Island Research Center
College of the Atlantic
Overseeing the college’s work on Great Duck Island
Each summer a team of students spends June and July on Great Duck Island, working on studies of Herring and Black Backed Gulls, Guillemots, and Leach’s Storm Petrels. Work at Great Duck is done in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy and the State of Maine, co-owners of the bulk of the island.
Our “home away from home” is the Great Duck Island Light Station, now converted to the college’s Alice Eno Field Research Station. We also collaborate with colleagues at Acadia National Park, New England Aquarium, and in the Canadian Wildlife Service to monitor movement patterns in birds, stress levels in gulls, foraging patterns along the coast, and the effects of sea-level rise on seabird colonies.
While on Great Duck, students not only to monitor populations of seabirds, but also to learn techniques for censusing wildlife, running an island research station, and applying GIS and GPS technologies to real world conservation projects. IRC alumni have done or are doing graduate work on birds ranging from Florida Scrub Jays and Wild Turkeys to Caspian and Arctic Terns. We also have alums who are vets, alums who are lawyers, alums who are botanists, alums who are artists… The Magical Isle works its wonders in many dimensions!
Stories from the Field
What exactly does a petrel chick smell like? [Down East]
Great Duck Island is a notoriously tough place to land a boat. There’s no dock, just a steep, slippery ramp on the island’s exposed south side, which can only be approached in a Zodiac on a day when seas are under four feet. But one afternoon late last September, a pair of students from Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic finessed the landing and hauled hundreds of pounds of boat and passengers partway up the ramp—saving us not only from slipping but also from the dreaded “ass slapper,” a ledge where breaking waves tend to soak one’s derriere. Read More
Love of gulls leads to Goldwater award
Wriley Hodge ’24, a College of the Atlantic student with a passion for seabirds and the islands they inhabit, is named a Barry Goldwater Scholar, a prestigious, highly selective designation supporting students intending to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Read More
As seas warm, whales face new dangers [New York Times]
From the top of the six-story lighthouse, water stretches beyond the horizon in every direction. A foghorn bleats twice at 22-second intervals, interrupting the endless chatter of herring gulls. At least twice a day, researchers with College of the Atlantic’s Allied Whale climb steps and ladders and crawl through a modest glass doorway to scan the surrounding sea, looking for the distinctive spout of a whale. Read More