A presentation with a booby prize

Everyone is welcome to join the Yaquina Birders and Naturalists on Thursday, April 20, to learn all about booby research on Clipperton Island from retired marine biologist Robert Pitman.

French-owned, it is a tiny, uninhabited desert atoll, with an average elevation of only three meters. It is, however, surrounded by very productive tropical waters, and tens of thousands of masked and brown boobies crowd its barren shores. Its teeming seabird population has been whip-sawed by human activity for the past 100 years and its future remains uncertain.

The talk will introduce you to the island's cast of feathered characters and summarize some of the research results there on booby taxonomy, diet and abundance before presenting some of the ongoing conservation threats to this remarkable place.

Pitman worked as a marine biologist for National Marine Fisheries Service for 40 years, specializing on marine birds and mammals. He participated in survey cruises all over the world, with main study areas in the eastern tropical Pacific, Alaska, Antarctica and Western Australia. He has written dozens of papers on seabird and marine mammal ecology with a particular focus on killer whales. He currently lives in Newport and is an affiliate at the OSU Marine Mammal Institute where his wife and colleague, Lisa Ballance, is the director.

The presentation begins at 6:30 pm at the OSU Extension Lincoln County, located at 1211 SE Bay Blvd in Newport.