Monitoring colonial cliff-nesting seabirds in the Canadian Arctic: The Coats Island field station

Abstract

The Coats Island field station in northern Hudson Bay, Canada, was established by the Canadian Wildlife Service in 1984 to monitor the thick-billed murre ( Uria lomvia, akpa, [Formula: see text]) population in the context of harvest management and federal responsibilities under the Migratory Birds Convention Act. The long-term monitoring program has continued annually for 34 of the last 39 years, making it the most frequently monitored seabird colony in the Canadian Arctic. In the 1990s, the focus of efforts at the site shifted from population monitoring and harvest management to long-term monitoring of murres as an indicator of environmental change. In addition to informing harvest management of murres in Canada, long-term monitoring and research at Coats Island have helped to establish thick-billed murres as an indicator species for Arctic seabirds, identified major shifts in the marine prey communities of Hudson Bay, enabled the assessment of international agreements on reducing contaminants in Arctic wildlife, and improved the understanding of the effects of climate change on Arctic marine birds. Coats Island has developed into an essential research site for all aspects of murre ecology and served as a training site for new generations of Arctic ecologists.