Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Seabirds as Sentinels: Auklets, Puffins, Shearwaters, and the View from Destruction Island

Seabirds as Sentinels: Auklets, Puffins, Shearwaters, and the View from Destruction Island

Wagner, Eric

Hardcover

BirdsEnvironmental StudiesNature Writing

Publisher Price: $32.95

ISBN10: 0295754613
ISBN13: 9780295754611
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: Mar 10 2026
Pages: 240
Weight: 1.04
Height: 0.85 Width: 6.39 Depth: 9.25
Language: English

What the fates of seabirds reveal about the changing ocean and our shared future

Every spring, thousands of rhinoceros auklets return to Destruction Island off Washington's coast, where they dig burrows, lay eggs, and raise their chicks. Small, gray, and adorned with a curious horn on their bill, these funny-looking birds have become an unlikely but vitally important indicator for the health of oceans and the Pacific ecosystem as a whole.

In Seabirds as Sentinels, Eric Wagner joins a team of scientists who have been tracking the lives of auklets and other seabirds to gauge the effects of climate change in the region. The North Pacific--sometimes called the Blue Serengeti--is one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth, supporting salmon, whales, seals, and countless other species, including people. Yet its waters are changing in unprecedented ways. Mass die-offs of birds, hordes of jellyfish blanketing beaches, and the sudden appearance of tropical species all point to an ocean in flux.

Wagner intersperses accounts of research expeditions with deep dives into phytoplankton, forage fish, lighthouses, ocean currents, and other important elements in the Pacific Ocean's tangled ecological web. Readers travel into auklet burrows by fiber-optic camera and witness the eerie arrival of seabirds under cover of night, seeing firsthand how these birds have tried to adapt to widespread environmental upheaval. Weaving together natural history, marine science, and the myriad stories that humans tell about their environments, Seabirds as Sentinels helps us keep a close watch on the uncertain future of the oceans that sustain us all.

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