Read the full article by Toby Cooper on The Islands’ Sounder website. Start reading below…
By 1998, Dr. Julia K. Parrish realized she was going to need help. Major help. The veteran University of Washington field biologist, then studying seabird colonies on Tatoosh Island Washington, had set her sights on a massive goal – establishing comparative baseline data on the 183-odd species of seabirds which inhabit the North American Pacific Coast. In a few short years, the resourceful Dr. Parrish secured grant funding, recruited scores of volunteers, and founded the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team.
Today, the scope and reach of COASST span hundreds of miles, mobilizing nearly 1,000 participants to sample seabird mortality on some 450 individual beach and shoreline habitats from Mendocino, California to Pt. Barrow, Alaska. Parrish is grateful for the help.
‘Our program would be impossible without the dedication of surveyors like those that showed up for training sessions on Orcas and Friday Harbor,” said Parrish, adding that, “The San Juans COASSTers can’t be beat!”
Learn more about COASST on their website, including info about their internship program…
