The aleut community of ST. Paul island (acspi) tribal government has been a leader in the movement by alaska native entities to become more equitable participants in the management and conservation of…

The aleut community of ST. Paul island (acspi) tribal government has been a leader in the movement by alaska native entities to become more equitable participants in the management and conservation of their lands and resources. In response to rapid environmental changes in the bering sea ecosystem, acspi launched the pribilof islands marine ecosystem (prime) initiative, with the nomination of alagum kanuux, or the heart of the ocean in unangan tunuu, to be designated as a unique national marine sanctuary. Prime is a new sanctuary model that is using a new approach to create equitable, tribal led CO management for one of the worlds most important and sensitive marine areas the southeastern sector of the bering sea. A critical pillar of prime is to promote tribal led research and collaborations to incorporate an inclusive understanding of prime, grounded in indigenous, traditional and local knowledge and empirical science. Driving the desire to conduct research and of particular concern is that sea ICE extent for the bering sea region reached record lows in 2018 and 2019, which was preceded by several years of profound environmental changes across alaska ranging from record air and ocean temperature increases, reductions in snow cover and sea ICE seasons, and increases in rainfall, to mass mortality events for marine animals including seabirds of the bering sea region. Central to understanding the potential impacts from ocean climate variability, harmful algal blooms (habs), and ocean acidification, is a quantitative understanding of the pelagic distributions, phenology of migratory and wintering periods, environmental correlates of seabird movements during the non breeding season, and if and how seabird marine habitat use has changed in recent years in response to the significant recent environmental changes observed for the bering sea ecosystem. To this end, we propose to quantify non breeding marine distributions, phenology of the migratory and wintering periods, and associations with environmental features for two key seabird species that are important cultural and ecological components of the avifauna that nest at ST. Paul island, alaska black legged kittiwakes (rissa tridactyla) and thick billed murres (uria lomvia) to address the following objectives (1) quantify their spatial and temporal pelagic movements during non breeding season using light level geolocation (2) calculate SEX specific, seasonal utilization distributions (3) examine their oceanic habitat use during non breeding season in relation to in situ and remotely sensed physical and biological environmental covariates (4) determine the overlap of the prime initiatives core region, with seasonal utilization distributions and (5) train the next generation of seabird ecologists, and conduct data science focused outreach events to ST. Paul island students and other students. This project is exemplary in that IT fosters research collaborations between acspi, US federal agencies, academic research institutions, and non profits, creating knowledge and educational opportunities that will be critical for the responsible management of the prime now and in the future. The final products of the proposed research will have key management implications and will provide a comprehensive understanding of the marine waters used by these seabird species outside the breeding season, which can inform spatial protections within the context of prime and highlight regions outside the prime core region used by these species to understand potential interactions with fisheries, pollution, and ocean climate variability. The establishment of alagum kanuux will allow conservation actions to follow the leads of ST. Paul island and ensure that tribal CO management is a central feature in the future of the pribilof islands marine ecosystem through the responsible CO management of cultural keystone species.