International collaboration facilitates risk assessment of vessel activities on overwintering coastal waterbirds

Details

• Journal Title:
  Marine Ecology Progress Series
• Personal Author:
  Macklin, Rory D.J. ; de Zwaan, Devin R. ; Bradley, David ; Ethier, Danielle
• NOAA Program & Office:
  Sea Grant
• Sea Grant Program:
  WASHU (Washington Sea Grant)
• Description:
  Global increases in vessel activity are significantly impacting nearshore environments. For marine birds, vessels have known localized impacts, ranging from energetically costly disturbances to deadly strikes and pollution. However, the overlap of regional bird distributions and areas of high vessel traffic is often poorly known. Using openly available vessel density data and citizen science avian data from British Columbia, Canada, and Washington State, USA, we applied a dynamic occupancy modeling approach to explore differences in occupancy and occupancy trends for 24 overwintering piscivorous and benthivorous coastal waterbird species in the Salish Sea between 2011 and 2023. We asked whether occupancy and trends differed between Canada and the USA, and then investigated whether areas of low or high vessel traffic exhibited differing occupancy and trends across the region. We identified a number of species exhibiting regional occupancy declines and found that occupancy trends varied frequently when compared across the international border. All examined coastal waterbird families exhibited some degree of overlap with areas of high vessel traffic, though some families, such as cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae), were more closely associated with high vessel traffic areas. With particular attention to regionally declining species, we discuss the degree of risk faced by each family in high vessel traffic areas. These results provide crucial regional conservation insights and offer resource managers a broadly applicable roadmap for investigation into the distributional overlap of coastal waterbirds and vessel traffic in nearshore environments across the globe.
• Subjects:
  • Boats and boating
  • Sea birds
  • Coasts
• Keywords:
  • Boat activity
  • Citizen science
  • Disturbance
  • Dynamic occupancy model
  • Marine birds
  • Population trends
• Source:
  Mar Ecol Prog Ser 769:197-212 (2025)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14935
• Format:
  PDF
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
• Rights Information:
  Accepted Manuscript
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/77689/noaa_77689_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.08 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Sea Grant Publications
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:85cecb6562668fde4ae88f62a317205bfb972e1a505371f51b59dd1bc4b55e19434cf315928fea1ef84b55ec6d6fcd2bbbbac47ef41ef864b8fe7980341aac10