Common Murre Restoration Project

By Barton Creeth

Before the Apex Houston oil barge discharged 26,000 gallons of oil into California waters, numbers of California murre populations were already critically low, suffering in large part due to drownings from gill nets. The murres, a diving bird, would plunge into the ocean chasing after fish, and along with halibuts and other large fish, they would get caught in the underwater nets and drown. It is estimated that tens of thousands of murres were killed this way. The oil spill in the winter of 1986, along with harming hundreds of other marine animals, hastened the murres’ decline. When covered in oil, seabirds try to eat the oil off their feathers, and in doing so poison themselves. Among the 9,900 birds killed by the Apex Houston oil spill, approximately 6,300 were murres.

The Common Murre Restoration Project began in 1996 and is a cooperative venture of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Humboldt State University, and the National Audubon Society. The main focus of the project has been to bring murres back to Devil’s Slide Rock and San Pedro Rock. To attract the murres, scientists use a technique developed by Dr. Steve Kress known as social attraction. Kress, who heads Audubon’s Seabird Restoration Program, first used the technique to successfully revive puffin colonies off the coast of Maine. His other current projects include restoring tern colonies to the northern Atlantic seaboard, and bringing back the Bermuda petrel, a bird thought to have gone extinct 300 years ago. The technique involves using painted bird decoys and other simulation devices to lure the birds back to historic breeding spots. Because a highly colonial bird like the Common Murre prefers the safety of a large group, painted decoys are placed to give the allure of a thriving colony. CD players and three sided mirrors are also used so that the murres hear familiar calls and see other moving birds.

The initial success of the Murre Project was startling. “We thought it would take several years before the murres would breed,” said Gerry McChesney, Director of the Common Murre Restoration Project. It had been ten years since murres had laid any eggs on Devil’s Slide Rock. But the murres started coming back the first day the decoys were deployed. That first year, six breeding pairs fledged three chicks. “The goal of the project,” McChesney said, “was to establish 100 nesting pairs in ten years.” It only took five years to reach that goal, and since then, the colony has maintained at least 100 pairs, peaking in 2004 at 190 pairs. In 2005, the colony at San Pedro Rock had grown to such numbers that decoys were no longer needed, and this year marks the first year that no decoys will be used at Devil’s Slide Rock. This is a big evaluation year, since this will be the first year without decoys on the rock. “Our strong belief,” McChesney said, “is that live birds on the rock have a much bigger influence on the murres than the decoys.”

Restoration work on Devil’s Slide Rock is nowhere near complete. Human disturbances such as low flying aircraft continue to threaten the colony. Despite optimistic numbers over the last ten years, the murres still have a long way to go. “We’re still a far cry from the 3,000 breeding pairs” that populated the rock in the eighties, McChesney said. “We don’t want to turn our backs on the rock colony.”

To monitor the murre colonies, scientists installed two remote-controlled video cameras on Devil’s Slide Rock in February of 2005.  The National Audubon Society hosts a live video stream of the cameras, giving the public an opportunity to follow these fascinating birds through nesting season. Visitors to the website can watch egg laying in April, hatching at the end of May, and fledging by the end of June. As part of it’s Natural Heroes series, PBS will be airing a movie about the Murre Project called Returning Home.

See the Murre Cam!>>

See the preview for Returning Home - the Murre Restoration Project movie.>>

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