Location:  This 100-acre island is located in Penobscot Bay, 22 miles east of Rockland, Knox County.  (Approx. 40 minute drive north of Bremen.)  Seal Island is owned by the US Fish & Wildlife Service and is part of the Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge.  It is managed by the National Audubon Society.

Access:  Staff and supplies are transported either by chartered boat or aboard a commercial tour boat.  An inflatable Avon with oars and a dory are kept at the island and are used to row out to meet the boat, which must maintain a safe distance from the rocky island shoreline.  A chartered trip may require that staff and supplies travel from Rockland to Vinalhaven via the Maine State Ferry in order to meet the chartered lobster boat. 

Accommodations:  A 12x12' cabin serves as kitchen, data collection and communication center. All island staff and volunteers sleep in tents and need to bring a sleeping bag and ground pad.  The "kitchen" corner of the cabin has a propane camp stove for cooking.  A tiny refrigerator is run by propane.  A 12-volt battery recharged by solar panels allows for operation of a cassette player and a small cabin light and the CB and VHF radios.  An outdoor solar shower and a composting toilet are located a short distance from the cabin. 

Duties:  The Island Supervisor will outline the specific projects underway when you arrive on the island.  Duties may include: daily bird counts, 3-hour blind observation stints, bird banding and censusing. 

Wildlife:  Atlantic Puffins, Arctic, and Common Terns, Black Guillemots, Razorbills, Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls, Leach's Storm-Petrels, Common Eider, and Double-crested Cormorants predominate.  Early summer brings a large number of migrant songbirds to the island while late July and August days are excellent for migrating shorebirds.  It is possible to see a few pelagic species like shearwaters and gannets.  Harbor and grey seals are abundant in the waters surrounding the island.

Study Projects:  Monitor Common Tern,  Arctic Tern, and Puffin colonies; tern-chick feeding, productivity and growth studies; Arctic Tern metapopulation study; Razorbill attraction project.

General information for research assistants and volunteers
 
 

This page is sound enhanced: 

Atlantic Puffin 

For General Information and Questions: puffin@audubon.org

Mailing Address: Project Puffin 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, New York 14850 (607)257-7308