Puffin Study Lecture

Tufted Puffin. | Photo by Jacob Spendelow

"The World of Haystack Rock" is a free community lecture series that is co-sponsored by the Friends of Haystack Rock and the Cannon Beach Library. The lecture series is held on the second Wednesday of each month, November to April, 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at the Cannon Beach Library, 131 N. Hemlock St., Cannon Beach. 

The December speaker will be Shawn Stephenson, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, speaking on "The Puffin Study."  He speaks on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 7 p.m.  He has done colony research on the Tufted Puffin in Russia and the United States. 

In this lecture, Shawn will be talking about the ongoing Tufted Puffins Study at Haystack Rock.  The Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) is a medium-large pelagic seabird and member of the Auk family. The distribution of the Tufted Puffin is widespread in the North Pacific Ocean and nests on the coastline and offshore islands in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, Japan, and Russia. Tufted Puffin populations have generally declined throughout the southern portion of their range from British Columbia to northern California. Possible causes of puffin decline include factors related to conditions at breeding sites, at-sea mortality due to direct human impacts, and long-term changes in marine food webs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a burrow-nesting seabird survey that encompassed the entire coastline of Oregon in 2008 and documented an order of magnitude decline in the puffin population since the previous official statewide survey in 1988. The purpose of this project was to conduct an intensive population status assessment of the Tufted Puffin at Haystack Rock (colony number 219-021), which is part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

Information on the speaker, Shawn Stephenson:

Shawn W. Stephensen received a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Wildlife at Utah State University and Master of Science in Biological Sciences at University of Alaska Anchorage.  Shawn has been a Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for almost 28 years (since 1989).  He worked in the Fish and Wildlife Enhancement branch in Salt Lake City, Utah conducting contaminant studies for 4 years; Migratory Bird Management in Anchorage, Alaska conducting seabird studies for 15 years; and for the past 9 years worked at the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Newport.

The Haystack Rock Awareness Program is a stewardship and environmental education program whose mission is to protect through education the intertidal and bird ecology of the marine garden and Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge at Haystack Rock.

For more information contact Tiffany Boothe at seasideaquarium@gmail.com or 503-738-6211.