NUMBERS OF MARINE BIRDS BREEDING IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
The breeding populations of marine birds on the Farallon Islands, San Francisco County, have been documented for almost 120 years, and as a result are among the best historically documented avian populations in North America (Ainley and Lewis in press). Yet, almost surprisingly, next to nothing is known of the history of marine bird populations elsewhere on the Pacific coast of California, and only recently, from the work of Osborne and Reynolds (1971), do we have knowledge on present marine bird stocks. Our little knowledge in this matter is unfortunate because marine birds have been and hopefully will remain an important part of California’s marine resources which in their turn are so important to the well-being of the state. With the fact in mind that marine birds are very susceptible to oil at sea (see Bourne 1970, Ainley and Lewis in press) and other pollutants (see Gress et al. 1971, Schreiber and Risebrough 1972, Coulter and Risebrough 1973), it is propitious that quantification of California’s marine bird resources be attempted. Soon the Alaskan oil fields will be exploited and off-shore drilling in California will resume, resulting in marine transport of oil at a rate far above present or previous levels. Much of the oil will pass along the California coast bound for refineries in the San Francisco Bay Area and farther south. Periodic censuses of marine bird populations in the future should be encouraged at regular intervals.
