306 



I.C.T.NISBET 



Magnitude and Importance 

 of the Resource 



The papers in the first half of the conference 

 which reviewed the abundance and distribu- 

 tion of the birds in the northern North Pacific 

 Ocean, the Bering Sea, and adjacent seas sug- 

 gested that we are dealing with numbers of 

 birds of the order of 100 million. That is 100 

 million birds at sea plus some unknown num- 

 ber of millions of birds along the shore. We do 

 not have to take these numbers literally I 

 am sure that the persons who produced them 

 did not mean them to be taken literally but 

 certainly we are talking about something on 

 the order of tens of millions and not much 

 more than some hundreds of millions. At 

 least, it is on the order of a hundred million 

 rather than ten million or a billion. I do not 

 think it an exaggeration to say that this is one 

 of the great neglected biological resources of 

 the world. 



Characteristics of the 

 Resource 



Three important aspects of this resource 

 have not been identified clearly in the papers 

 delivered at the conference, in part because 

 the papers summarizing the biological sur- 

 veys did not include much of the detail that 

 was available in the maps posted in the con- 

 ference hall. [Maps in this volume do not show 

 the detail of those posted.] These are the 

 numerical abundance of the birds, their diver- 

 sity, and their unique characteristics. 



As to abundance, figures have been men- 

 tioned on the order of 50 million for shear- 

 waters (Puffinus spp.) and 25 million for 

 murres (Uria spp.). For other species the 

 quoted numbers have been less specific, but I 

 would estimate from what I have read and 

 heard that the total population must run into 

 millions for eiders (Somateria spp.), kitti- 

 wakes (Rissa brevirostris), and fulmars (Ful- 

 marus glacialis), and doubtless for other 

 species. The numbers of the smaller alcids, in 

 particular, must be very great. 



As to diversity, there is an impressive num- 

 ber of species and a wide variety of habitats. 

 We have been shown in the photographs some 



spectacular island colonies, particularly in the 

 Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands, some of 

 which have a remarkable variety of species. 

 Several different definitions of "seabird" 

 have been used at this conference, but cer- 

 tainly there are dozens, and probably scores, 

 of genuine marine species that either breed in 

 the area or use it as a major nonbreeding area. 

 The collection of birds in the area of the North 

 Pacific and the Bering seas seems more im- 

 pressive in terms of both abundance and di- 

 versity than anything in the north Atlantic 

 Ocean, which has been so much more fully 

 studied. 



As to the uniqueness, there has been almost 

 no mention of the endemic species at the con- 

 ference. It is therefore important to empha- 

 size in this summary that a significant group 

 of marine or coastal birds is endemic to this 

 area. These birds include the red-legged kitti- 

 wake (Rissa spp.), the Aleutian tern (Sterna 

 aleutica), the spectacled eider (Somateria 

 fischeri), the emperor goose (Philacte cana- 

 gica), and the red-faced cormorant (Phalacro- 

 corax urile); a number of alcids, including the 

 whiskered (Aethia pygmaea), parakeet (Cyc- 

 lorrhynchus psittacula), crested (A. crista- 

 tella), and least auklets (A. pusilla); the 

 horned puffin (Fratercula corniculata); and 

 Kittlitz's murrelet (Brachyramphus breviros- 

 tris). In addition, we should not forget some 

 migrants that make exclusive use of this area 

 in their nonbreeding season. These include the 

 short-tailed albatross (Diomedea albatrus), 

 the scaled petrel (Pterodroma inexpectata), 

 and I believe also Cook's petrel (P. cookii), 

 which has not previously been mentioned. 

 From the little we know about its off-season 

 distribution, the short-tailed albatross ap- 

 pears to use these waters exclusively; hence it 

 has as much claim to be regarded as an endan- 

 gered species of the United States as the 

 whooping crane (Grus americana). 



Perusal of the lists of species presented at 

 the conference brings out one important 

 point. Although we are meeting in the United 

 States and have been looking at the birds 

 from a United States-Canadian viewpoint, 

 this is truly an international resource in al- 

 most every respect that I have mentioned. 

 The most abundant species, in terms of both 

 numbers and biomass, is probably the short- 



