Where have all the birds gone?

SeaDoc Postdoctoral Fellow, Ignacio “Nacho” Vilchis, has spent the past two years investigating the causes of massive declines in marine bird populations throughout the Salish Sea ecosystem.

He is presenting a lecture of his work on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. at Emmanuel Episcopal Parish Hall.

This landmark study combined decades of marine bird status and trend data from the U.S. and Canada as well as from annual Christmas Bird Counts. Although birds pay no attention to international boundaries, most governments and non-governmental organizations only work in one country. Before this groundbreaking study, no one had analyzed and quantified marine bird declines across the entire ecosystem.

He then was able to scientifically determine several key drivers causing declines in multiple marine bird species. Vilchis’ findings should help focus efforts on a few key areas to help simultaneously recover multiple declining species.

The Marine Science Lecture Series is designed to inspire the general public and to highlight the amazing fish and wildlife of our region. Lectures are free.

The Lecture Series is presented by program partners The SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila. It has been made possible through generous sponsorship by Tom Averna (Deer Harbor Charters), Barbara Bentley and Glenn Prestwich, Barbara Brown, Audrey and Dean Stupke and West Sound Marina. For more information visit www.seadocsociety.org.