Northwestern Atlantic Birds at Sea Conservation Cooperative

An independent, multi-disciplinary, international group working in cooperation to understand and address issues faced by birds in their marine environment.

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Not nearly enough is known about Atlantic seabirds and their vulnerability to a number of ongoing and emerging threats while in their primary offshore habitats. Data on their pelagic distribution and abundance are critical for monitoring population trends, understanding their basic ecology and role in marine ecosystems, assessing actual or potential impacts from oil spills, fisheries by-catch, and offshore development (shipping, wind generation, gas and mineral exploration), identifying critical marine habitats, and educating the public about marine conservation issues. The Northwest Atlantic Birds at Sea Conservation Cooperative has formed and is committed to engaging resource agencies and partners in and outside its membership to develop new alliances to prioritize and implement research, management, policy and educational actions needed to sustain marine birds in their offshore environments.

Northern Gannet

Vision Statement:

By 2025 marine bird population status, distribution and habitat use patterns in the Northwest Atlantic are well understood and incorporated into marine resource policies and regulations such that bird populations are stable and sustainable into the future.

Structure of the Cooperative

The Northwestern Atlantic Birds at Sea Conservation Cooperative functions through ad-hoc working groups whose chairs form the Cooperative’s Steering Committee. Working groups are issue-specific and form and dissolve as goals are identified and accomplished, respectively. The entire Cooperative meets semi-annually to review marine bird priorities and to set the groundwork for implementing priority actions for the following 2 years.

UPDATES

Mapping relative abundance and distribution of marine birds in Atlantic Canada A Study to Compare Line Transects and Distance Sampling with Strip Transects 2008 report from the ICES Working Group on Seabird Ecology Evaluation of aerial surveys to census Red-necked and Red Phalaropes in the Bay of Fundy AI Samples to be Collected from Seabirds in the Bahamas in 2008 Research on Nearshore Seabirds in the Southeastern U.S. Partnership-building Efforts Conservation Activities for Seabirds in the Western Atlantic (at Colonies – outside the scope of the Cooperative – but may be of interest) Click here for more information on the June 2008 updates………

Workshops

November 2005

Priority Species, Research and Needs Document

Workshop Summary Document

January 2007

Meeting Agenda

Attendee List

Core Area of the Northwestern Atlantic Birds at Sea Conservation Cooperative

Next Steps for the Atlantic Marine Bird Conservation Cooperative (AMBCC)

Waterbird Table

Seabird Bycatch Proposed Action Items

Topics for Bycatch breakout session

Bycatch Summary from Seabird Plans

Distribution and abundance subgroup discussion table.

Abstract: Marine bird abundance and distribution: role of scale

Oil Spill Damage Assessment Outline

Longtailed Duck. Photo courtesy of Harry Sell

Presentations from 2007 Workshop

Core Area Presentation

Oil Spill Response and Seabird Damage Assesment Presentation

Fisheries Bycatch Presentation

Habitat Presentation

Scale: Getting Seabird Distribution and Abundance Right