Monthly Archives: July 2013

The 411 on Marine Mammals

An early morning photo from Jan Henault (Chetco Beach, Oregon South) reminded us to remind you that YES, marine mammals should be recorded in the comments section of the COASST data sheet.

Sperm whale at Chetco Point (background) with vertebrae in foreground. Credit: Jan Henault.

More than that, Kirstin Wilkinson, Northwest Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator (Washington to Northern California – Alaska is separate) reminds us of the following:

When you find a stranded live or dead marine mammal on the beach, contact the local stranding network coordinator in the area via this map. For calls within Olympic National Park, report to Kristin, 206-526-4747. Sea Otter stranding should be reported to the Sea Otter Stranding hotline, 877-326-8837.

What information is needed?

Please leave your name, phone number, date and time, species, status (dead, alive, injured, etc.) and the exact location, and identify yourself as a COASST volunteer. Please mention if you have taken photos of the animal; photos are very helpful with identification and to assess condition of the carcass/animal.

What will happen?

The local coordinator will determine if a response to the stranding is necessary. If the carcass is in poor condition, there is a chance there will not be a response due to limited information value, resources and personnel. Also, there is a chance the animal has already been reported or responded to. In most circumstances carcasses will be left on the beach and will only be removed if a full necropsy will be performed.

Intervention on live seal and sea lion strandings occurs on a case by case basis. Rehabilitation facility capacity is low and can only accommodate harbor seal pups that have had some type of negative human interaction.

Will I get a call back?

If you would like a call back from the local stranding coordinator, please say so in your voicemail.

What happens to the reports?

A Level A (stranding network) data form will be filled out by the local stranding coordinator for all dead or live stranded marine mammals under NOAA jurisdiction. The Level A will be entered and information included in the national database.

Krill Die-off Update

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A species of krill. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

Krill, as viewed from a microscope. Credit: NOAA Fisheries.

Since late June, Oregon and California COASSTers have been keeping their eyes out for large numbers of krill coming shore. This puzzling phenomenon, mentioned in a previous post, has been happening on beaches from Bodega Bay, California to Newport, Oregon, and scientists are still unsure about the cause. Speculated causes include a krill pathogen, or swarms of krill being carried off by the wind when they come to the surface to mate or to get more oxygen (possible hypoxia event?).

The first report of krill came on May 11, 2013 from Oregon Mile 99, Dave and Diane’s beach. Additional COASSTers from Agate Beach (Wendy), Oregon South Mile 101 (Doug and Mariann), Seven Devils (Karen), Bullards Beach (Rick), Ma-le’l (Sara and Peter), and Mad River Park North (Cindy) did not note krill during their late June COASST surveys.

Education Research On-the-road: Ben Haywood

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Select COASSTers have received an email from Ben Haywood, PhD Candidate at the Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments, Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina, about his citizen science research project. On Friday, we had the chance to meet Ben face-to-face!

Trial focus group with Ben, Charlie, Liz and students.

Trial focus group with Ben (front), L-R: Charlie, Liz, Stephanie, Matt, Tom, Chelsea, Jessica.

Ben’s project? “My research investigates volunteer participation in citizen science programs like COASST. Specifically, it aims to explore the nature of relationships between people, places, and the natural environment.”

The clickers! (Sometimes used to test large lectures, but Ben's questions, thankfully, are not about content).

The clickers! (Sometimes used to test large lectures at the UW, “but!” our students say, “Ben’s questions are about what you think, not what you know”).

And the next steps put Ben on-the-road, visiting a bunch of coastal communities from Washington to California. Which beaches will Ben visit? What will he eat? Who will he meet? These, and other stories will be posted on Ben’s blog – take a look.

New Footprints – Erin Tomaras

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Everyone knows our student interns keep the COASST office buzzing along. We took a step back and realized over 150 University of Washington undergraduate students have been part of the COASST effort, committing over 13,500 hours to the program in total!

Today, and in posts to come, we highlight what some of our graduated students are up to.

Erin Tomaras, COASST Intern (later, Senior Intern) contributed a whopping 390 hours of service, March 2009-June 2012. With her heart set on field work from the day she graduated, she’s now working for a non-profit on South Padre Island, Texas called Sea Turtle Inc. “On my non-patrol days I work in the clinic helping sea turtles that have been hit by boat propellers, attacked by predators, caught in fishing line, or are sick with infection. I also educate visitors about the different species of sea turtles, what impacts humans have in sea turtles, and the condition of turtles in our care.”

Erin, “with my first momma Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle!”

And on the patrol days? No, she doesn’t wear armor or dress in camo, “I monitor 64 miles of beach on an ATV for nesting Kemp’s Ridley mommas. This is harder than it sounds because this species is the smallest type of sea turtle and it only nests on windy days – tracks often disappear in the course of a half hour.” COASSTers, of course, are well aware of the difficulties of finding birds in sand, let alone tracks!

“This was 2 weeks ago – injured Least Tern from the beach road on one of my patrols.”

When you’re around COASST that long, you can’t help but look out for birds on the beach. In fact, she sent us this email, and true to COASST form, a quiz to our current students (and all of you):

“Hi Jane, Since I have been down here in Texas, I have spotted a few beached birds during my sea turtle ATV patrols. It seems I’ve still got my eyes subconsciously peeled for them. I thought you might be interested to see some beached birds from the Gulf. You should try these photos on the interns!”

So we share them (careful, only one is in the Beached Birds guide, none of these are in the Beached Birds-Alaska guide).

Texas/Gulf Coast mystery bird #1 from Erin.

Texas/Gulf Coast mystery bird #2 from Erin.

Texas/Gulf Coast mystery birds #3 from Erin.

Texas/Gulf Coast mystery bird #3 from Erin.

St. Paul Students Create Seabird Documentary

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Funded by the North Pacific Research Board, 10 middle school students from St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea had the opportunity to make a short documentary in order to feature the importance of seabird research as well as the significance of seabirds to their home. Throughout the school year, students learned how to identify the 11 common seabirds of the region, seabird behaviors, specific facts about the birds and also the effects of marine debris on seabird populations. As the year came to a close, students left the classroom and went out into the field to gain firsthand experience of observing seabirds, applying what they had learned in the classroom.

In addition, together with St. George Island, these students have established the Seabird Youth Network. The network is designed to provide awareness and opportunities related to seabird ecology, scientific research and conservation biology.

Click here to watch St. Paul Island Seabirds.

What’s Washed In

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We have been seeing lots of interesting things being found out on the COASST beaches. Here are a few of the many photos that have been sent in recently:

The tiniest of tubenoses, this is a Leach’s Storm-Petrel found in North Oregon. All dark upperwing and a small wing chord of less than 18cm puts us in the “tiny” category of the West Coast guide, and a similar spot in the Alaska guide, one shared with many of the small Alcids (e.g., Marbled Murrelet, Cassin’s Auklet). Underwing linings are not white (you’ll have to trust us on this point) so we’re left with Storm-Petrels. Of those, only the Leach’s has a white rump and dark brown (vs. light gray) plumage.

A Large Immature Gull entangled in blue filament (see left leg) found in the Puget Sound. Entangled birds make up about 0.5% of all birds found during COASST surveys in any year. Look carefully at that bill – dark and hooked, but no tube or separate bill plates, so it’s not a shearwater or a jaeger.

There’s only a few species with white in the upperwing and the secondary feathers – Ivory Gull, Glaucous Gull, Trumpeter Swan, Tundra Swan or Snow Goose. Dark primary feathers tell us this is a Snow Goose-light morph, found in the Chukchi Sea (it’s finally melting up there!)

A rubber cat found on the South Coast of Washington – perhaps used as an under-pet-bowl placemat?

Finally, a glass ampoule (sealed vial) found on the South Coast of Washington. Modern ampoules are mostly used to contain injectable pharmaceuticals. The best way to dispose of an item like this and other medications is through a local pharmacy, or National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, or via the FDA’s suggested method.

You never know what you may find out on those beaches!

Intern Field Trip: Cape Disappointment

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This past weekend, the COASST interns (Shannon, Adrienne, Chelsea, An, Stephanie, Hilary) road tripped down to Long Beach, Washington and Cape Disappointment to do a COASST survey . It was a chance for all of us to experience conducting their own survey and learn more about beached bird species identification. Perusing the coast under the grand Pacific Northwest sunshine. There’s nothing better than that.

Klipsan Beach entrance – our first stop.

Liz (left) and Adrienne (right) head out to Klipsan beach to start their survey.

Adrienne scans the surfline for any birds that might have washed up on shore.

It wasn’t long until we had our first find. It was a wing that had been partially buried in the higher portion of the beach, and the team quickly got to work to try and identify what they had found.

Adrienne measures the wing length (wrist to end of outermost primary).

The next step was to determine the species!

Liz points out mottling on the upperwing. Eventually we decide: Large Immature Gull.

Adrienne takes a couple of photos of the Large Immature Gull wing.

Soon we were on a roll. Not too much further from our first find, we come across another find: just a head!

Liz shows us the starting point of the bill measurement.

The head is tagged: black, white, red (#901). Large adult gull.

Our last find: a Sooty Shearwater – a seabird with one of the longest migration routes ever recorded: 39,000 miles.

After COASSTing, we had the rest of the day of explore Long Beach and Cape Disappointment – not a disappointment in any sense!

Liz, Stephanie, Adrienne, An, Hilary, Chelsea, and Shannon.

Cape Disappointment was spectacular, actually.

Using unmanned aircraft systems to monitor seabirds

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has won permission to test an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) off the Olympic Coast of Washington. But don’t worry; they’re not using them to spy on us. Instead, NOAA is planning to use the UAS to take high-def video of seabird colonies, as well as to search for tsunami debris. The 9-foot unmanned aircraft is better suited for this than traditional aircraft because it makes much less noise and is therefore less disruptive to the seabirds. In addition, the drones are much less expensive and much safer than manned aircraft.

NOAA drone in flight. Photo Credit: Ed Bowlby / NOAA

Photos of Common Murre colony taken by the NOAA drone. Photo credit: NOAA

Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has acquired a similar UAS in hopes of also doing seabird colony research. However, that project is currently facing difficulty obtaining a permit from Federal Aviation Administration and remains on hold.

Krill – have you seen?

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Have you seen me? Small (~2cm), red-orange, 16 legs, big eyes.

Thanks to Gary Lester (Humboldt COASSTer), Amber Transou (Redwood State and National Parks) and Bill Peterson (NOAA) for alerting us to a sporadic series of krill beaching events from central Oregon to northern California. If your survey beach is between Newport, Oregon and Eureka, California, and you were out during Father’s Day weekend (June 15/16) or before, let us know – have you seen krill? Our earliest reports come from Dave and Diane, on Oregon Mile 99, near Bandon, May 11, 2013.

Krill on Gold Bluffs Beach, Humboldt, California. Credit: Amber Transou, California State Parks, North Coast Redwoods.

Some COASSTers have replied to mention an absence of krill, but lots of first and second year “instars,” or juvenile Dungeness crab (molts), washing ashore during the same time (see below).

Tiny Dungeness Crab instars on Clam Beach, June 17, 2013. Thanks Linda, for the photo!

Tiny Dungeness crab instars on Clam Beach (CA), June 17, 2013. Thanks Linda, for the photo!

Choosing environmentally friendly fireworks

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As July 4th approaches, many people are looking forward to celebrating with fireworks. When purchasing fireworks, it’s important to consider the impact on the environment. It is important to always clean up the debris left behind by fireworks. Many fireworks leave behind plastic pieces that can be mistaken as food by wildlife. Luckily you can purchase cardboard and paper options that are less harmful. You may want to reconsider Saturn Missile Battery fireworks, or any fireworks with the word “battery” in the name, as these contain numerous small plastic tubes that are difficult to clean up or see. If your fireworks do contain plastic pieces such as caps, wings, or bases, be sure you know how to identify them during the clean up process to avoid any harmful impact on wildlife. For more info, visit www.plasticsinfireworks.org or like “Environmentally Friendly Fireworks” on Facebook!

Plastics left behind from fireworks. Photo from Environmentally Friendly Fireworks

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Monthly Archives: July 2013

The 411 on Marine Mammals

Krill Die-off Update

Education Research On-the-road: Ben Haywood

New Footprints – Erin Tomaras

St. Paul Students Create Seabird Documentary

What’s Washed In

Intern Field Trip: Cape Disappointment

Using unmanned aircraft systems to monitor seabirds

Krill – have you seen?

Choosing environmentally friendly fireworks