We use science-based advocacy, outreach, and communications to improve conditions for seabirds in the California Current, and raise public awareness of this little-known group of birds and their ocean world.

Why a seabird and marine program?

Seabirds are threatened yet responsive to conservation. Seabirds– birds that make their living primarily on the ocean – are some of our most spectacular yet little known birds and are the most endangered groups of birds in the world. Seabirds include: albatrosses, petrels, murrelets, pelicans, terns, and sea ducks. Of the 328 seabird species in the world, 102 are classified as threatened or endangered.

While many seabirds are threatened and declining, seabirds have proven to be highly responsive to conservation activities, making them a wise investment of conservation dollars. Just a few examples, in the last 25 years:

• Invasive species have been removed on seabird islands around the world, rescuing dozens of species from decline or extinction. 
• Modifications to fishing gear have reduced the mortality of rare albatrosses and other seabirds in certain types of damaging fishing gear in Alaska to almost zero. 

The California current is special

The U.S. west coast and northwest Pacific is a magnet for marine predators including seabirds. This diversity and abundance of seabirds is relflected in the high number of global marine important bird areas in the northwest pacific. Some of these seabird hotspots are colonies, tiny specks of land hosting up to 200,000 seabirds, such as the Farallon Islands in California. Others are at-sea areas where local and faraway breeders congregate to feed on abundant squid, anchovy, krill and other food resources.

Continuing threats to seabirds on the U.S. west coast is food depletion due to fisheries impacts and climate change; disturbance and loss of breeding habitat at colonies; mortality through entanglement in fishing gear; and marine pollution. 

What we do

• Keep food in the sea
• Protect colonies
• Protect vulnerable species
• Raise Awareness

Our partners

ABC, Audubon chapters, Island Conservation, Oceana, OSPR Trustees, Point Blue

What is a seabird? 

A seabird can be defined as a bird that makes its living primarily from the ocean, beyond the intertidal or surf zone. More...

Contact

Anna Weinstein, Seabird Program Manager
(415) 644-4613