Seabirds of Alaska and the North Pacific

Auks

Think of auks as the penguins of the north. In fact, British sailors first applied the name ‘penguin’ to the (now) extinct Great Auk, which inhabited the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Penguins in the southern hemisphere were observed by sailors and explorers who mistook them for penguins in the North Atlantic. Great Auks and penguins from the southern hemisphere look very similar but are unrelated.

Other members of the auk family include guillemots or murres, razorbill, puffins, auklets, and murrelets. There are 24 recognized species of auks alive today. Only six species live in the North Atlantic Ocean and 20 live in the North Pacific Ocean (two of the species exist in both oceans). This magnificent diversity in the Pacific is probably because the auk family evolved there and only later made it to the Atlantic Ocean either via the southern route between Panama and South America or later through the Northwest Passage of the Arctic.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Photo: Franz Gingele, Shutterstock, Ashton Ray Hansen, Jonathan Tramontana and Karsten Bidstrup

Albatross

Yes, you read that right. You can find albatross in the North Pacific Ocean! This is the only place in the Northern Hemisphere where albatross breed. Three species inhabit the North Pacific: the Laysan, Black-footed, and the rare Short-tailed Albatross. The rest (about 20 species) breed and live in the Southern Hemisphere, from Antarctica to New Zealand, South Africa, and South America.

All three North Pacific species breed on small islands off Japan and into the Pacific in places such as Midway, Laysan, and the Hawaiian Islands. Birds leave the colony in mid-summer and disperse over the entire North Pacific to feed. They cover thousands of miles before returning to the breeding colonies in autumn. One of the best places to spot the North Pacific albatross is in the Gulf of Alaska, south of the Aleutian Islands. Keep your eyes open! Our Expedition Team will also be on deck to help.

Fun fact: The oldest known wild bird in the world is a female Laysan Albatross known as Wisdom. She was probably born in 1951, which makes her around 70 years old. Wisdom hatched a new chick in February 2021 and is still going strong! With a change of feathers every year, she looks just as good as the day she started to breed back in the 1950s.

Part of the web of life

Waters in the North Pacific and around Alaska are highly productive as a result of currents and upwellings, bringing nutrients to the surface, where they are used by algae to grow and multiply in the sunlight. This forms the base of the food chain and provides sustenance to small, filter-feeding animals, which are fed upon by small fish and squid. These, in turn, end up in the stomachs of ‘top’ predators like larger fish, seals, whales, and seabirds. Some seabirds actually skip a link in the food chain and directly eat tiny filter-feeding organisms. High nutrient levels and lots of sunlight in spring and early summer produce vast blooms of algae that can even be seen from space!

The Threat of ‘The Blob’

‘The Blob’ is a body of warm water first discovered in the North Pacific in 2013. Temperatures in this ‘marine heatwave’ were 2–3°C above normal. This may not seem like a lot, but it has considerable consequences for life in the sea. Most marine life is very sensitive to the temperature of their surroundings and numbers decline if the temperature is too warm or too cold.

Populations of small marine animals like copepods have declined to the point where many auklets, which feed on copepods, have died of starvation. Marine heat waves in the North Pacific may be the ‘new normal’ created by climate change, and will have a big effect on the whole ecosystem in the future.

It’s a birdwatcher’s delight on our expedition cruises to Alaska. It’s not just auks and albatross soaring the skies here, but also a multitude of winged wonders. Don’t forget to pack your binoculars and long lens for your camera. We look forward to welcoming you onboard soon!