00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:41.760
This island is about two miles off shore,
very close to the mouth of the Hoh River.

00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:47.340
This island had an active lighthouse on it
that's no longer active.

00:31:47.340 --> 00:31:48.360
It's been decommissioned.

00:31:48.360 --> 00:31:51.180
I think the lens from this is the Westport
Museum.

00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:56.340
And there's also an adjacent building, which
is the old horn house.

00:31:56.340 --> 00:31:58.260
There's a couple other buildings on the island.

00:31:58.260 --> 00:32:01.260
They're mostly dilapidated, falling down at
the moment.

00:32:02.040 --> 00:32:05.640
But the island is very actively used by a
variety of sea birds.

00:32:06.180 --> 00:32:13.080
And if you put a camera out and you point
it at a Tufted puffin burrow, and I'm going

00:32:13.080 --> 00:32:18.000
to start in the middle of the night, and just
go through a sequence going through the night,

00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:22.860
you can see that the birds, remember I mentioned
that the Rhinoceros auklet comes into the

00:32:22.860 --> 00:32:23.880
colony at night.

00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:25.860
So, you see them landing and coming in at
night.

00:32:25.860 --> 00:32:30.600
And this is pointed at a at a Tufted puffin
burrow, not a Rhinoceros auklet burrow,

00:32:30.600 --> 00:32:31.500
which are adjacent.

00:32:31.500 --> 00:32:33.300
But they're landing on the colony.

00:32:34.260 --> 00:32:38.160
And they're all coming together very much
like the Tufted puffins, but they're doing

00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:39.900
this at nighttime, instead of during the day.

00:32:39.900 --> 00:32:41.880
You see a lot of coming together.

00:32:41.880 --> 00:32:47.460
And the same thing is going on with beaks
with clapping and nibbling at each other's

00:32:47.460 --> 00:32:47.940
beaks.

00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:51.120
Then you hear the vocalizations - so very  

00:32:51.120 --> 00:32:51.720
different
from

00:32:52.500 --> 00:32:55.320
Tufted puffins. Tufted Puffins are generally
very quiet.

00:32:57.360 --> 00:32:59.220
Not a lot of vocalizations.

00:32:59.220 --> 00:33:03.540
Rhinoceros Auckland's, in contrast,
are constantly moaning and groaning and giving

00:33:03.540 --> 00:33:04.740
up these amazing sounds.

00:33:05.760 --> 00:33:13.320
If you put in "BirdNote" and "Rhinoceros auklet"
into a Google search, you can hear the sound

00:33:13.320 --> 00:33:18.540
recordings that we did on the outer coast
or actually in the inner marine waters, on

00:33:18.540 --> 00:33:19.260
Protection Island.

00:33:20.100 --> 00:33:21.900
And you can hear what they actually sound
like.

00:33:23.640 --> 00:33:25.980
In addition, we see other things.

00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:31.140
We see the non-native rabbit that was introduced
by lighthouse keepers back in the late

00:33:31.140 --> 00:33:32.760
1960's, early 1970's.

00:33:32.760 --> 00:33:35.220
And it's creating serious problems on the
island.

00:33:35.220 --> 00:33:36.900
And I'll talk more about that in a minute.

00:33:38.040 --> 00:33:40.320
Then the puffins there it's actually in its
burrow.

00:33:40.320 --> 00:33:42.720
And they're really not doing much at night.

00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:47.460
They're, they're presumably mostly incubating
their eggs or maybe brooding their chick.

00:33:47.460 --> 00:33:51.840
And then once the chicks big enough, they'll
leave and they won't even be on the colony

00:33:51.840 --> 00:33:52.560
much at night.  

00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:59.700
But at night, they found, I found them
to be much more active than I had imagined.

00:33:59.700 --> 00:34:01.500
They're going in and out of their burrow.

00:34:01.500 --> 00:34:05.400
They're not flying away, but they come out
and stretch and they go back into their burrow.

00:34:06.660 --> 00:34:09.300
And as we, there are other ways we can study
them.

00:34:09.300 --> 00:34:14.220
We can use these fiber optic burrow probes
that Eric Wagner's holding here. And Eric's going

00:34:14.220 --> 00:34:17.340
to come talk to you all soon.

00:34:18.120 --> 00:34:24.420
And here he's taking this fiber optic burrow
probe into a Rhinoceros auklet burrow.

00:34:25.080 --> 00:34:30.360
And so, it's got an infrared light on the
front and he's got a gaming visor over his

00:34:30.360 --> 00:34:30.600
eyes.

00:34:30.600 --> 00:34:34.140
And you can see what the camera is seeing
deepen the burrow.

00:34:34.140 --> 00:34:40.500
And he's going in a meter, sometimes two meters
or more into a burrow to see whether or not

00:34:40.500 --> 00:34:41.340
it's occupied.

00:34:41.340 --> 00:34:43.800
And so, is it occupied by an adult?

00:34:43.800 --> 00:34:44.880
Does it have a chick?

00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:46.140
Does it have an egg?

00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:52.860
Um, and these Rhinoceros auklet burrows,
in particular are very complex.

00:34:52.860 --> 00:34:56.100
They go in and they bifurcate and sometimes
they bifurcate again.

00:34:56.100 --> 00:34:57.360
So that keeps splitting.

00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:01.320
And you have to check all those different
chambers to see if it's being used.

00:35:02.220 --> 00:35:03.900
Tufted puffin, in our experience.

00:35:03.900 --> 00:35:05.280
on the Washington coast,

00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:09.660
those burrows tend to be much simpler, much
straighter, and much shorter.

00:35:11.580 --> 00:35:15.540
Because the Tufted puffins are much more sensitive
to human activities

00:35:15.540 --> 00:35:22.080
we often do all of our work early on from
far away from the colony. So we'll be observing

00:35:22.080 --> 00:35:22.320
them.

00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:27.660
We create photos of the colony, we map the
burrows onto those photos, and then we can

00:35:27.660 --> 00:35:29.820
look at who's going in and out of which burrows.

00:35:29.820 --> 00:35:31.500
And are they're feeding they're young?

00:35:31.500 --> 00:35:36.420
And based on that information, we can learn
about how many of the burrows are occupied.

00:35:36.420 --> 00:35:41.400
How many of them appear to have eggs that
hatch?

00:35:41.400 --> 00:35:45.360
We can tell that because the adults are flying
with food, they're carrying in fish.

00:35:46.260 --> 00:35:49.020
And how many of those then stay?

00:35:50.340 --> 00:35:55.020
Do we see provisioning for long enough where
those chicks should be big enough to fledge?

00:35:57.960 --> 00:36:04.620
We also want to learn about diet to understand
whether or not diet's limiting to these birds.

00:36:04.620 --> 00:36:06.300
With species like Rhinoceros auklets,

00:36:06.300 --> 00:36:10.800
we can actually startle them at night and
scare them and cause them to drop their beak load,

00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:14.040
like, this bird here, has 
a bill load of sandlance.

00:36:15.180 --> 00:36:19.800
And fortunately, Rhinoceros 
auklets are very tolerant 

00:36:19.800 --> 00:36:20.880
of this kind of disturbance.

00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:25.560
We've never seen any evidence of abandonment,
as a result of this activity.

00:36:25.560 --> 00:36:31.980
We also do it in a way where we space it out
and do it in different places so that we don't

00:36:31.980 --> 00:36:35.820
cause more than one disturbance in one night,
per year.

00:36:38.520 --> 00:36:40.020
And the chicks seemed to do fine,

00:36:40.020 --> 00:36:43.860
fortunately. Fortunately, both adults
bring back a bill load each night. Hopefully,

00:36:43.860 --> 00:36:48.840
we end up stealing just one bill load
from one adult. Then we can measure that and

00:36:48.840 --> 00:36:51.240
look at what that bill load out is composed of.

00:36:51.240 --> 00:36:52.620
So, here's a single bill load.

00:36:52.620 --> 00:36:53.460
We can measure it.

00:36:53.460 --> 00:36:55.620
And you can see they're mostly sandlance.

00:36:55.620 --> 00:36:57.840
That's all the fish on the left and a couple
of salmon.

00:36:58.620 --> 00:37:02.340
Salmon, I should point out, even though you
saw in that picture, are extremely rare in

00:37:02.340 --> 00:37:02.640
the diet.

00:37:04.020 --> 00:37:07.440
So, that's kind of an unusual bill load and
probably why we took a picture of it.

00:37:09.540 --> 00:37:13.560
For Tufted puffins, we end up spending more
time, Here's Peter Hodum. He's a professor at the

00:37:13.560 --> 00:37:15.060
University of Puget Sound.

00:37:15.720 --> 00:37:20.220
We spend more time looking at them from a
distance. And one of his students worked with

00:37:20.220 --> 00:37:20.460
us.

00:37:20.460 --> 00:37:25.320
And what we did is we use photographs to document
what the birds were eating.

00:37:25.320 --> 00:37:30.660
So rather than go on the colony and disturb
them, we did it from afar, and remember they're

00:37:30.660 --> 00:37:33.120
coming back to the colony during the day and
not at night.

00:37:34.140 --> 00:37:39.420
And so, we can if we have a high-end digital
SLR (single lens reflex) or a mirrorless camera,

00:37:39.420 --> 00:37:42.300
with a nice lens, we can get good shots.

00:37:43.200 --> 00:37:46.800
And we can look at how many fish are in that
bill load.

00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:50.640
This is actually a bird from Alaska, which
I took this past summer.

00:37:50.640 --> 00:37:53.040
Here's a bird on Destruction Island.

00:37:53.040 --> 00:37:56.520
Sometimes they're carrying lots of fish, sometimes
only bringing back one fish.

00:37:57.420 --> 00:38:01.320
Sometimes they have embryonic fish or larval
fish like you see here.

00:38:01.320 --> 00:38:02.880
You can see how you can see through the fish?

00:38:03.660 --> 00:38:04.920
These are very young fish.

00:38:05.580 --> 00:38:10.620
And as a result, usually we can't tell what
species they are. And then we can analyze

00:38:10.620 --> 00:38:11.100
those pictures.

00:38:11.100 --> 00:38:16.200
And we can also look at the length of the
fish relative to the bill size to determine

00:38:16.200 --> 00:38:18.300
how long those fish probably are.

00:38:19.020 --> 00:38:21.120
And so, we can look at the composition of 

00:38:21.120 --> 00:38:24.180
that food that they're 
bringing back. Is it flatfish?

00:38:24.180 --> 00:38:26.160
Is it herring? Is it sandlance?

00:38:26.160 --> 00:38:27.240
Squid? Is it smelt?

00:38:27.240 --> 00:38:30.120
Larval fish or other things 
that we can't identify?

00:38:31.140 --> 00:38:34.320
We can look at the average fish length.

00:38:35.160 --> 00:38:39.060
Remember comparing that to the bill length,
when we know what the average width

00:38:39.060 --> 00:38:45.120
and average length of the of the bill is. We
can also look at the number of fish per bill load.

00:38:45.120 --> 00:38:47.460
and how that changes, in each year.

00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:54.840
Then, we also do research in partnership,
as I mentioned, and sometimes we're just providing

00:38:54.840 --> 00:38:56.340
samples to others.

00:38:56.340 --> 00:39:01.320
So, right now, Teresa Berg at the University
of Lethbridge in Canada has been collecting

00:39:01.320 --> 00:39:02.460
samples throughout the range.

00:39:02.460 --> 00:39:05.040
And so, we've all been working with her to 

00:39:05.040 --> 00:39:07.980
determine whether or not 
there's genetic structure,

00:39:07.980 --> 00:39:10.320
determine whether there 
are distinct subpopulations 

00:39:10.320 --> 00:39:13.200
and how much gene flow exist amongst them.

00:39:13.200 --> 00:39:19.680
So, are individuals moving from the California
current to the Alaska current, for example?

00:39:20.340 --> 00:39:22.320
So, she'll be answering those kinds of questions.

00:39:22.980 --> 00:39:29.040
And to date, we've provided her with over
580 samples from 15 sites, and she using three

00:39:29.040 --> 00:39:33.960
different techniques to look at the genetic
structure question using mitochondrial DNA,

00:39:33.960 --> 00:39:36.300
all the way up to whole genome sequencing.

00:39:36.300 --> 00:39:42.300
So now, just a minute to discuss conservation
status of the puffin, and then I'll close

00:39:42.300 --> 00:39:49.860
out. So years ago, I was asked, should we list
the Tufted puffins under the state's Endangered

00:39:49.860 --> 00:39:50.460
Species Act?

00:39:51.600 --> 00:39:52.920
We happen to have one in Washington.

00:39:52.920 --> 00:39:54.300
Some states have one.

00:39:54.300 --> 00:39:55.260
Some states don't.

00:39:55.260 --> 00:39:55.800
We do.

00:39:56.940 --> 00:40:00.000
And I said, Well, we don't really have any
good quantitative information.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:02.520
And I said, why don't we go out and assess
its status?

00:40:03.600 --> 00:40:08.040
The first thing we did is we revisited all
the historically occupied sites and sites

00:40:08.040 --> 00:40:12.360
that could potentially have habitat for Tufted
puffins.

00:40:13.860 --> 00:40:18.300
And there was good, some good historical
data, particularly from the refuges.

00:40:18.900 --> 00:40:21.240
And so, we could go back and revisit those
sites.

00:40:21.240 --> 00:40:24.540
And we did repeated visits to those sites
over a couple of years.

00:40:25.380 --> 00:40:30.240
And we found that we, I was worried that if
it was just a few puffins on a on a rock,

00:40:30.240 --> 00:40:31.140
would we miss them?

00:40:31.140 --> 00:40:33.780
And fortunately, we have a very high detection
rate.

00:40:34.440 --> 00:40:38.880
And what we found was essentially all of the
puffins were lost from the Salish Sea.

00:40:38.880 --> 00:40:43.320
A similar work has occurred up in British
Columbia, and so that we know there are no

00:40:43.320 --> 00:40:46.680
other active colonies on the British Columbia
side of the Salish Sea.

00:40:47.220 --> 00:40:52.920
The last two remaining in the Salish Sea are
Smith Island and Protection. And right now

00:40:52.920 --> 00:40:55.080
on Protection, we only have a couple of pairs
left.

00:40:55.080 --> 00:40:59.460
So, we're down to the last few in the Salish Sea.

00:40:59.460 --> 00:41:04.860
Smith, fortunately, has more. And then on
the outer coast, we've lost nearly half of

00:41:04.860 --> 00:41:05.760
them out there, as well.

00:41:06.420 --> 00:41:10.020
So we've lost majority of 
the of the colonies in the 

00:41:10.020 --> 00:41:12.540
inner marine waters lost nearly half on the

00:41:12.540 --> 00:41:13.020
outer coast.

00:41:14.700 --> 00:41:19.500
How are they doing throughout the entire range,
was the next question. And I was contracted

00:41:19.500 --> 00:41:20.640
to look at that question.

00:41:20.640 --> 00:41:28.320
And I assembled 11 datasets, both colony data,
as well as at sea data, that expanded 112

00:41:28.320 --> 00:41:32.400
years of information, going all the way from
the tip of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska,

00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:35.040
all the way down to the Farallon Islands in
California.

00:41:36.540 --> 00:41:40.080
And our results: we found in the California
Current

00:41:40.080 --> 00:41:45.180
(So that's, you know, Oregon, Washington, and
California, going up into the southern BC)

00:41:45.780 --> 00:41:49.440
Found populations look like this, where they're
just going down over time.

00:41:50.100 --> 00:41:54.480
And Washington population, which we see in
this image, has gone from tens of thousands

00:41:54.480 --> 00:41:56.460
of birds, have just a few thousand remaining.

00:41:56.460 --> 00:42:01.080
So, not only are we lost the majority of our
colonies or about half of them.

00:42:01.080 --> 00:42:05.460
We've also lost a very large portion of our 

00:42:05.460 --> 00:42:09.000
population. And in Oregon it's 
even more dramatic, the decline

00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:12.480
based on some work that Sean Stephenson has
been doing down there.

00:42:14.520 --> 00:42:21.330
So, how about to the north? In British Columbia,
all the way through the Gulf of Alaska, appears

00:42:21.330 --> 00:42:23.280
that those colonies are also declining.

00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:25.260
And there are a lot of birds in the Gulf of
Alaska.

00:42:25.260 --> 00:42:29.400
So, the evidence suggests they're declining.
And more recent analyses that were just

00:42:29.400 --> 00:42:30.900
done by some other partners;

00:42:30.900 --> 00:42:34.380
Actually, with USGS and NOAA, suggests even more 

00:42:34.380 --> 00:42:36.960
dramatic declines in the 
Gulf of Alaska than I found.

00:42:38.520 --> 00:42:43.140
So, all of this is pointing to large decline
throughout the vast majority of the range.

00:42:43.140 --> 00:42:46.980
So now, we're stuck with sort of the Aleutian
Islands in areas to the north.  

00:42:47.880 --> 00:42:49.140
And fortunately, in the

00:42:49.140 --> 00:42:49.980
Aleutian Islands,

00:42:49.980 --> 00:42:55.500
three of these colonies were stable and,
sorry, were increasing the smaller one.

00:42:55.500 --> 00:42:57.960
And the biggest one in the world was stable.

00:42:58.620 --> 00:43:04.500
So, fortunately, those sort in the core of
the population appear to be doing OK.

00:43:06.720 --> 00:43:10.740
And we realized, as we did this work that
we wanted to be able to determine the status

00:43:10.740 --> 00:43:15.900
of the species, and not have to sort of cobbled
together all these different datasets.

00:43:15.900 --> 00:43:21.360
And so right now, we're working on developing
a range-wide monitoring strategy for the Tufted

00:43:21.360 --> 00:43:25.200
puffins all the way from California, all the
way up to Alaska.

00:43:26.040 --> 00:43:30.600
And what happened was we ended up with some
funding from US Fish and Wildlife Service,

00:43:30.600 --> 00:43:36.300
and that went to the University of Washington.
We ended out working with Sara Converse in her

00:43:36.300 --> 00:43:36.540
lab.

00:43:36.540 --> 00:43:42.420
And ended up hiring Lisanne Petracca as a postdoc

00:43:42.420 --> 00:43:43.500
who started this work.

00:43:43.500 --> 00:43:48.360
And fortunately, for her, unfortunately, for
us, she was hired away as a faculty member

00:43:48.360 --> 00:43:49.260
in Texas.

00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:54.960
But we now have another postdoc working
on this, and we will continue this work. And

00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:59.400
our goal is to identify and evaluate possible
range-wide monitoring strategies based on

00:43:59.400 --> 00:44:00.660
performance and cost.

00:44:01.200 --> 00:44:06.060
And this past year, and the Aleutian Islands,
you can see us here looking at different frames

00:44:06.060 --> 00:44:11.340
and different monitoring strategies to try
to get insights and how we might do that work.

00:44:13.320 --> 00:44:19.620
So, once we end up with some range-wide strategy
or monitoring will end up with better data

00:44:19.620 --> 00:44:23.340
on how they're doing. Well, in Washington,
we knew they were doing badly.

00:44:23.340 --> 00:44:25.320
We ended up listing them as endangered.

00:44:25.320 --> 00:44:31.260
We did that, I think, back in 2015 and that
that listing package is available on our website

00:44:31.260 --> 00:44:34.320
and I think it's being provided to you, that
link.

00:44:35.280 --> 00:44:40.740
Then, we also came up with a statewide recovery
plan for the Tufted puffin, which you see

00:44:40.740 --> 00:44:40.980
here.

00:44:41.580 --> 00:44:43.860
And it also did a periodic status review.

00:44:43.860 --> 00:44:46.140
So, how is it doing since we listed it?

00:44:47.040 --> 00:44:48.900
And this was a really interesting project, 

00:44:48.900 --> 00:44:52.620
because it was our first 
public private partnership

00:44:52.620 --> 00:44:54.420
where we worked with the SeaDoc Society.

00:44:55.020 --> 00:45:00.600
And Thor Hanson was hired by Joe Gaydos at
the SeaDoc Society, and he ended up working with

00:45:00.600 --> 00:45:01.860
us to write this document.

00:45:01.860 --> 00:45:03.660
So, it ended up working out really well.

00:45:03.660 --> 00:45:05.100
It was a great partnership.

00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:09.960
And through that process, we looked at what 

00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:12.360
are the factors input 
affecting puffin populations.

00:45:12.360 --> 00:45:17.760
And we found that climate change appears to
be the biggie and the associated effects of

00:45:17.760 --> 00:45:19.860
climate change - warming 
up the ocean and affecting 

00:45:19.860 --> 00:45:21.120
the food availability.

00:45:22.140 --> 00:45:23.700
And there are other factors as well.

00:45:23.700 --> 00:45:29.280
And that can be things such as predation from
other birds, like bald eagles and owls on

00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:29.820
island.

00:45:29.820 --> 00:45:32.880
Human disturbance is a biggie, particularly
the inner marine water.

00:45:32.880 --> 00:45:37.260
Introduced plants and animals like the rabbit
I talked about a minute ago, and I'll talk

00:45:37.260 --> 00:45:38.100
more about in a second.

00:45:38.100 --> 00:45:43.380
We're also concerned about chemical contamination.
Some work that I've done that we've done with

00:45:43.380 --> 00:45:48.720
Tom Good at NOAA suggests that our puffins:
Rhinoceros auklets and Tufted puffins are

00:45:48.720 --> 00:45:50.940
experiencing high contaminant loads.

00:45:50.940 --> 00:45:57.000
And actually, a carcass that we found of a
Tufted puffin and a paper we published, indicates

00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:01.380
that it's probably one of the most contaminated
animals in the region - actually more contaminated

00:46:01.380 --> 00:46:02.460
than the killer whales.

00:46:04.740 --> 00:46:11.820
So, as I mentioned though, the of thing that
we're most worried about though is climate

00:46:11.820 --> 00:46:16.320
change. And climate change and associated change
and sea surface temperature is a biggie.

00:46:17.220 --> 00:46:19.920
This is a really complex graph is put together
by COASST.

00:46:19.920 --> 00:46:22.500
COASST is a non-profit organization based 

00:46:22.500 --> 00:46:24.420
out of the University of 
Washington and spearheaded

00:46:24.420 --> 00:46:25.800
by Julia Parrish.

00:46:25.800 --> 00:46:31.680
And they've been, for many decades, tracking
the number of dead birds on beaches;

00:46:31.680 --> 00:46:35.460
all the way from California, working with
partners all the way through British Columbia,

00:46:35.460 --> 00:46:40.020
(different partners there) all the way up
to tribal partners up into in Alaska.

00:46:41.220 --> 00:46:47.820
And what we can do is look at how, how, how
has that mortality in certain years compared

00:46:47.820 --> 00:46:48.420
to other years?

00:46:48.420 --> 00:46:53.460
And these unusual events, sharp is unusual
mortality, we see a lot of mortality compared

00:46:53.460 --> 00:46:56.700
to normal and that's what these bubbles show
on this timeline.

00:46:56.700 --> 00:47:02.640
So, we're going from 2006 to 2020 and the
bigger bubbles indicate more death on the

00:47:02.640 --> 00:47:09.360
beach and more dead birds. And then, if you
notice, a lot of this mortality is occurring

00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:11.160
when we see red in these bars below.

00:47:11.160 --> 00:47:14.880
And these bars below indicate when the sea
surface temperature is warm

00:47:14.880 --> 00:47:19.380
in these various locations from the 
Chukchi Sea all the way down to California.

00:47:20.460 --> 00:47:26.100
And so, there is a strong relationship, a
correlation between the warming of the ocean

00:47:26.100 --> 00:47:33.000
and these mortality events. And some of
these events have resulted in killing of millions

00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:33.540
of birds.

00:47:34.800 --> 00:47:40.200
And I should also point out that the vast,
a high percent of these mortality events have

00:47:40.200 --> 00:47:41.500
involved birds and the Alcidae,  

00:47:42.240 --> 00:47:44.280
the Alcid family, which
includes puffins.

00:47:44.280 --> 00:47:47.700
So, you see the Rhino here, the Tufted puffins, 

00:47:47.700 --> 00:47:52.140
the Cassin's auklet, Common murre, Common 
murre, Tufted puffin, Rhinoceros auklet,

00:47:52.140 --> 00:47:56.340
Common murre. You see them appearing throughout
this slide.

00:47:58.260 --> 00:48:02.640
So, what can we do to try to help them?
We, we developed a bunch of recovery priorities

00:48:02.640 --> 00:48:03.180
locally.

00:48:05.340 --> 00:48:10.080
OK, well, monitoring populations doesn't
really tell us, doesn't help recovery, but

00:48:10.080 --> 00:48:14.400
it helps us understand if we're making progress
or if any of our actions are helping.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:16.920
So, that becomes an important priority.

00:48:16.920 --> 00:48:22.140
We want to maintain and have enhanced population,
and we want to re-establish colonies, if we

00:48:22.140 --> 00:48:22.320
can.

00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:25.680
We want to make sure it's enough prey for
the species, if we can.

00:48:25.680 --> 00:48:30.820
We want to reduce threats and disturbance
to the islands, et cetera.

00:48:32.820 --> 00:48:37.620
And I'm just gonna talk about a couple of
these goals.

00:48:37.620 --> 00:48:42.510
And the first one I'll talk about is assessing
and managing invasive non-native species at

00:48:42.510 --> 00:48:46.560
Tufted Puffins nesting colonies.
And the one of the species we're very concerned

00:48:46.560 --> 00:48:48.060
about it than non-native Rabbit.

00:48:48.780 --> 00:48:50.880
This is a European Rabbit or European hare.

00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:54.990
It was introduced by lighthouse keepers and
it was introduced to Destruction Island in

00:48:54.990 --> 00:48:56.760
the late sixties/early seventies.

00:48:57.480 --> 00:49:02.220
And it's persisted since. And rabbits are
really good at reproducing as we all know,

00:49:02.220 --> 00:49:04.680
well, some are, we actually

00:49:04.680 --> 00:49:05.940
have endangered rabbits in Washington.

00:49:07.200 --> 00:49:09.600
But the European hare, it seems to be doing
just fine on Destruction.

00:49:10.380 --> 00:49:14.340
And one thing it's doing, Destruction as I
mentioned, is found off shore on the outer

00:49:14.340 --> 00:49:15.000
coast of Washington.

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:20.220
Remember, it's about two miles off the Hoh
River, had a former lighthouse on it, and

00:49:20.220 --> 00:49:22.740
lighthouse keepers and houses on it.

00:49:22.740 --> 00:49:27.840
And that's when the rabbits were introduced.
And the rabbits change the environment. And

00:49:27.840 --> 00:49:33.300
also having people bring in different kinds
of plants also influenced the environment.

00:49:33.300 --> 00:49:37.440
And what happened was the rabbits started
grazing the grasses.

00:49:38.280 --> 00:49:40.020
And also, they introduced

00:49:40.560 --> 00:49:45.420
annual grasses ended up replacing the perennial
grasses. Imagine perennial grasses are deep

00:49:45.420 --> 00:49:50.340
rooted, and they hold the soil all winter
long with those big storms.

00:49:50.340 --> 00:49:52.140
Now you move to annual grasses.

00:49:52.140 --> 00:49:53.340
They die in the fall.

00:49:53.340 --> 00:49:57.420
They brown up, very shallow 
rooted, they essentially 

00:49:57.420 --> 00:50:00.000
go away in the winter and that's when the

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:01.380
storms hit the coast.

00:50:01.380 --> 00:50:06.240
And we see this tremendous erosion occurring
on Destruction as a result of this grazing

00:50:06.240 --> 00:50:07.080
from the rabbits.

00:50:07.860 --> 00:50:13.140
We're losing a lot of burrows for Tufted puffins
and for Rhinoceros auklets.

00:50:13.140 --> 00:50:16.200
I've seen many tens of them being washed into
the ocean.

00:50:17.640 --> 00:50:20.100
And so, this is the culprit, the European
hare.

00:50:21.000 --> 00:50:29.580
And in addition, this rabbit is very different
from our rabbits on that are native on the

00:50:29.580 --> 00:50:29.760
coast.

00:50:30.480 --> 00:50:36.240
It developed, it digs warrens or burrows, so
it goes into the holes in the ground.

00:50:36.240 --> 00:50:39.660
Those holes would have been used by things 

00:50:39.660 --> 00:50:42.420
like Rhinoceros auklets and 
Tufted puffins. It changes

00:50:42.420 --> 00:50:46.500
the shape, widens them, makes them no longer
suitable for Tufted puffins.

00:50:47.220 --> 00:50:52.920
And based on work done in other places in
Chile on Pink-footed shearwaters, on Atlantic

00:50:52.920 --> 00:50:57.600
puffins in Europe founding, we found that
removing the rabbits has a really positive

00:50:57.600 --> 00:51:01.980
effect on the population and they seem to
rebound after that removal of the rabbits.

00:51:01.980 --> 00:51:07.380
And you can see in this ex-closure down in
the bottom on a very large island in Australia,

00:51:07.380 --> 00:51:12.780
where they're removed many, many thousands
of rabbits very successively successfully.

00:51:13.380 --> 00:51:15.060
And you can see the ex-closure here.

00:51:15.060 --> 00:51:19.020
So, you're excluding the rabbits in the in
the grassy area.

00:51:19.020 --> 00:51:23.220
And you can see what the vegetation would
look like in the absence of rabbits.

00:51:23.220 --> 00:51:26.400
You can see they just have a profound effect
on the environment.

00:51:28.080 --> 00:51:33.060
And in Washington, we actually removed rabbits
from an island: on Smith Island.

00:51:33.060 --> 00:51:39.840
I happened to find this article, was published
in 1925, and of all places was in the Miami

00:51:39.840 --> 00:51:41.760
Daily News, where I found it.

00:51:42.480 --> 00:51:47.640
And it's talking about the use of strychnine
gas to kill rabbits on Smith Island.

00:51:47.640 --> 00:51:52.800
And the reason they killed the rabbits on
Smith Island was because the rabbits were

00:51:52.800 --> 00:51:57.600
undermining the lighthouse. So it was not out of
necessarily concern about rabbit effect on

00:51:57.600 --> 00:51:58.440
other animals,

00:51:58.440 --> 00:52:01.620
but out of concern about what it was doing
to the lighthouse.

00:52:02.220 --> 00:52:03.720
They were successful. Today,

00:52:03.720 --> 00:52:05.160
there are no rabbits on that island.

00:52:06.360 --> 00:52:11.820
And groups like Island Conservation can be
very successful, and they do have been very

00:52:11.820 --> 00:52:18.480
successful in places throughout Asia, and
south and places, like working in places to

00:52:18.480 --> 00:52:18.840
the south.

00:52:18.840 --> 00:52:24.240
And also, the refuges in Alaska have been
very successful in removing their islands, there.

00:52:24.900 --> 00:52:29.820
So, the other thing we can do to try to help
puffins, is experiment with the use of social

00:52:29.820 --> 00:52:30.300
attraction.

00:52:30.300 --> 00:52:35.520
And bringing puffins backed islands that they
may not be on, or are trying to encourage

00:52:35.520 --> 00:52:36.300
them to nest.

00:52:37.080 --> 00:52:43.080
And that this was a very successful project,
it was started many years ago by Stephen

00:52:43.080 --> 00:52:47.640
Cress. And it was called "Project Puffin"
off the coast of Maine.

00:52:48.480 --> 00:52:51.720
And they had lost their puffins from their
island.

00:52:52.320 --> 00:52:55.020
And they ended up doing some predator management.

00:52:55.020 --> 00:52:59.040
And after they did the predator management
they brought in decoys and created artificial

00:52:59.040 --> 00:52:59.580
burrows.

00:53:00.120 --> 00:53:03.300
And sure enough, they were able to bring puffins
back to their islands.

00:53:03.300 --> 00:53:07.140
And so, we're going to experiment with similar
decoys and artificial burrows this coming

00:53:07.140 --> 00:53:12.900
season just to see if they respond to the
decoys like the Atlantic puffin did.

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:16.740
So, I've been jabbering on for quite a while.

00:53:16.740 --> 00:53:22.620
I'm going to stop and give you all 
some opportunities to ask me questions.

00:53:23.880 --> 00:53:25.540
Thank you. [Rachele]  

00:53:30.660 --> 00:53:31.560
Thank you Scott.

00:53:31.560 --> 00:53:35.880
I'm gonna jump in really quick with a
couple easy questions.

00:53:38.580 --> 00:53:44.120
Lily is asking if puffins 
are sexually mono-morphic.

00:53:44.120 --> 00:53:48.780
[Scott] They are by physical appearance.

00:53:48.780 --> 00:53:55.080
But if you actually weigh and measure them,
the males are larger.

00:53:56.460 --> 00:54:01.500
You know, some birds, females are larger,
like birds of prey. In seabirds,

00:54:02.040 --> 00:54:04.200
lots of sometimes the males are larger.

00:54:04.200 --> 00:54:10.170
Puffins are, the males are a fair amount larger,
but there hasn't been a lot of work done on

00:54:10.170 --> 00:54:11.640
Tufted puffins in terms of

00:54:11.640 --> 00:54:14.160
the sex differences in size.

00:54:14.160 --> 00:54:19.500
So usually, the beak tends to be bigger, and
the weight tends to be greater on the males.

00:54:19.500 --> 00:54:24.240
And we certainly find that and Rhinoceros
auklets, where we've done genetic testing

00:54:24.240 --> 00:54:26.220
on sex because you can't tell by looking at
them.

00:54:27.660 --> 00:54:32.280
And then we also did measurements and weighed
them, and we find that the males in general

00:54:32.280 --> 00:54:33.600
are bigger than the females.

00:54:33.600 --> 00:54:38.460
But there's some overlap in the middle where
some individual, you couldn't really say whether

00:54:38.460 --> 00:54:42.660
they're male or female based on either measuring
the beak size or by weight.

00:54:42.660 --> 00:54:46.740
[Chris] Oh, interesting.

00:54:49.560 --> 00:54:51.000
Somewhat similar question,

00:54:51.780 --> 00:54:53.520
did you say that they are monogamous?

00:54:54.080 --> 00:55:00.240
[Scott] They are, and they 
appear to maintain their 

00:55:00.240 --> 00:55:00.900
social mate.

00:55:01.860 --> 00:55:07.980
And the reason we know that is, for most of
these puffins, if you mark individuals

00:55:07.980 --> 00:55:14.700
and for example, up in Alaska, Katie and
her PhD project, she put these units, which

00:55:14.700 --> 00:55:19.200
measured daylight on the bands on the leg
of the Tufted puffins there in the Gulf of

00:55:19.200 --> 00:55:19.440
Alaska.

00:55:20.460 --> 00:55:25.260
Those go out and record information out at
sea.

00:55:25.260 --> 00:55:27.060
And then they come back next season.

00:55:27.060 --> 00:55:32.700
And you capture them those birds in the exact
same borrow, or where they were previously, and

00:55:32.700 --> 00:55:37.200
usually both individuals, the male and the
female, are returning to the exact same burrow.

00:55:37.200 --> 00:55:41.640
And we found that with Rhinoceros auklet
on Protection Island, we've done the same

00:55:41.640 --> 00:55:42.120
thing there.

00:55:42.120 --> 00:55:46.080
We find the males and females are coming back
to the exact same burrow they were in the

00:55:46.080 --> 00:55:46.500
previous year.

00:55:47.160 --> 00:55:52.800
So, appears that mate bond is formed around
the burrow, like many burrow nesting seabirds.

00:55:52.800 --> 00:55:56.280
They split up in the winter, but they come
back for during the breeding season.

00:55:56.940 --> 00:56:00.660
Some other alcids, like Marbled murrelet,
which I spent a lot of time working

00:56:00.660 --> 00:56:06.180
on, they seem to maintain that pair bond
year-round. You find them as pairs throughout

00:56:06.180 --> 00:56:06.540
the year.

00:56:07.560 --> 00:56:10.500
So, it's a little bit different in that, but
they're are more inland.

00:56:11.580 --> 00:56:14.340
They're usually in protected waters during
the winter.

00:56:14.340 --> 00:56:17.520
The Tufted puffin lives out in the ocean.

00:56:17.520 --> 00:56:19.860
It might be hard to stay together out there.

00:56:21.740 --> 00:56:22.740
[Rachele]  

00:56:22.740 --> 00:56:29.940
Thank you, when you were talking about the
intricate burrows system, with lots of branches

00:56:29.940 --> 00:56:33.360
and forks, does only one pair inhabit that
burrow?

00:56:33.360 --> 00:56:35.040
[Scott] Really good question.

00:56:35.760 --> 00:56:36.420
Yes.

00:56:36.420 --> 00:56:40.800
The one exception is where you have a really
large in large entrance.

00:56:40.800 --> 00:56:46.920
So, like what you saw behind that rabbit,
that one image, it was a big, big hole, and

00:56:46.920 --> 00:56:47.940
that's where it's eroded

00:56:47.940 --> 00:56:49.980
or come off the front.

00:56:49.980 --> 00:56:55.560
And sometimes by that erosion, it brings two
burrows that were separate together, and usually

00:56:55.560 --> 00:56:58.380
there is a tunnel going this way and a tunnel
going that way.

00:56:58.380 --> 00:56:59.880
Nothing going straight back.

00:56:59.880 --> 00:57:03.960
And so, this one might be occupied in the
left and the right would be occupied.

00:57:05.040 --> 00:57:11.400
But in general, if there's a single burrow
going in, we don't find another puffin inside

00:57:11.400 --> 00:57:12.000
that burrow.

00:57:12.840 --> 00:57:18.600
The exception to that is if we're on islands on
the outer coast where you have a big burrow,

00:57:18.600 --> 00:57:20.400
that's a Tufted puffins burrow.

00:57:21.780 --> 00:57:25.560
And so, in the back, there'll be a Tufted
Puffins, but off to the side might be a little

00:57:25.560 --> 00:57:29.520
chamber, and that small little chamber can
have a Storm petrol in it.

00:57:29.520 --> 00:57:34.740
So, we do find other species sometimes in
the same burrow with the Tufted puffins.

00:57:34.740 --> 00:57:39.960
So, if it's a big burrow with a very small
little chamber off to the side, you might

00:57:39.960 --> 00:57:45.360
find something like a Storm petrel. That's
rare, I don't see that very often.

00:57:45.960 --> 00:57:47.160
But it does happen occasionally.

00:57:50.780 --> 00:57:53.113
[Chris] That's really cool [chuckles].

00:57:53.113 --> 00:57:53.880
[Scott] Yeah.

00:57:55.500 --> 00:57:58.320
[Chris] So, we have another question asking,  

00:57:59.580 --> 00:58:03.600
Are the
samples blood draws or individuals collected

00:58:03.600 --> 00:58:06.240
when you're to do this

00:58:06.240 --> 00:58:08.580
genomics?

00:58:08.580 --> 00:58:13.140
[Scott] Yeah, they came in all 
different flavors [chuckles].

00:58:13.140 --> 00:58:19.380
So, we tried fecal samples. So that just grab/
going to the mouth of the burrow and getting

00:58:19.380 --> 00:58:20.520
fresh fecal samples.

00:58:22.200 --> 00:58:28.080
We have done that. That, that very few
of the samples that she has are fecal samples.

00:58:29.160 --> 00:58:35.520
Did a lot of egg shell collection, so, when
the egg hatches, they'll push out that egg

00:58:36.240 --> 00:58:39.360
and usually we can get enough genetic information
on the eggshell.

00:58:40.620 --> 00:58:44.160
The other way we've done is blood draws when
we're, when we're actually doing captures

00:58:44.160 --> 00:58:45.060
for another reason.

00:58:46.200 --> 00:58:52.980
Then if we find any individuals that die on
the colony, then we'll actually use that dead

00:58:52.980 --> 00:58:58.740
carcass. Then sometimes we'll get individuals
that might go into rehab, that are caught locally.

00:58:58.740 --> 00:59:02.160
And we might grab a blood sample from that
individual.

00:59:02.940 --> 00:59:07.320
So, they came in a variety of different flavors,
if you will.

00:59:07.320 --> 00:59:09.420
There were mostly blood samples,  

00:59:10.380 --> 00:59:12.600
but also well, a fair
number more eggs as well.

00:59:14.640 --> 00:59:16.140
But not collecting a whole egg.

00:59:16.140 --> 00:59:18.240
So, these are eggs that hatch the chicks inside.

00:59:18.240 --> 00:59:20.040
The egg shells get expelled.

00:59:20.040 --> 00:59:22.140
We're collecting those egg shell.

00:59:28.260 --> 00:59:34.020
One other thing about the genetic study, we
Tom, just, at NOAA working with us

00:59:34.620 --> 00:59:39.540
has just done some genetic work on the fecal
samples to try to reconstruct diet, and we're

00:59:39.540 --> 00:59:40.620
finding it's working pretty well.

00:59:40.620 --> 00:59:46.650
We're using fecal information to say, OK, what
the DNA of its prey should end out in its

00:59:46.650 --> 00:59:50.820
feces.
And it does, we've been doing that for a lot

00:59:50.820 --> 00:59:54.180
of years, for a number of 
years now, for pinnipeds; 

00:59:54.180 --> 00:59:56.220
seals and sea lions to reconstruct their diet,

00:59:56.220 --> 00:59:59.040
we're now doing that more and more with birds.

01:00:00.360 --> 01:00:03.540
Um, so we get that genetic information from
the fecal sample.

01:00:03.540 --> 01:00:08.520
And that also, not only does it contain the
genetic information of the bird that pooped

01:00:08.520 --> 01:00:14.760
it, had, that produced the poop, I should say,
but it also provides information on frequency

01:00:14.760 --> 01:00:18.000
of occurrence of different prey items in that
feces.

01:00:23.940 --> 01:00:28.500
[Chris] Are there any 
theories as to what's causing 

01:00:28.500 --> 01:00:30.900
the population declines in Washington/Oregon?

01:00:31.740 --> 01:00:37.440
And they made some suggestions that maybe,
is it more climate change, or more development,

01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:38.760
or something else?

01:00:39.740 --> 01:00:42.660
[Scott] It might be a mixture of different things.

01:00:43.620 --> 01:00:48.240
Climate change is definitely, we see a strong
signal in terms of its potential effects on,

01:00:48.240 --> 01:00:53.760
on puffins and all the alcids.
That's definitely a strong fact factor.

01:00:53.760 --> 01:00:57.540
And you're down in Washington, we're essentially
in the southern end of its range.

01:00:58.680 --> 01:01:02.040
So, it's likely to be more affected there,
but we're seeing those effects all the way

01:01:02.040 --> 01:01:03.060
up through the Gulf of Alaska,

01:01:03.060 --> 01:01:04.860
which is pretty amazing.

01:01:05.880 --> 01:01:06.960
So that's one factor.

01:01:06.960 --> 01:01:09.780
Disturbance is definitely another, particularly
locally.

01:01:09.780 --> 01:01:15.120
My guess is, it would be very hard for Tufted
puffins to persist in place like the San Juan

01:01:15.120 --> 01:01:19.440
islands, with so many boats and so many people
around, would be a challenging place.

01:01:22.200 --> 01:01:26.100
So human activity, and particularly if
people go onto the island. We're finding more

01:01:26.100 --> 01:01:26.880
and more even though

01:01:26.880 --> 01:01:29.820
all of these refuge islands are off limits,
that people,

01:01:29.820 --> 01:01:33.960
everybody wants to get on them because they're
the only people in the world on that island,

01:01:35.520 --> 01:01:36.660
which is a wonderful feeling,

01:01:36.660 --> 01:01:43.200
I will tell you that. And I take that privilege,
I don't take that privilege lightly.

01:01:43.800 --> 01:01:47.460
So, whenever we go onto the island, we're
trying to have as light of a footprint as

01:01:47.460 --> 01:01:48.180
we possibly can.

01:01:48.180 --> 01:01:53.760
We stay as short of a period as we can, and we
know how to do this in a way where we have

01:01:53.760 --> 01:01:54.660
very little impact.

01:01:56.940 --> 01:01:58.380
But other people arrive.

01:01:58.380 --> 01:02:02.040
For example, sea kayakers now on the outer
coast, have been stopping on Destruction.

01:02:02.040 --> 01:02:06.780
They set a fire off on the beach during the
middle of the breeding season.

01:02:06.780 --> 01:02:09.840
All of these birds are coming in at night,
and there's a fire there.

01:02:11.100 --> 01:02:16.440
And then also have been intentionally
set fires on Protection, two years ago. It appears

01:02:16.440 --> 01:02:21.570
there was an intentionally set fire there
and it burned right up through all of the Rhino

01:02:21.570 --> 01:02:26.640
A big part of the Rhinoceros auklet
colony and came within 10 meters of the Tufted

01:02:26.640 --> 01:02:28.380
puffins' burrow.

01:02:29.040 --> 01:02:32.820
So, these activities are not very helpful
for puffins.

01:02:34.020 --> 01:02:40.380
And then the other thing, I speculate again
when we don't know for sure, would be forage

01:02:40.380 --> 01:02:42.240
fish and the availability of forage fish.

01:02:42.240 --> 01:02:45.420
We see that that forage fish are key to so
many things.

01:02:45.420 --> 01:02:50.760
They are key to the salmon populations, they' re
key to ultimately to killer whales, and they're

01:02:50.760 --> 01:02:53.760
key to other things, like tufted puffins.

01:02:53.760 --> 01:03:00.240
So, the more we can do to protect the spawning
habitat and forage fish, the better off we're

01:03:00.240 --> 01:03:00.540
going to be.

01:03:07.160 --> 01:03:08.160
[Rachele]  

01:03:08.160 --> 01:03:17.460
Are you utilizing any Citizen science, when
you are talking about observations of puffins

01:03:17.460 --> 01:03:18.300
in Washington?

01:03:19.760 --> 01:03:22.260
[Scott] We currently are not.

01:03:23.340 --> 01:03:28.320
I mean, of course, the beach that the COASST
program, that survey

01:03:28.320 --> 01:03:31.740
that I showed you how that information can
help inform us.

01:03:31.740 --> 01:03:34.440
That is a citizen science-based project.

01:03:35.280 --> 01:03:40.440
The Islands themselves brings other people.
On the Islands we've mostly been working with

01:03:40.440 --> 01:03:45.420
students and so it becomes a nice place to
help train students and have them work with

01:03:45.420 --> 01:03:50.580
us, using undergraduates from University of
Puget Sound, working with graduates now at

01:03:50.580 --> 01:03:52.920
the University of Washington, and elsewhere.

01:03:54.480 --> 01:03:58.560
My priority is to bring students on those
islands if we're going to bring any extra

01:03:58.560 --> 01:03:58.920
people.

01:04:00.180 --> 01:04:00.300
Um.

01:04:00.840 --> 01:04:07.620
In Oregon, though, at Haystack rock, citizens
actually monitor that rock and monitor the

01:04:07.620 --> 01:04:07.860
population.

01:04:08.700 --> 01:04:13.680
And so, because that rock is just off the
beach and you can look at it from shore,

01:04:13.680 --> 01:04:19.620
they've been monitoring the population based
on just having volunteers working for the

01:04:19.620 --> 01:04:20.280
Refuge system.

01:04:20.280 --> 01:04:27.900
And in addition, there's been a Master's project
with Rachel Orbin there.

01:04:27.900 --> 01:04:30.120
And with Sean Stephenson.

01:04:31.020 --> 01:04:36.060
The two of them, working with the graduate student
looking at using again, photographs like we're

01:04:36.060 --> 01:04:40.800
doing in Washington. Where people who are good
at taking pictures are taking pictures of

01:04:40.800 --> 01:04:45.120
birds flying in and we get more information
on diet at that point.

01:04:45.120 --> 01:04:47.520
That's another way of using citizen science.

01:04:47.520 --> 01:04:52.440
[Chris] So, given the puffins considerable use of
water in the North Pacific Ocean,  

01:04:52.440 --> 01:04:53.520
do you think there

01:04:53.520 --> 01:04:59.880
is recent news about new protections for high
seas might benefit tufted populations?

01:05:02.940 --> 01:05:06.600
[Scott] The high sea fisheries, I assume that's
what they're referring to?

01:05:08.520 --> 01:05:11.760
In general, don't seem to have a lot of
bycatch.

01:05:11.760 --> 01:05:22.320
I sit on the Alaska Longline Groundfish Fishery
Advisory Group and go up to Juno regularly

01:05:22.320 --> 01:05:25.080
for meetings and look at the bycatch data.

01:05:25.080 --> 01:05:29.940
And in general, we're seeing though, that fishery
terms of bycatch -

01:05:29.940 --> 01:05:35.280
(So, when we're talking about bycatch or you're
incidentally catching species, unintended

01:05:35.280 --> 01:05:39.120
targets, and sea birds can be a problem.)

01:05:39.120 --> 01:05:43.980
but really, the problem there, tends to be
mostly what we call our Tube noses.

01:05:43.980 --> 01:05:52.740
So, that tends to be your shearwaters and
your albatrosses., The Japanese gill net

01:05:52.740 --> 01:05:58.980
fishery, which was a high net high seas gill
net fishery, was horrible for puffins.

01:05:58.980 --> 01:06:01.500
It's literally killing thousands of puffins 

01:06:01.500 --> 01:06:05.460
per year, many thousands of 
puffins per year, Tufted puffins.

01:06:05.460 --> 01:06:13.560
And fortunately, that fishery was banned,
I think back in the 1980s / early 1990s as

01:06:13.560 --> 01:06:14.160
I recall.

01:06:14.820 --> 01:06:16.740
And so that's no longer a threat.

01:06:18.300 --> 01:06:27.519
So right now, I don't see any warning signs
that the fishery, the offshore fishery is

01:06:27.519 --> 01:06:27.531
the problem.

01:06:27.531 --> 01:06:29.220
At least based on the data I've looked at so far.

01:06:29.220 --> 01:06:30.360
[Rachele] Thank you.

01:06:32.100 --> 01:06:35.040
For our last little batch of questions.

01:06:35.040 --> 01:06:39.720
We had a number come in about cheiks.

01:06:40.620 --> 01:06:46.380
First is: How old is a puffin before it
starts laying eggs?

01:06:46.380 --> 01:06:53.700
And then, what do we know about life in the
burrow and do the adults take them out

01:06:53.700 --> 01:06:54.540
to sea with them?

01:06:55.700 --> 01:06:57.480
[Scott] Good question.

01:06:59.760 --> 01:07:00.120
Lot there.

01:07:00.120 --> 01:07:01.800
So, the starting with

01:07:04.260 --> 01:07:08.460
so, the question was, how many, sorry.

01:07:08.460 --> 01:07:10.080
What was the length of time, sorry?

01:07:10.080 --> 01:07:13.320
Could you repeat the first part of it?

01:07:13.320 --> 01:07:14.880
[Rachele] When puffin can/  

01:07:15.420 --> 01:07:21.240
is mature to lay eggs and then,
what is life like in the

01:07:21.240 --> 01:07:21.690
burrow?

01:07:21.690 --> 01:07:22.440
[Scott] Yeah.

01:07:22.440 --> 01:07:22.800
Yeah.

01:07:24.240 --> 01:07:26.040
Good question: What's life like in the burrow?

01:07:27.900 --> 01:07:32.640
So, the we think that most puffins reach

01:07:32.640 --> 01:07:37.800
actual maturity are where they come back
to the colony and look, like this puffin here.

01:07:38.460 --> 01:07:39.960
When they're about 3 to 4 years of age.

01:07:39.960 --> 01:07:42.060
at first season, they may not actually reproduce.

01:07:42.060 --> 01:07:47.040
They may do, like that pair I was talking
about, where they may see the pair bond form,

01:07:47.040 --> 01:07:51.780
and they may actually just go kind of through
the routine, but they may not actually reproduce.

01:07:51.780 --> 01:07:54.480
So, we think it's around 3 to 4 years of age.

01:07:54.480 --> 01:07:58.140
And then they start breeding annually, assuming
they are in shape to breed.

01:07:58.680 --> 01:08:02.820
And they can live, for as long as over 30
years in captivity.

01:08:03.660 --> 01:08:07.200
So, Point Defiance and the Seattle aquarium, 

01:08:07.200 --> 01:08:09.600
I think Seattle aquarium, 
had a Rhinoceros auklet that

01:08:09.600 --> 01:08:11.040
lived well into its thirties.

01:08:11.580 --> 01:08:19.140
So, they can live quite a while. Then,
thinking about life in the burrow, the adults

01:08:19.140 --> 01:08:22.800
arrive, and then they lay a single egg the
female will.

01:08:23.760 --> 01:08:27.840
And then, they take, turns, incubating that,
and that's they incubate that egg for over

01:08:27.840 --> 01:08:28.260
a month.

01:08:28.260 --> 01:08:31.500
And then, once that egg hatches, the chick comes
out,

01:08:31.500 --> 01:08:34.980
they then are feeding it for over a month.

01:08:34.980 --> 01:08:36.780
And so, they're provisioning it.

01:08:36.780 --> 01:08:41.520
Bringing multiple bill loads of fish during
the middle of the day, coming back with bill loads

01:08:41.520 --> 01:08:46.020
of fish. And we've seen as 
many as 4 or 5 deliveries 

01:08:46.020 --> 01:08:48.360
in a day to a single chick. And that chick

01:08:48.360 --> 01:08:49.620
must have been fat and happy.

01:08:51.480 --> 01:08:53.760
It ate a lot of fish [chuckles].

01:08:53.760 --> 01:08:55.380
I don't know.

01:08:55.380 --> 01:09:00.660
And then, in terms of life, in there, it's
dark. Because we're going in there with this

01:09:00.660 --> 01:09:01.260
burrow probe

01:09:01.260 --> 01:09:02.580
and it's fascinating you get in there.

01:09:03.120 --> 01:09:07.560
And some of the chicks are, I think they're
almost catatonic, because they're just in

01:09:07.560 --> 01:09:08.880
this food stupor.

01:09:10.140 --> 01:09:11.700
And so, they're just digesting and growing.

01:09:11.700 --> 01:09:15.300
And some of them will kind of barely look
at the camera and kind of notice it, maybe

01:09:16.380 --> 01:09:17.820
sitting there sleeping.

01:09:17.820 --> 01:09:22.800
And some of them will actually poke at the
camera and they think, I think they might, their

01:09:22.800 --> 01:09:24.660
thinking that it might be adult bringing in
food.

01:09:26.880 --> 01:09:31.500
Some of the rhinos, Rhinoceros auklets,
the chicks will actually turn and hide from

01:09:31.500 --> 01:09:35.160
you. So they'll actually go to the back of
the burrow and you'll just see their fluffy butts

01:09:35.160 --> 01:09:36.420
sticking out looking at you.

01:09:36.420 --> 01:09:37.680
Are not looking at you.

01:09:37.680 --> 01:09:40.260
You will see their rear end pointed at you.

01:09:41.160 --> 01:09:42.300
So, they respond differently.

01:09:42.300 --> 01:09:44.220
The world in there is dark.

01:09:44.220 --> 01:09:45.660
It's actually fascinating.

01:09:45.660 --> 01:09:49.140
Some of these Rhinoceros auklets 
burrows are several meters deep as

01:09:49.140 --> 01:09:49.680
I mentioned.

01:09:50.220 --> 01:09:55.320
There seems to be a whole community in there.
There are these grasshoppers-like insects

01:09:55.320 --> 01:09:59.640
that you find on Protection, Island, for
example, and they're all on the roof of the

01:09:59.640 --> 01:10:01.560
of the chamber and they're living in there.

01:10:01.560 --> 01:10:08.700
You see domestic beetles so these are carrion
beetles that are going in finding dead chicks

01:10:08.700 --> 01:10:10.080
and foraging on them.

01:10:10.080 --> 01:10:14.220
You'll see them moving around on the colony,
so there's a lot of things going on inside

01:10:14.220 --> 01:10:16.200
these burrows.

01:10:16.200 --> 01:10:17.820
But mostly the chick's,

01:10:17.820 --> 01:10:23.040
it sits in there for many days on end, just
waiting mom and dad to come back and feed them.

01:10:24.720 --> 01:10:29.400
And when they leave, the thought is they just
leave on their own. So that eventually, the

01:10:29.400 --> 01:10:35.160
adults are feeding them less and less, chick's
get hungry and they are fully feathered, and

01:10:35.160 --> 01:10:38.580
they weigh more than, or as much as the
adults.

01:10:38.580 --> 01:10:40.680
And they'll just fly off to sea.

01:10:40.680 --> 01:10:42.540
And they don't go with the adults.

01:10:42.540 --> 01:10:49.860
So, it's different than like Common murres
or Ancient murrelets, where the chicks will go

01:10:49.860 --> 01:10:52.260
off with the adult and stay with the adult
for quite some time.

01:10:52.260 --> 01:10:57.840
But in this species and Rhinoceros auklets,
they probably go out to sea on their own.

01:10:59.960 --> 01:11:01.680
[Chris] Cool.

01:11:01.680 --> 01:11:02.880
Thank you.

01:11:02.880 --> 01:11:04.320
So, one last question.

01:11:05.820 --> 01:11:10.620
Where is a good public place to observe and
photograph puffins?

01:11:11.300 --> 01:11:13.260
[Scott] Yeah, good question.

01:11:14.280 --> 01:11:17.940
And it reminds me of kind of a warning I like
to give people. I photograph.

01:11:17.940 --> 01:11:20.040
And you can tell I enjoy doing it a lot.

01:11:20.700 --> 01:11:28.320
And I know what it's like to be a
photographer kind of have that bug and want

01:11:28.320 --> 01:11:28.920
to get the picture.

01:11:28.920 --> 01:11:32.760
It's kind of also like a birder, it's when
you're wanting to get checkoff the bird.

01:11:34.080 --> 01:11:39.420
But the way I think about it is that I want
to do it in a way where I'm going to have

01:11:39.420 --> 01:11:41.460
the least amount of impact on that bird.

01:11:41.460 --> 01:11:46.020
And so, I, when I feel like I'm starting to
impact its behaviors, and you can tell right

01:11:46.020 --> 01:11:49.140
away when you are, it's time to back off and
move back away.

01:11:50.280 --> 01:11:51.420
That's where more  

01:11:51.420 --> 01:11:54.840
millimeters of lens helps, so that
you can be at a safe distance.

01:11:55.620 --> 01:12:00.480
You can do cruises out to locations, to photograph
them.

01:12:00.480 --> 01:12:02.880
There are cruises out of Port Townsend, for
example.

01:12:04.560 --> 01:12:08.700
And I think most of those tried to do a good
job of staying away from them.

01:12:08.700 --> 01:12:11.700
I'm hoping that people won't flush them off
of the water.

01:12:11.700 --> 01:12:16.980
That's really costly to add to alcids. Alcids
have very high wing loading.

01:12:16.980 --> 01:12:20.640
You think about it when they're going underwater
and diving underwater in pursuit of fish,

01:12:20.640 --> 01:12:22.440
they're actually flying underwater.

01:12:22.440 --> 01:12:24.780
They're not, they're not a plunge diver.

01:12:24.780 --> 01:12:26.040
They're not using their feet.

01:12:26.040 --> 01:12:28.320
They are actually swimming with their wings.

01:12:29.100 --> 01:12:32.940
As a result, they are they're very heavy and
solid.

01:12:32.940 --> 01:12:36.300
And that's kind of a tradeoff between a good
flyer.

01:12:36.300 --> 01:12:40.980
Like you see, I can albatross which can soar
for hours on end, which are hardly moving

01:12:40.980 --> 01:12:44.700
its wings versus a puffin in flight has having
a flap really hard.

01:12:44.700 --> 01:12:47.700
So, it cost a lot to fly in terms of energy.

01:12:48.480 --> 01:12:51.780
So again, as you're doing photography, try
not to flush them.

01:12:51.780 --> 01:12:53.160
I'm sorry, I'm giving you so many warnings.

01:12:53.160 --> 01:12:57.120
And so, the ways to go out and see them, while,
of course, Alaska is wonderful.

01:12:57.120 --> 01:13:00.960
And there are a lot of tours that will take
you out to see puffins there.

01:13:01.620 --> 01:13:03.480
You can do that here in Washington.

01:13:03.480 --> 01:13:08.700
And the best spot to see them from shore is
actually at Cannon Beach, looking at Haystack

01:13:08.700 --> 01:13:09.000
Rock.

01:13:09.000 --> 01:13:14.820
And that's the best spot I can think of where
you can actually go right to a colony, not

01:13:14.820 --> 01:13:19.140
very far off shore, and if you have a powerful
enough lens, you can get some nice shots

01:13:19.800 --> 01:13:20.280
from there.

01:13:20.280 --> 01:13:22.080
And at the public access beach.

01:13:22.080 --> 01:13:24.600
And they're used to people there.

01:13:24.600 --> 01:13:26.460
So, it really doesn't have much effect on them.

01:13:27.600 --> 01:13:33.840
And if you wait until early August, then they'll
all be provisioning, they'll all be coming in with

01:13:33.840 --> 01:13:34.740
bill loads of fish.

01:13:34.740 --> 01:13:39.300
So, if you want to get sort of the classic
shots of birds flying with bill loads of fish,

01:13:40.380 --> 01:13:45.360
wait until early August. Don't go late August
or early September.

01:13:46.140 --> 01:13:49.680
A lot of them will already be fledged and
you'll see fewer and fewer birds.

01:13:49.680 --> 01:13:52.260
But early August is a great time.

01:13:55.200 --> 01:13:57.120
[Chris] Great, thank you, Scott.

01:13:57.960 --> 01:14:02.460
I'm gonna wrap us up here, just really quick.

01:14:06.780 --> 01:14:09.240
Hopefully what your seeing is

01:14:12.660 --> 01:14:16.500
my screen from "The Thaaank youuu" slide.

01:14:19.140 --> 01:14:23.340
And I want to thank you for sharing all this
information, and some of the really good advice

01:14:23.340 --> 01:14:24.600
that you have for us.

01:14:25.260 --> 01:14:28.440
And then also thank the audience for joining
us.

01:14:32.040 --> 01:14:35.880
I wanted to just, in this quick wrap up,
let you know that.

01:14:36.540 --> 01:14:43.200
So, this platform that we're using, the National
Marine Sanctuaries Webinar Series is, it provides

01:14:43.200 --> 01:14:48.240
educators and students and just the interest,
generally interested public with educational

01:14:48.240 --> 01:14:54.540
and scientific expertise, resources and training
to support ocean and climate literacy.

01:14:54.540 --> 01:15:01.800
So, you can visit this website that I have
listed here to look at upcoming webinars that

01:15:01.800 --> 01:15:03.480
might have interest to you.

01:15:03.480 --> 01:15:07.800
But it's also will provide you access to archived
webinars.

01:15:07.800 --> 01:15:15.960
In fact, once we finish the closed captioning
and so forth, with this video, it'll be available

01:15:15.960 --> 01:15:17.220
there as well.

01:15:18.900 --> 01:15:21.900
I did want to make a quick plug for our next 

01:15:21.900 --> 01:15:25.860
Speaker series with the 
Olympic Coast National Marine

01:15:25.860 --> 01:15:27.180
Sanctuary and Feiro Speaker Series.

01:15:27.180 --> 01:15:33.660
That'll be with Dr. Pearson's, one of his
co-workers, Eric Wagner.

01:15:33.660 --> 01:15:36.960
And he's going to be talking 
to us about Destruction 

01:15:36.960 --> 01:15:40.800
Island and what they're seeing there.

01:15:40.800 --> 01:15:45.900
So, I hope you'll sign up and join
us on that day.

01:15:46.440 --> 01:15:52.560
And then for those of you that are onboard
here tonight, we're gonna send you a certificate

01:15:52.560 --> 01:15:57.840
of attendance, which represents one contact
Hour of Professional Development, especially,

01:15:57.840 --> 01:16:04.560
those of you that are professional education
educators, this could be quite valuable for

01:16:04.560 --> 01:16:04.680
you.

01:16:05.760 --> 01:16:11.580
Then any questions that we weren't able to
get to, during our question-and-answer period,

01:16:11.580 --> 01:16:16.800
we'll send those off to Scott and ask him
to give us an answer, and we'll send those

01:16:16.800 --> 01:16:18.480
back out to you at a future date.

01:16:20.580 --> 01:16:25.140
Then, last but not least, please do take a
couple minutes to take that short survey,

01:16:25.140 --> 01:16:31.080
because it really helps us find out from you
what worked well, and also what you'd like

01:16:31.080 --> 01:16:34.440
to see as far as informational topics in the
future.

01:16:37.200 --> 01:16:44.280
And so, with that I'm going to say thank you again
very much for, for joining us tonight.

01:16:44.280 --> 01:16:45.881
[Scott] Thank you. [Rachele]

01:16:45.881 --> 01:16:46.860
Thank you! [Chris] Hope to see you next time.