Maine
This biologist has dedicated his life to saving Maine’s puffins
In springtime, Maine attracts vacationers wanting to take quick cruises to see puffins on Jap Egg Rock within the outer Muscongus Bay, off the coast of New Harbor. Typically referred to as “sea parrots,” some would possibly suppose puffins resemble penguins with their black and white feathers, however the stocky, short-winged seabirds are a special species altogether.
The truth that these creatures nonetheless exist in Maine is essentially as a result of efforts of a pioneering biologist, Steve Kress, who devoted 50 years of his life to restoring populations on nesting islands within the Gulf of Maine via Mission Puffin.
Kress can be awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Pure Assets Council of Maine on Oct. 26 for his work restoring and managing breeding colonies of puffins and seabirds in Maine and globally. The Bangor Day by day Information spoke to him about what he’s realized from a lifetime in conservation, his profitable restoration of puffins and the threats dealing with them and different chicken species at the moment.
Within the Nineteen Seventies, Kress and a analysis assistant, Kathleen Blanchard, teamed as much as restore puffins. The seabirds had been overhunted a century in the past, and, whereas massive populations of puffins existed in Europe and different elements of the world, solely a dwindling inhabitants of about 70 remained within the Gulf of Maine.
Kress transplanted newly hatched puffins from Newfoundland to Jap Egg Rock and nested them in burrows on the island. He anticipated the birds to return themselves and to determine a colony after spending their first few years at sea. Younger puffins are recognized to return to breed the place they initially hatched.
However leaving it completely as much as nature and anticipating the puffins to return to determine a colony proved difficult. So Kress invented a “social attraction” technique to attract the birds again to the island. It required organising decoy puffins, sound recordings of puffins, and mirrors to present the birds the impression of an present inhabitants they might rejoin. His technique labored, and over the following few many years, the seabirds grew to an present inhabitants of 1,300 breeding pairs on 5 islands.
At present, his methodology is carried out around the globe to preserve not solely seabirds, however different animals, too. Since Mission Puffin, a 3rd of seabird species have benefited from his social attraction technique, and a complete of 800 seabird restoration tasks have been initiated the world over, Kress mentioned. Groups of biologists and researchers proceed the conservation work to handle Maine puffins on the Nationwide Audubon Society and the Mission Puffin Customer Heart in Rockland.
Puffins are adaptable creatures, however even they’re weak to local weather change and sea stage rise, Kress mentioned. Nonetheless, he’s hopeful about their survival.
The next interview has been condensed and evenly edited for readability:
Mehr Sher, BDN: What was your largest studying out of your life’s work — restoring and conserving seabirds?
Steve Kress: Nicely, I didn’t anticipate it to be a 50-year-long enterprise. The concept was to do that in just a few summers and transfer on. My preliminary aim was to get nesting on a rock after which let nature run its course, and it was a really naive thought to suppose that it could be that straightforward. … I believe crucial factor I realized via my challenge is that it demonstrated the potential of restoring a species. My methodology, which includes social attraction, is my most vital contribution. … Jap Egg Rock represents the primary ever restored seabird group on the earth, and it has impressed individuals around the globe to say, effectively, that’s one thing that I might do as effectively.
Sher: What, in your view, was one of many largest successes of your challenge, along with the conservation of the seabirds and your methodology?
Kress: I believe our coaching of younger biologists on the islands and truly working to coach them with a broad sense of conservation — why it’s vital, the biology of the birds. … We additionally welcomed worldwide participation on this program. Very early on, we might usher in conservation biologists from different international locations, and after they went again to their native international locations they initiated related tasks. That was all the time the hope. Typically it didn’t work as a result of they didn’t have the sources or the assist there to do it. … It takes cash, permits, dedication and long-term work. We’ve got a particular fund at Mission Puffin to assist different conservation biologists, referred to as the Herz Worldwide Seabird Fellowship.
Sher: What makes puffins distinctive in a marine ecosystem?
Kress: They’re presently serving as actually good indicators of the standard of the surroundings at a time of local weather change. Ocean water is warming up, and it’s not as salty because it was. There’s all types of modifications occurring within the marine surroundings. … Puffins have the flexibility to gather samples and produce again small fish, and that’s one thing that even fisheries biologists can’t seize as effectively. We measure these environmental modifications within the ocean and the results on the species by the sorts of fish which can be of their beaks and by measuring their chicks, which can be smaller than traditional in dimension, and documenting the affect of local weather change on the species.
Sher: What has been probably the most shocking factor about puffins to you?
Kress: Probably the most shocking factor is their adaptability. They’re such nice survivors. The ocean is throwing all of them sorts of traumatic conditions. They spend many of the yr on the ocean with out coming onto land in any respect. They survive all of the waves and storms. I believe it’s the sheer energy of puffins to outlive in such a difficult surroundings — difficult from a local weather and a human perspective.
Sher: What are the largest threats to the survival of seabirds and the marine surroundings at the moment? And what position can conservationists play?
Kress: I believe the largest instant menace is local weather change, and that affects the birds in no less than two key methods. It’s affecting their meals provides. Backside up, the plankton to the sorts of small fish that they feed on, the abundance, the timing, location and the standard of these fish are all altering. That’s an enormous menace. It’s a giant problem to the puffins to search out sufficient meals in that altering surroundings. And in some years they’re much extra profitable in doing that than others. To this point, the inhabitants appears to be breeding effectively. …
The opposite menace from local weather change is ocean stage rise. As a result of many of the puffin nesting habitat in Maine is on low nesting islands like Jap Egg Rock, which is just about 17 toes above excessive tide, at its highest level, and many of the public habitat on the island is even decrease. I fear that ocean stage rise will finally flood the puffins’ nesting habitat, and even one huge surging wave through the summer season breeding season might eradicate chicks and adults. … So, what can we do about it?
Nicely, there’s extra underneath management than one would possibly suppose. Mission Puffin was all the time centered on analysis, administration and training, however now it additionally consists of coverage. There are advocates in Washington and different coastal states who’re actively concerned with local weather and fisheries administration. Contemplating ecosystem administration for fisheries administration is de facto maybe probably the most helpful factor we will do on this local weather change situation for seabirds. If there’s extra fish within the sea, then there’ll be extra fish obtainable for seabirds, even in a warming local weather.
Sher: Herring populations have been declining lately because of ocean warming, and they’re a key meals supply for the birds. Does this pose a problem for the survival of puffins?
Kress: It’s positively a problem. However being an optimist, I hope that they’ll adapt to it and can proceed to thrive. Though the herring inhabitants has declined, particularly of their weight-reduction plan, the puffin inhabitants has been rising. So that claims to me that they’re discovering sufficient meals from other forms of fish. …
They might should work more durable, fly additional and dive deeper for different meals sources. … The prey, particularly coldwater species, like herring, are shifting into cooler water. Fish are very cell, and so they can discover cooler water both farther from the islands or the coast, each of that are problematic for puffins as a result of they find yourself utilizing a whole lot of power to fly out to seize their meals, and there are limits to how far they’ll fly and the way deep they’ll dive.
Sher: I do know you’ve labored in different states and internationally. What makes Maine distinctive by way of seabird conservation efforts?
Kress: For seabirds, Maine is true on the junction of chilly water from the north and heat water from the south. Over time, this has offered a variety of species to reside on Maine islands. All of these species pose conservation challenges. Maine is especially good for seabirds due to all of the islands.
There’s over 4,000 islands alongside the coast of Maine, and a whole bunch of these are appropriate for seabirds to nest on. So, there’s been an excellent alternative to do seabird conservation. There’s a protracted historical past of what lives on which islands, and so I used to be in a position to take a look at that historical past, which is essential for restoration work. If I didn’t know that puffins used to breed on Jap Egg Rock, I wouldn’t have been intrigued by the potential of restoration within the first place. However there it was, in Ralph Palmer’s guide, “Maine Birds,” and he described intimately the puffins that lived there till the mid-1800s.
Mehr Sher is a Report for America corps member. Further assist for this reporting is offered by the Unity Basis and donations by BDN readers.