Three Decades of Seabird Conservation: Progress and Challenges

November 2008 - Intervale's Dr. Kathleen Blanchard spoke to members of Bird Protection Quebec (BPQ), the distinguished bird club formerly known as the Province of Quebec Society for the Protection of Birds, at the BPQ membership meeting on November 3, 2008 in Montreal. Her presentation, “Engaging Communities in Conservation and Stewardship,” was illustrated with photographs from Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Blanchard described lessons she had learned over 30 years of working with coastal communities to conserve and restore populations of seabirds along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts—a topic of interest to the BPQ membership. The society owns an island property along the Quebec North Shore and several of its members have traveled on birding trips that were led by Blanchard along that coast.

Kathleen Blanchard combined her passion for current conservation issues with memorable photographs of the past, as she described the challenges associated with stewardship of fisheries and wildlife in small coastal communities of eastern Canada. She presented figures showing recent changes that had been recorded for populations of seabirds nesting within the federal migratory bird sanctuaries, which are among the oldest sanctuaries in North America. Most noteworthy were increases in populations of Common Eider, a popular seaduck among local hunters, and Razorbill, a relative of the extinct Great Auk. Of concern were declines in populations of Atlantic Puffin on several sanctuary islands, with the exception of Perroquets Island, which is owned by BPQ and is part of the Bradore Bay Migratory Bird Sanctuary near Blanc Sablon. Biologists with the Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service have been monitoring seabird populations on sanctuaries of the Quebec North Shore since 1925, when they were first established.

Conditions on the Quebec North Shore seabird colonies on the whole are much better than they were 30-50 years ago, when excessive and illegal harvest of seabirds and eggs led to dramatic population declines for several species. Moreover, residents of the small communities stretching from Kegaska to Blanc Sablon have become outspoken in support of their seabird colonies as priceless components of a natural heritage they proudly defend. Communities like Tête-à-la-Baleine and Harrington Harbour are still without road link to the outside world, which partially accounts for why these communities and the seabird colonies of the coast remain a culturally rich and ecologically important region of Canada.

For further information, contact info@intervale.ca