BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF THE COMMON MURRE 49 



Figure 2.7. Distribution of common murre 

 colonies in Oregon (Clatsop to Curry 

 Counties). 



WASHMGTON 



21M01 

 219-002 



219-003 



219-010 

 Sea Lion 

 219-014 

 219-017 

 219-018 

 2194)19 



2194)68 



2194)69 



219-070 



2194)71 



Two Arches Rock 



2194)73 



Colony Rock 



2434)1 5A 

 2434)16 

 Rat Top Rock 



Nortfi CoouBc Point Rock 

 UkUtCoqufcPoMRock 



" 



270-043 m. m 



2704)44 Conical WMe Hock 



West Conical Rock 



An* Rock 



Roc* attended w/o confirmed breeding 



Recently-inactive colony 



Recently-fornied cotony 



occupation by people also occurred at an unnamed rock 

 near Whaleshead Creek, Curry County (Colony number 

 270-1 10), where a large murre colony has occurred at 

 least since the 1950s (see below). At Yaquina Head, 

 near Newport, archaeological investigations of midden 

 sites on the mainland included bones of cormorants, 

 gulls, albatross, and loons, but not murres. Colony Rock, 

 just northwest of Yaquina Head (Colony number 

 243-015), is connected to the mainland during low tides 

 and would have been accessible to native people. 

 Apparently, murres began nesting at this site in the 1940s 

 or 1950s (see below). Radiocarbon dating of cultural 

 material from various islands and mainland locations 

 indicated that coastal rocks and islands were used for 

 food gathering by native peoples for thousands of years. 



Most murre colonies known in 1988 (68%; n = 66) are 

 considered accessible by climbing and these support 

 about 90% of the Oregon murre population. Thus, murre 

 numbers probably were much lower during occupation 

 by native people and may have been at lowest levels in 

 recent centuries when settlers arrived. 



After Euro-American settlers arrived, native people 

 were decimated by disease, then forcibly relocated to 

 centralized reservations (Card 1990). The elimination 

 of subsistence harvest and human occupation on rocks 

 and islands probably allowed the Oregon murre 

 population to slowly expand and colonize new locations 

 over time. As early as 1 892, murre eggs were harvested 

 along the southern Oregon coast by early settlers. Two 



