Offshore Pacific Highlights in Summer–Fall 2005
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Offshore Pacific Highlights in Summer–Fall 2005: Just Another Year PETER PYLE • INSTITUTE FOR BIRD POPULATIONS • P.O. BOX 1346 • POINT REYES STATION, CALIFORNIA 94956 • (EMAIL: [email protected]) Increasing Our Knowledge of Ocean was that seabird productivity had been average more a question of bad timing than of whole- Events, One Year at a Time to well above average in the period 1999-2004. sale disaster. By early fall, the word had spread: 2005 was For a burgeoned population of younger Seabird population sizes and productivity an unusual year for seabirds off the Pacific coast seabirds, this was a first real test of their forag- provide excellent barometers of the state of of North America. But was it that unusual? ing abilities, and it is neither surprising nor our marine ecosystems, helping us keep a fin- Many years ago, David Ainley concluded that unhealthy (at the population level) that a die- ger on negative anthropogenic effects such as there was no such thing as a “normal” year in off should have ensued. Furthermore, offshore climate change, oil contamination, and over- the California Current, and it would fishing. But we must be patient to follow that there may not be “un- understand such large-scale process- usual” years either. Rather, seabird es. For these reasons, the National dynamics in the Pacific Ocean are Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- best explained in terms of overlap- tration (NOAA) is increasing sup- ping climatological and oceanic cy- port for a wide variety of long-term cles, which influence complex ma- ocean-monitoring programs for rine ecosystems and result in chaotic seabirds, marine mammals, and oth- and somewhat unpredictable patchi- er organisms off the Pacific Coast. ness in prey resources. Distribution These include several programs con- of these resources has everything to ducted within National Marine Sanc- do with interannual variation in tuaries (NMS): Winds-to-Whales op- seabird productivity and dispersal, erated in Monterey Bay NMS by the and our understanding of it all is as Center for Integrated Marine Tech- yet too meager to characterize any nology and the University of Califor- one season with such generalized nia at Santa Cruz; OCPS (see the Fig- terms as “normal” or “unusual.” ure captions for full program titles) To be sure, productivity of breed- in the Olympic Coast NMS; CBOMP ing seabirds, such as those in in the Cordell Bank NMS; and SEAS colonies on the Farallon Islands off in the Gulf of the Farallones NMS. San Francisco, was below average in Research programs conducted at 2005, and for some species—notably broader spatial scales include sur- Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax veys during annual rockfish (Se- pelagicus) and Cassin’s Auklet (Pty- bastes spp.) cruises off central Cali- choramphus aleuticus)—it bordered fornia and intermittent surveys of on complete failure. Spring north- Heceta Bank, Oregon, by H. T. Har- westerlies and accompanying up- vey & Associates; quarterly CalCOFI welling were late, resulting in cruises off southern (and now cen- warmer, less-productive waters and tral) California by the Scripps Insti- reduced prey (especially krill) when tution of Oceanography and PRBO adults needed to feed chicks in May Conservation Science; and periodic Figure 1. Planned (dashed line) and completed (colored solid lines) transects and June. By late summer, dead Com- surveyed during the Collaborative Survey of Cetacean Abundance and the (once every 3-5 years) assessments mon Murres (Uria aalge) and cor- Pelagic Ecosystem (CSCAPE) Cruise, undertaken by the Southwest Fisheries Sci- of marine mammal stocks and morants were washing up on Pacific ence Center and the National Marine Sanctuary Program aboard NOAA research seabird distribution along the U.S. Coast beaches in substantial numbers vessels in June-December 2005. Fine-scale transects were surveyed in the Pacific coast by the Southwest Fish- (North American Birds 59: 645, 651), Olympic Coast, Cordell Bank, Gulf of the Farallones, and Monterey Bay National eries Science Center (SWFSC) of leading to much speculation on the Marine Sanctuaries, each of which conduct year-round surveys as well. Stars in- NOAA. I was fortunate to take part declining state of our oceans. “Un- dicate locations of high productivity, from north to south: off Cape Blanco, over in this last project in 2005, the usually warm conditions off the West Perpetua/Heceta Bank, the outer reaches of the Mendocino Escarpment, and CSCAPE cruise, which covered Pa- Coast this year are hammering Cordell Bank (see also Figure 2). These cruises occur once every three to five cific waters out to 552 km (300 nau- wildlife, and scientists don’t know years. For more information on CSCAPE, including weekly summaries of biolog- tical miles [nmi]) off Washington, why—or what it bodes for the fu- ical and oceanographic observations as well as photographic highlights, see Oregon, and California (Figure 1). ture,” began a story in the 23 July <http://swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov/PRD/PROJECTS/CSCAPE/default.htm>. This research program takes an 2005 San Jose Mercury News. This ecosystem approach, attempting not and similar articles predicted long-term de- monitoring programs (see below) found ex- only to monitor vertebrate populations but clines and gave the impression that global cli- ceptional fish prey and marine mammal and also to correlate their temporal and spatial dy- mate change had begun in earnest in 2005. seabird abundance off California in July-Au- namics with those of prey communities and What these reports failed to note, however, gust, indicating that the poor productivity was the physical and biological oceanography of 4 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS OFFSHORE PACIFIC HIGHLIGHTS IN SUMMER–FALL 2005 the region. over these features, internal It has been tempting to tides and waves create oceanic equate warmer ocean tempera- flux, invecting cold, nutrient- tures with increases in the ap- rich water to the surface and cre- pearance of unusual seabirds. ating biological “hotspots” (see Certainly, 2005 was a banner Figure 2). Thanks to the year for observations of pelagic CSCAPE cruise, a 25-year dream rarities: as many as three new of mine was realized this fall, to seabird species for North obtain a glimpse of a hotspot America and California, up to over the outer reaches of the four new state records for Ore- Mendocino Ridge. gon, as well as good numbers On 8 August 2005, the NOAA and diversity of the elusive and ship David Starr Jordan covered enigmatic Pterodroma petrels about 212 km (115 nmi) in a were detected. But I would north-northeasterly direction, question any suggestion that from positions about 394 km 2005 was an unusually good (214 nmi) southwest of Point year for vagrants, or that the Gorda, California, to 313 km new records necessarily related (170 nmi) west of Cape Mendo- to this season’s oceanic anom- cino, directly above the Mendo- alies, which actually were clos- cino Ridge. For 12 hours, we er to “average” for most of the stared at seemingly lifeless seas, fall. Rather, I believe that in- Figure 2. Satellite imagery showing levels of chlorophyll-a, on 21 June 2001, indicating con- with few fluctuations in the creasing reports of vagrant centrations of phytoplankton and productive waters. Note the upwelling plumes off Cape 18.3º C temperature, as is typical seabirds has more to do with Blanco, Cape Mendocino, Point Arena, and Point Reyes, and the counter-clockwise eddies ex- of offshore waters, recording increased coverage, enhanced tending westward from each plume. These whorls of productivity appear to be created via the roughly two birds per hour, pri- knowledge of seabird identifi- bisection of the California Current by subsurface features (e.g., Heceta Bank, Gorda Escarp- marily Leach’s Storm-Petrels cation criteria, and recent ad- ment, and Cordell Bank), attracting pelagic species such as gadfly petrels to their westward (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) and vances in digital imagery, reaches. For good discussions of this and related topics, see <http://www.mbari.org/staff/ Cook’s Petrels (Pterodroma which can provide substantial ryjo/cosmos/it/ite.html> and <http://ono.ucsd.edu/pages/pubs/eos_miller.et.al_1999/ cookii). But in the last hour of assistance with species confir- CCS_final.text.html>. Image courtesy of Raphael Kudela, University of California Santa Cruz. the day, the surface temperature mation. Although several un- Original data from the SeaWiFS Project (NASA) and © Orbimage, Inc. dropped to 16.2º C, and the usual species were observed horizon was suddenly dotted during the CSCAPE cruise in 2005, these Perpetua, Heceta, and Cordell Banks further with albatrosses, petrels, phalaropes, and records were made during 145+ full days of swizzle the waters, giving us spectacular jaegers, all milling over scattered blows of sampling, which included near-constant scan- ocean productivity that attracts marine mam- Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus). We ning of the horizon with 25-power, mounted mals and seabirds from both near and far. camped on the ridge for the night and the binoculars; on the vast majority of these days, The closest point of U.S. land to the southern next morning were treated to more of the nothing unusual was noted. In addition to ex- and tropical Pacific Ocean is not in southern same: Sperm Whales and birds lined the panded coverage by trained observers aboard California, as one might expect, but Cape ridge from the western to the eastern hori- scientific cruises, there has also been an in- Mendocino in Humboldt County, which pro- zon. As we continued on our course, the ac- crease in the frequency of pelagic trips for trudes over 166 km (90 nmi) farther west tivity quickly vanished, and we were back birders, as well as an increase in the expertise than San Francisco and 607 km (330 nmi) into 18º C waters with empty horizons.