Karnolab

Category: Channel Islands

  • Ashy Storm-Petrels

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        One of the unique birds that nest on the Channel Islands is the Ashy storm-petrel. Their world wide population is estimated to be between 5,200 and 10,000 individuals and has been declining over the past 50 years due to predation, light from fishing boats, and pollution, and has earned these birds an endangered status.…

  • Operation Balloon Recovery

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    What happens to all those balloons that escape into the sky? Many of them end up in the ocean. Unfortunately they are a hazard to ocean dwellers. Sea turtles eat them because when they are frayed husks of themselves in the water, they resemble jellyfish, a favorite food of turtles. Balloons can block their stomachs.…

  • Bird Banding Bonanza

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    After two more successful nights of spotlight captures in May, Daryl came up with a target: 100 banded Xantus’s murrelets in 2009. We banded birds in April, too, so those counted, as did the few captures Daryl, Harry, and others did on land. Nonetheless, on the last night, we had to band 22 new XAMU…

  • The Open Ocean

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    Some of our more extensive transects aboard the R/V Shearwater were over very deep water. While on these transects, we saw a number of different animals who specialize in life in the open ocean. Among the mammals we saw were Common dolphin, Risso’s dolphin, and a small group of Fin whales. Risso’s dolphins are identified…

  • Shearwaters from the Shearwater

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    Our wonderful vessel, the R/V Shearwater, is named after an equally wonderful seabird. Though there are many species of shearwaters, we saw two- Sooty Shearwaters (four letter species code= SOSH!) and Pink-footed Shearwaters. They weren’t too hard to tell apart- Sooties are much darker than their pink-footed cousins. Usually we would see one or two…

  • Bridge Over Troubled Water

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    Because it was such great weather, we did all of our birds observations from the flying bridge! In April, we were confined to the regular bridge for a couple especially-rough transects. This upper deck had plenty of seats and was great for spotting birds, whales, mola molas and sharks! And scenery of course. It also…

  • Put Up Your Sticks

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    Once again, we had a great team on the flying bridge. From Left to right: Kristen (Pomona), Darryl Whitworth (California Institute of Environmental Studies), Augie (Pomona), Jen Boyce (NOAA, MSRP), Annie Little (Fish and Wildlife Service), Christie (Channel Islands Natl Park), Harry Carter (Carter Assoc.) Photo By: Nina Karnovsky (Pomona College). The dowels the boundaries…

  • The Fight for SBI

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    Our project makes up only a fraction of the Xantus’s murrelet and Santa Barbara Island restoration projects.  Many of the Channel Islands were disturbed by agriculture and ranching before they became protected. While the feral cats that preyed on the native, nesting seabirds are no longer there,   Invasive plants, however, still run rampant on the…

  • Suburban Bound for Santa Barbara

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    On May 17th, with the suburban packed to the gills, we made our way to Santa Barbara harbor to load the R/V Shearwater. This time we had Augie Lagemann’10 with us. Augie is a biology major at Pomona College. He will be a senior next year and these at-sea data will be the basis of…

  • Murrelets in the Spotlight

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              After dark all the murrelets come back to the island to socialize and rest from a long day of feeding. Not only do they have to watch out for hungry sea lions, but also our fearless crew of bird-netters! We are collaborating with a research team that is working on a population study of…