Season’s Greetings COASSTers!
Oh my goodness! COASST is a quarter century old. Who knew what we’d accomplish when Julia, first COASST employee Todd Hass and 12 pilot testers started on this adventure:
- over 5000 people completed at least one COASST survey
- we’ve monitored 925 sites and conducted 69,415 surveys (with a shout-out to the “no bird” surveys, all 45,104 of them!)
- recorded 96,928 unique bird carcasses and 39,728 pieces of marine debris
- published 31 scientific articles
- given data to 236 requestors, from students to scientists to resource managers
- had 160 articles published about our work from USA Today to National Geographic
- hosted 322 undergraduate interns (the most recent of which weren’t born when COASST started)
- made 240 presentations from ‘Mad Science’ at the Fremont Abbey comedy club to Champions of Change ceremony at The White House
If you add up all the time spent on surveys, COASSTers have walked for a total of 18 years; that’s 7.25 times around the earth (or the distance that 4.5 sooty-shearwaters migrate in just one year). There’s just no way around the fact that we’re BIG! Lots of people, tons of data, real impact.
In other large news, 2023 saw the publication of our “big picture” beached bird paper in the scientific journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. We worked with British Columbia Beached Bird Survey, Beach Watch, and BeachCOMBERS to assemble a 29-year, 90,000 survey dataset that stretches from Monterey Bay to the Arctic Circle. What we wanted to know was whether warmer waters were associated with mortality events. Spoiler alert – Yes!! Turns out that a 1°C anomaly (above normal for that month and location) sustained over a season or two, can result in a major seabird wreck. Recent warming, especially in northern Alaska – not so good for the birds.
In grant news, we have an interesting new project with UW faculty member Jaime Snyder, asking questions about how COASSTers and other coastal community members might use visualizations (photos, drawings, videos, data graphs) to participate in science. Stay tuned for more as we bring out the first phases early next year.
As always, we’ve had some turn-over in the COASST office. Anna Vallery, our amazing Participant Coordinator, was enticed into a permanent job with the Northwest Hawaiian Islands Refuge after expertly shepherding their summer field season on Laysan Island. We were sad to lose her, but happy to welcome Allie Brown who we poached from REI. As we write this, veteran COASST data analyst Tim Jones is preparing to start his next position with the British Antarctic Survey. Brrrr! Tim has been responsible for moving COASST into the data analysis mainstream, producing a record number of papers detailing mass mortality events and responses to climate warming. So, although it’s a bit like cutting off our right arm, we’re celebrating his next step in what will surely continue to be an illustrious career.
As we celebrate our achievements, know that they all rest on your collective shoulders. COASSTers inspire us to keep the program going. So stay safe, happy, warm, positive and ever curious about the world around you.
Happy Holidays!
Julia, Jackie, Allie, Charlie, Tim, and the COASST interns