What's Washed In: Seabirds and Citizen Science
This was an in-person Science Talk Presentation at the Noyo Center Marine Field Station and was not recorded.

Presentation begins at 6PM
Doors open at 5:30 PM with beer and wine available for purchase
There is no fee for this presentation, but a suggested donation of $10 helps us with the costs associated with continuing to bring you these programs. Thank you for your support.

Guest Presenter: Julia K. Parrish

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of the Environment at the University of Washington

The Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) has been monitoring the California (and Oregon, Washington, and Alaska) coastlines for over two decades, working with local citizens to track the patterns of seabird mortality on local beaches. Hands-on citizen science offers an opportunity to collect environmental data over stretches of space and time that no research lab could hope to attain on its own. It also provides the opportunity for program participants and partners to learn about natural history at multiple scales: from seasonal shifts in the distribution of local species to dramatic changes in the ecosystem. In this presentation, we will examine the baseline patterns of beached bird abundance and look at what we have discovered thanks to 24 years of volunteers doing surveys.

Julia K. Parrish is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of the Environment at the University of Washington, and a Lowell A. and Frankie L. Wakefield Professor of Ocean Fishery Sciences. She is a marine biologist, a conservation biologist, and a specialist in animal aggregation. For more than 30 years, Julia has conducted research on seabirds, focused on the natural and human-caused factors causing population decline. Julia is also the Executive Director of the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST), a west-coast citizen science program involving hundreds of participants collecting monthly data on the identity and abundance of beach-cast birds and marine debris, with the goal of creating the definitive baseline against which the impacts of any near-shore catastrophe could be measured.