Marine Program

ABC’s Marine Program protects and restores seabird populations across the Western Hemisphere through innovation, partnerships, conservation planning, and direct action. We work with three central ideas for marine conservation:

Safe Havens for Marine Birds:  Finding the last strongholds and securing nesting places.

Sustainable Seascapes:  Ensuring marine birds and people have access to marine and terrestrial resources.

Kinship:  Increasing visibility through connections to human culture and activity.

The establishment of fenced or protected breeding colonies free of introduced predators is among the most effective of seabird restoration techniques and facilitates and enhances additional conservation measures such as social attraction and translocation. ABC is committed to finding and protecting areas appropriate for the long-term maintenance of communities of seabirds and other compatible species, and collaborative work in invasive species removal, social attraction, and translocation.

For example, ABC and partners have built a predator-proof fence around seven acres within Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge in Hawai‘i. More than 100 Hawaiian Petrel and Newell’s Shearwater have been moved there to establish a new colony.

For Critically Endangered species such as the Black-capped Petrel, strategic conservation plans and resulting actions are essential. ABC has been a key partner in protecting nesting sites for the species in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We now seek to restore islands in the Caribbean to a state that can once again support breeding Black-capped Petrels.

The commitment of fishers to the protection of marine bird populations is dependent on the economic viability of the tools we offer to reduce bycatch. ABC is committed to the innovation and expansion of bycatch reduction tools and programs that are effective in working seascapes.

ABC has helped to develop techniques that reduce fisheries’ impacts on the Waved Albatross and other birds, for example, by limiting the amount of time fishing lines are exposed in the water, where they attract and hook seabirds. This simple technique is now being used in the small boat artisanal hake fisheries in Ecuador.

Storm-petrels are among the smallest and least known of seabirds. ABC has made conservation gains for the Markham’s and Ringed Storm-Petrel by partnering with Chilean biologists to find and protect nesting sites, as well as to reduce threats to the birds. Lights are a particular hazard, as they disorient the night-flying birds traveling from inland breeding grounds to ocean foraging areas. We are working to reduce the impacts of night lighting and to establish national policies to protect all wildlife from unnecessary lights.

As sailors have made their way around the globe, seabirds have always been nearby. They have been a part of human exploration of the ocean from the start, icons of the comedy, grace, and challenge of life at sea. They have been our teachers of geography and guides home. They help us find fish and read the weather. And while seabirds are long revered by sailors, they are nearly invisible to the majority of people. Seabirds need ambassadors and storytellers who know them and the problems they face.

ABC’s Conservation and Justice Fellows have supported the work of our Marine Program in exploring the kinship between maritime peoples and seabirds as a fundamental part of marine conservation.