UPDATE AND TRENDS OF THREE IMPORTANT SEABIRD POPULATIONS IN THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC USING A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM APPROACH

The productive waters and rugged coastline of Newfoundland, Canada, render this region a host of nationally and globally important breeding seabird colonies (e.g. Sklepkovych & Montevecchi 1989, Chardine et al. 2003, Robertson et al. 2006, Chardine et al. 2013). Although some threats that seabirds face in the marine environment, such as drowning in gillnets and oil pollution, appear to have declined off the coast of Newfoundland (e.g. Wilhelm et al. 2009, Regular et al. 2013, Robertson et al. 2014), other concerns are on the rise, such as light attraction to coastal urban areas (Wilhelm et al. 2013) and interactions with oil and gas platforms (Ronconi et al. 2015). Furthermore, changes in the ocean’s climate are yielding a more unpredictable environment for seabirds to successfully rear their young, causing ecosystem shifts and affecting predator-prey interactions (e.g. Massaro et al. 2000, Montevecchi et al. 2013). Monitoring the status and trends of breeding seabirds is an important tool to help assess the cumulative effects of these threats and develop conservation actions to minimize human-related activities.