Subject: [Tweeters] Caspian Tern constant target of persecution
Date: Feb 2 12:52:55 2011
From: notcalm at comcast.net - notcalm at comcast.net


Dennis and Wayne,


I discussed this matter with a business person in Bellingham in December. He and several others have an environmental awareness. He predicted that the port would do anything possible to prevent the colony from returning and that they had other plans for the land.


I would recommend that Dennis contact the Seattle Times, soon, and work with a reporter to get the story out in the open. This could result in a flurry of activity and responses. I would also consider contacting someone at Huxley school of the Environment, a cluster college at Western Washington University in Bellingham and asking how they can help.


Dan Reiff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wayne Weber" < contopus at telus .net>
To: "TWEETERS" <tweeters at u. washington . edu >, " WHATCOM BIRDERS" < whatcombirds at lists. wwu . edu >
Cc: "DENNIS PAULSON " < dennispaulson at comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 2, 2011 10:16:27 AM
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Caspian Tern constant target of persecution

Tweeters (and Whatcom Birders)

Dennis, you took the words right out of my mouth. I was about to post a
message to TWEETERS on the same subject, but you summarized the situation at
least as eloquently as I could have. The war on Caspian Terns in Washington,
and especially in Puget Sound, needs to stop. They may not be endangered
(yet), but this is a protected species which deserves to be protected, not
attacked and harassed.

Part of the problem with Caspian Terns-- as well as the fact that they eat
juvenile salmon-- is that it is the nature of this species to frequently
change its nesting sites. It is difficult to protect a nesting colony (even
if one wants to) when the site of the colony moves every few years. There
used to be a few Caspian colonies in Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay years ago,
but these were on low islands that were subject to overwash in storms, and
were subsequently abandoned. I don't believe Caspians ever nested in Puget
Sound until the late 1980s, when they started to nest on a vacant site at
the Everett Navy Base.
They were chased out of there when the Navy wanted to develop the land, then
later tried nesting on an admittedly unsuitable site on a barge in
Commencement Bay. Birds were actually killed in the successful effort to
dislodge that colony.

For a few years, Caspians nested on Dungeness Spit-- once again, an
unsuitable site in the long term because it is not an island and is
accessible to predators. This time the birds shifted on their own, settling
in Bellingham .

Caspian Terns in Puget Sound are regarded by many as interlopers, recent
invaders, and even pests, and it's easy to understand this attitude when a
colony of 2000 or 3000 birds suddenly appears where there were none a couple
of years ago. However, the establishment of new colonies like the one in
Bellingham is tied to the disappearance of other colonies, and someone needs
to look at this in the context of the species' total West Coast or North
American population.

I have not heard the accusation of depleting salmon stocks made in
Bellingham , although I don't know if anyone has attempted to study their
food there. However, it should be kept in mind that even heavy depredations
on juvenile salmon may have little if any effect on the numbers of returning
adults, which seem to be determined mostly by things that happen during the
3-4 years that the fish are in the ocean. Saving salmon has been the excuse
for harassing Caspians at the mouth of the Columbia River, where there is a
huge colony, but in my view as a biologist, the justification is
questionable. This is a different situation from California Sea Lions, which
are eating adult salmon on their return to spawning rivers, and are more
likely to affect the production of salmon.

The management of Caspian Terns in Washington needs to be addressed by a
statewide management plan, drawn up and administered by WDFW in cooperation
with USFWS . This plan needs to provide for maintaining a certain population
and trying to minimize the constant harassment. Admittedly, some colony
sites are much more of a problem (for the birds themselves and for people)
than others. However, terns can be encouraged to nest in "desirable" sites
by placing dummy terns on a suitable island and playing recordings of tern
calls, and this has been done successfully elsewhere.

In the meantime, the colony in Bellingham should be protected until a
long-term plan can be drawn up and implemented. They are nesting in an
unused industrial site, and unless proved otherwise, seem to be causing
little harm to salmon there. The Port of Bellingham should be approached by
wildlife agencies and by Audubon officials with the objective of obtaining
voluntary cooperation to protect the nesting site for the next few years. If
not, they should be threatened with legal action if they harass the birds
(which would be illegal without a permit). The birds are likely to move on
their own within a few years, and if not and the site is really needed for
development, they can be encouraged to nest somewhere else not far away.

A resolution by the Washington chapter of The Wildlife Society (of which I
am a member) might be one way to encourage some positive action on Caspian
Terns, and I hope the Washington Audubon Council will take up this issue as
well.

Wayne C. Weber, Ph .D.
Delta, BC
contopus at telus .net
(Wildlife biologist and tern advocate)





-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u. washington . edu
[ mailto :tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u. washington . edu ] On Behalf Of Dennis
Paulson
Sent: February-02-11 8:49 AM
To: TWEETERS tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] Caspian Tern constant target of persecution

Hello, tweeters.

The situation in Bellingham with the Caspian Tern colony breaks my heart
too. This species, just because it happens to be a fish-eater and nests in
large colonies, has been driven from pillar to post in Washington state (and
I presume elsewhere). Because there seems to be a prevalent attitude of
"salmon ?ber alles " in our state, anything that eats salmonids is an
unwanted pest, and they are persecuted beyond belief. Fish-eating birds in
large numbers are killed along the Columbia River by personnel of Wildlife
Services, the federal government "wildlife damage management" department. As
was pointed out, sea lions are also on the receiving end of this
persecution, but they have a lot of supporters who have tried to point out
that they need protection as much as the fish do. Caspian Terns need the
same support.

Some salmonid populations are endangered, so this gives the authorities
rationale to go after the terns (and other fish-eaters) as their predators.
But to some of us who have been watching this situation develop, it really
seems as if much of the "damage" that is being done by Caspian Terns is
predation on hatchery-raised fish, obviously not covered under the
Endangered Species Act. The terns, of course, have to fish to live and to
feed their young, and they aren't aware of the powerful forces aligned
against them.

There are obviously several groups that profit from or enjoy salmon fishing,
particularly sports and commercial fishermen and Native tribes, and they
comprise an influential lobby working to keep salmonid numbers up. As wild
salmonid populations have declined in a much modified world, one of the ways
to keep those numbers up is to rear them in hatcheries and release them by
the millions. The terns are being persecuted primarily because they eat
those hatchery fish (which aren't as good at avoiding predation as wild fish
are), and wherever there are hatcheries (there are many), there is strong
pressure to keep terns away from the area.

That is what happened in Grays Harbor, it happened in Everett, it happened
in Tacoma, it happened on the Lower Columbia River, and now it is happening
in Bellingham . I strongly suspect there is more than meets the eye here,
that it is not just the Port doing an environmental cleanup. I could be
wrong, but the attack on the terns in Bellingham follows a pattern that
began in Washington several decades ago.

I think it's time a strong protest is mounted against these activites .
Caspian Terns are federally protected wildlife and deserve just as much care
as salmonids , but they are not getting it. Instead there is a well-organized
campaign against them.

Dennis
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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