Northern CA PPSR Projects 1

Beach COMBERS

• Organization Name

  Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
• Project Website

  http://montereybay.noaa.gov/research/bchmon.html
• Organization Website

  http://montereybay.noaa.gov
• Partners

  Cal State University Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
• Contact Name

  Hannah Nevins, Lisa Emanuelson
• Contact Email

  hnevins@mlml.calstate.edu, lisa.emanuelson@noaa.gov
• Contact Phone

  (831) 647-4201
• Other Contact Information

  Beach COMBERS Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary 299 Foam Street Monterey, CA 93940 

• Project Purpose (taken from project materials)

  1) obtain baseline information on rates of beach deposition of marine birds and mammals; 2) assess causes of seabird and marine mammal mortality; 3) assist resource management agencies in early detection of unusual rates of natural and anthropogenic mortality; 4) assess abundance of tar balls (oil patches) on beaches; 5) build a network of interacting citizens, scientists, and resource managers; and 6) disseminate information to the resource managers, public, and educational institutions

• Participant Activities

  Volunteers are assigned to a particular beach, returning at the same time each month to record the changes they observe throughout the year.
  

• Data Entry

  • Unknown
• Other Participant Activities

  N / A
• System Studied

  • Mammals
  • Birds
  • Marine
  • Other (see Notes)
• Geographic Scope

  Regional
• Region

  Northern California
• Location

  Beaches in and around Monterrey Bay
• Location - Map

  299 Foam Street, Monterey, CA
• Time Commitment

  • Monthly
• Volunteer Qualifications

  Volunteers must be willing and able to walk long stretches of sandy, uneven terrain, often remote from human services.
  

• Volunteer Training

  Volunteers receive 20 hours of training on how to survey a beach, identify marine birds and mammals, and document observations
  

• Cost to Participant

  None described

• How will the findings be used?

  The website and brochure report past successes as including: 

  •Discovery of banded birds from as far away as Hawaii;

  • Comparisons between Monterey Bay and Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries, revealing unusually high numbers of dead adult harbor seals in localized areas;

  • High deposition of Common Murres led to the discovery of a previously unrecognized threat of gillnet mortality for Common Murres, Harbor Porpoise, and Sea Otters;

  • Assessment of impacts from oil spills in Monterey Bay;

  • Contribution to an article in Nature documenting the impacts of a toxic marine algal bloom on marine animals.

  • 10 years of monitoring birds and mammals http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/conservation/beachcomber.html 

• Other Information

  Beach segments are approximately 5 km in length and surveys take an average of 4 hours to complete. Volunteer pairs return each month to make observations.
  Beach COMBERS volunteers work in pairs

  For projects in the SIMoN network: http://www.sanctuarysimon.org/monterey/sections/beachCombers/index.php

• Photo

  
• last update:

  N / A