The Seabird Center is much more than a museum about birds.   It is designed to teach visitors of all ages about Maine coast ecology and how seabirds and people interact at the edge of the sea. 

The Audubon Seabird Center focuses on the world of seabirds - their migration, feeding and nesting ecology as well as their beauty, place in history and prospects for the future. 

Conservation of  coastal wildlife is an issue of global urgency because 3.7 billion people, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population, are crowded just 37 miles  from ocean shore.  Seabirds help us bridge the links between land and sea because they are ideally adapted to both realms.  The Center will demonstrate the benefits of  effective stewardship by making the  compelling case that responsible management of  seabirds will help to insure sustainable, high quality of life for humans living along our coasts.

Using the powerful example of humans working to restore seabird colonies, The Seabird Center will demonstrate how  personal involvement in conservation is necessary for effective stewardship.  Through interactive exhibits and programs, the Center will demonstrate how during the past 400 year history of human interaction with Maine seabirds, people have changed their role from exploitation to restoration.  The Center will document this transition while focusing on the broader message of how  human values toward wildlife have developed active restoration in favor of diverse seabird communities.

The Seabird Center’s offices and classrooms support ecologists and educators who continue the tradition of seabird restoration, management and education, begun by Dr. Stephen Kress in 1973.  The Seabird Center describes how, through understanding the ecology of seabird populations, people are restoring numerous nesting colonies destroyed by human carelessness over a century ago. 

The Seabird Center demonstrates that losing native species and diminishing the natural world is not a necessary condition of human progress.  The Seabird Center exhibits communicate that while human actions often lead to environmental problems such as the loss of species, people are also essential to finding and implementing solutions. 

For an example of a Seabird Center already in existence, please check out the Scottish Seabird Centre.

 

For General Information and Questions: Email: puffin@audubon.org Telephone: (607)257-7308

Mailing Address: Project Puffin 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, New York 14850