CBird has been tasked under the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program to establish a framework for an integrated monitoring program for seabirds.

This task involves:

• identifying monitoring needs
• suggesting monitoring parameters selecting appropriate species for monitoring activities

Bringing together information from the entire Arctic will help to detect changes in the status of seabird populations and habitats at the circumpolar scale if they are occurring, as well as help assess the impacts of global environmental processes including climate change and ocean acidification.

The information gathered from circumpolar seabird monitoring will allow us to better inform management decisions related to wind farms, offshore oil development, Arctic shipping traffic, contaminants, avian disease, oil spill response, and fisheries management. Information generated through seabird monitoring efforts may also help direct conservation measures at the scale of the circumpolar Arctic; something that is not feasible for countries working independently. 

The Circumpolar Seabird Monitoirng Plan

The Circumpolar Seabird Monitoring Plan was released in October 2015. It is a companion document to the earlier Framework for a Circumpolar Seabird Monitoring Network. As such, the Circumpolar Plan is built on the shoulders of the Framework and is intended to establish a coordinated seabird monitoring program througout the circumpolar Arctic. The original Framework did not specify an actual monitoring plan, and this is the priority of this document 

Objectives 

• To monitor populations of selected Arctic seabird species, in one or more Arctic countries
• To monitor, as appropriate, survival, diets, breeding phenology, and productivity of seabirds in a manner that allows changes to be detected
• To provide circumpolar information on the status of seabirds to the management agencies of Arctic countries, in order to broaden their knowledge beyond the boundaries of their country thereby allowing management decisions to be made based on the best available information
• To inform the public through outreach mechanisms as appropriate
• To provide information on changes in the marine ecosystem by using seabirds as indicators
• To quickly identify areas or issue in the Arctic ecosystem such as declining biodiversity or environmental pressures to target further research and plan management and conservation measures