From Musing to Marvelling; Inroads into Understanding Penguins at Sea

David Ainley

Just 40 years ago, we mused about what penguins did at sea because so little was known about this part of their lives, other than their distribution, despite them being the most specialised bird for life in, and under, the ocean surface --- the quintessential ‘seabirds,’ known initially to Europeans as some sort of feathery fish. Advances in methods and technology have fundamentally changed that now. We discuss how we have advanced our approaches to the study of penguins at sea, what we have learnt about penguin behavioural ecology, and how it can help us understand how fickle prey and the cold, dark sea have shaped these birds to be the incredible creatures that they are. True ‘fish-birds.’ Penguins have ‘figured out’ how to use or cope with the incredible physical attributes of dwelling in water --- holding their breath, heat tax, buoyancy, propulsion and drag. Finally, we will muse over what are critical issues that we should address for the penguins of the future.

Biography

David G. Ainley discovered seabirds as a U.S. National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Assistant working on seabirds at Kent Island, Bay of Fundy and continued with doctoral studies on penguins in the Antarctic at Johns Hopkins University. He has continued research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean but has also conducted (is conducting) extensive at-sea work in the California Current (California, Oregon) and eastern tropical Pacific, and land-based work on seabirds in Hawaii. He founded the marine research program of Point Blue Conservation Science at the Farallon Islands, CA, in 1971, overseeing it into the early 1990s, where he worked on seabird breeding behavior/success in response to variation in the preyscape. From that effort he co-edited (with R. Boekelheide), Seabirds of the Farallon Islands: Ecology, Structure and Dynamics of an Upwelling System Community (Stanford Univ Press). During the last 20 years, he has investigated the foraging dynamics, and consequences for population change among seals and penguins of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Over much of that period, he led the initial effort, supplying the scientific basis, towards designating the Ross Sea as a marine protected area, an effort that succeeded in 2017. Success was due in part by involving the public through an award-winning film of which he played a major part, The Last Ocean (Fisheye Films). In total, besides two books on Adélie Penguins, he is lead or co-author on ~300 peer-reviewed papers/monographs in marine ecology, with 153 involving polar penguins, whales, seals and predatory fish and marine communities, and their conservation (a selection listed below). He is an Elective Member of the American Ornithologists’ Union and Founding Member of the Pacific Seabird Group, from which he received a Lifetime Achievement Award. During recent several years has been editor of the journal Marine Ornithology. He has been employed since the mid-1990s by: H. T. Harvey & Associates Ecological Consultants, 720 University Avenue, Los Gatos CA.  E-mail: dainley@harveyecology.com.