beach segments

<p style='margin-top:12px; margin-bottom:12px;'>Coastal Ocean Mammal and Bird Education and Research Surveys – BeachCOMBERS</p><p style='margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px;'>The Coastal Ocean Mammal and Bird Education and Research Surveys (BeachCOMBERS) program was created in 1997 with the objective to train citizen scientists to collect standardized scientific data within Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS). Since then, this citizen science program has greatly expanded: we have trained and coordinated more than 150 volunteers to monitor human and natural impacts to coastal wildlife by documenting the deposition of marine birds, mammals, and sea turtles from as far north as Santa Cruz County to as far south as Los Angeles County.</p><p style='margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px;'>Program objectives are as follows: 1) obtain baseline information on rates of beach deposition of marine birds and mammals; 2) assess causes of seabird and marine mammal mortality; 3) assist resource management agencies in early detection of unusual rates of natural and anthropogenic mortality; 4) assess abundance of tar balls (oil patches) on beaches; 5) build a network of interacting citizens, scientists, and resource managers; and 6) disseminate related information to resources agencies, the public, and educational institutions.</p><p style='margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px;'>BeachCOMBERS is a collaborative program that has successfully informed resource managers about wildlife impacts from anthropogenic and natural sources such as oil spills, starvation, fishery interactions, harmful algal blooms, plastic ingestion, and entanglements (e.g., Nevins and Harvey 2004, Jessup et al. 2009, Nevins et al. 2011, Donnelly-Greenan et al. 2014, Henkel et al. 2014, Donnelly et al. in prep). The program is a collaboration between Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML), MBNMS, and other state and research institutions including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), US Geological Survey (USGS), and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) with the specific goal of using deposition of beach-cast carcasses as an index of sanctuary health (see Nevins et al. 2011).</p><p style='margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px;'><a href='https://www.mlml.calstate.edu/beachcombers/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/BC-20-yr-report-summary-1.pdf' rel='nofollow ugc'>https://www.mlml.calstate.edu/beachcombers/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/07/BC-20-yr-report-summary-1.pdf</a></p>