What's Washed In: Seabirds, Marine Debris, and Citizen Science

April 23, 2024

Dr. Julia Parrish, Executive Director of the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST)

Since the first surveys began in 1999, Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) has steadily expanded from a nucleus of five beaches along the southern outer coast of Washington State to nearly 450 beaches spread across northern California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. Learn more about this West Coast citizen science program involving hundreds of participants collecting monthly data on the identity and abundance of beach-cast birds and marine debris, with the goal of creating the definitive baseline against which the impacts of any near-shore catastrophe could be measured.