Crested auklets, Aethia cristatella, and least auklets, A. pusilla, are colonial seabirds restricted to the Bering and Okhotsk Seas and adjacent areas of the North Pacific. Crested auklets feed on Thysanoessa euphausiids, mysids, hyperiids, gammarids, calanoid copepods, larval fish and squid. Least auklets feed on Neocalanus plumchrus, N. cristatus, Eucalanus bungii, shrimp larvae and Calanus finmarchincus. Thick-billed murres or Brunnich’s guillemot, Uria lomvia, are circumpolar throughout the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with the U. l. arra being restricted to the Pacific and breeding from 50° to 72° N. These murres take a wide variety of food items ranging from benthic and midwater fishes, to the Gonatus fabricii, Gammarus and Apherusa amphipods, Mysis and Boreomysis mysids and Thysanoesa euphausiids.

Data analysis will allow the investigators to determine the health of the seabird colonies and their contact with environmental toxins. Past evaluations have demonstrated limited contact and it is our expectation that this trend will continue. Regular monitoring will provide baseline data that will demonstrate any adverse variances, which will be used in the future management of the areas affected.