The Collapse

I got to thinking about the various species we have on island and realized a lot seemed threatened. Below is my summary of the what I have observed over the last 30-40 years. I would greatly appreciate other islanders inputs. COLLAPSED means a 90% sustained drop in population. I am ignoring land mammals (rats, muskrats, etc.) and insects. The nesting sea birds are my estimates of nesting birds at Sou'west Point at the end of May each year. Non-nesting populations are much lower. Are there other species I have forgotten? Some species are seen so rarely from shore, such as whales and porpoises, that I am not including them. My guesstimate for those species are significantly more during the late 70s and 80s than from the 60s, stable in the 90s, and slight decline in the 00s. Other inputs and observations welcome.

Species	1970s population	2000s population	Status	Comments
Nesting birds
Herring gull	10s of thousands	Low thousands/ hundreds	COLLAPSED
Black back gull	10s of thousands	Low thousands/ hundreds	COLLAPSED
Eider ducks	Thousands	Low hundreds	COLLAPSED
Cormorants	Dozens	Zero	COLLAPSED
Barn swallows	Hundreds?	Fewer?	?	Need more data
Bald Eagles	0	2-4 adults, chicks	Healthy	There may be second nest at Eastern End
Pheasant	Dozen	Low Hundreds	?	Introduced in 60s. Summer 2009 did not appear to have any chicks. Racoon predation?
Sea Life
Herring	100s of tons caught	Zero	COLLAPSED	Purse seiner harvest
Harbor Pollock	1000s	Near zero	COLLAPSED	In harbor estimates
Mackerel	100s	Near zero	COLLAPSED	In harbor estimates
Barnacles	Common	Rare	COLLAPSED
Mussels	Common	Rare	COLLAPSED
Dog whelk (conch)	Common	Rare	COLLAPSED
Periwinkles	Common	Rare?	COLLAPSED
Urchins	Common	Rare	COLLAPSED	Over harvested in early 90s
Clams	Limited	?	?
Lobsters	100s of tons	100s of tons	Healthy	Harvest quantities
Crabs	Common?	Common?	?	Need more data
Starfish	Limited	Rare	?	Need more data
Harbor Seals	100s	100s	Healthy?	I think they have increased. Other comments?