Subject: [Tweeters] decline of Tufted Puffins
Date: Fri Jul 17 17:29:16 PDT 2020
From: Allison Reak - areak823 at gmail.com


> I suspect at least some of the demise of puffins at Protection Island is

due to increased eagle harassment during the nesting season. <

Maybe the declines are really driven by loss of high-quality forage fish
within the nesting areas. Warmer ocean temps move the fish too far out and
deep to be easily available and the adults are gone fishing for longer
periods, leaving the chicks vulnerable to eagles. The herring runs are gone
from Port Townsend Bay (I don't know about Sequim Bay), the eulachon and
smelt runs are mostly gone from the inland bays in US waters. Gone, too,
are the dense ribbons of shoreline migrating fish, except for a couple of
rare appearances at the Elwha estuary in the past few years. And sand
lance and smelts are tiny and energy-limited, compared to the size and
nutritional density of eulachon and herring.