Sarah K Schoen

A die-off of primarily Black-legged Kittiwakes took place from July-September 2025 in Kachemak Bay and killed hundreds of birds as well as several species of marine mammals. There is not yet an identified cause of death. 

This map shows all available marine bird survey data from the North Pacific Pelagic Seabird Database (NPPSD) around St.

Black-legged kittiwake adults and chicks on nests at Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska

A Common Murre feeds its chick a capelin at the Gull Island breeding colony in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. Capelin are an important, energy rich forage fish for many marine predators.

A melanistic (all dark) Common Murre holds a display fish at its breeding site on Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska, 2019. See related paper published in the Marine Ornithology: Journal of Seabird Research and Conservation at: http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/50_2/50_2_225-227.p

A melanistic (all dark) Common Murre flies above the Gull Island breeding colony in Kachemak Bay, Alaska, 2018. See related paper published in the Marine Ornithology: Journal of Seabird Research and Conservation at: http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/50_2/50_2_225-227.pdf.

A Common Murre holding a capelin at a breeding colony on Gull Island, in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. Capelin are an important, energy rich forage fish for many marine predators.

A Tufted Puffin flies over the Gull Island breeding colony in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

A Tufted Puffin carrying a bill load of capelin back to its chick on Gull Island, in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. Capelin are an important, energy rich forage fish for many marine predators.

A pair of Tufted Puffins stand above their burrows on the Gull Island breeding colony in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

A pair of Horned Puffins on the Gull Island breeding colony in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

Glaucous-winged Gulls fight over a Pacific Herring near Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

A juvenile Marbled Murrelet near Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. The Marbled Murrelet spends most of its life at sea, coming to land only in the summer to nest.

Four Tufted Puffins on the water, near their breeding colony at Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska

Common Murres holding Pacific herring at their breeding colony on Gull Island.

Arctic Terns in Cook Inlet, Alaska. There is bullwhip kelp on the surface of the water. 

A Bald Eagle flies off with a Black-legged Kittiwake from a colony on Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska

A Bald Eagle flies off with a Black-legged Kittiwake from Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska

USGS scientists Matthew Smith, Caitlin Marsteller, and Danielle Gerik necropsy Common Murres and harvest tissues to test for harmful algal bloom toxins.

Caitlin Marsteller stands on top of Duck Island, on the west side of lower Cook Inlet, after collecting time lapse cameras. Duck island is home to a breeding colony of Common Murres where time lapse cameras collect data, such as the number of eggs laid and the number of chicks hatched, to help estimate breeding productivity.

Short-tailed Shearwater die-off in the Bering Sea. Emaciated Short-tailed Shearwater carcasses littered the beaches of Bristol Bay during the summer of 2019