Wednesday, 15 April 2026

Presenter: Sonya Pastran

Title:  Linking Land and Sea: Early Insights from 2025 Marbled Murrelet Tracking in British Columbia

Description: This presentation will share preliminary results from a 2025 Marbled Murrelet tracking initiative led by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The project uses Argos PinPoint GPS tags to track movements of this threatened seabird in two regions of coastal British Columbia: Haida Gwaii and Port Renfrew. The initiative is conducted in partnership with the Council of the Haida Nation and other collaborators to better understand how murrelets use marine habitat during the breeding season and how these areas connect to nearby old-growth nesting habitat. These early tracking results provide new insight into marine space use and will help inform conservation planning and critical habitat identification for the species.

Sonya Pastran is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF) and a former Marine Technician with Environment and Climate Change Canada. Her research focuses on the marine ecology of seabirds, particularly Marbled Murrelets, using tracking, spatial modelling, and collaborative monitoring to better understand connections between marine habitat and coastal habitats.