Rebuilding a Tower That Seabirds—and Science—Depend On

Middleton Island is the first thing the wind hits between Hawaii and Alaska. Out here in the Gulf of Alaska, tens of thousands of seabirds gather each summer, turning a remote outpost into one of the most important windows we have into the health of the North Pacific.

Seabirds don’t just live on Middleton—they report back.

The Black-legged Kittiwakes nesting on the island have shown us, in real time, how rapidly ocean conditions can change. During the 2014 to 2016 marine heatwave, GPS-tracked birds shifted from feeding on capelin just a few kilometers from the island to making long, energy-intensive trips to coastal waters up to 576 kilometers away. From behind one-way mirrored windows in our research tower, we watched their chick production plummet even as their foraging effort soared. When ocean temperatures cooled, the system didn’t simply reset—the birds revealed what may be a new ecological regime. Today, fisheries managers use data from Middleton Island seabirds to inform stock assessments across the region.

That insight depends on a simple but critical piece of infrastructure: the research tower.

The tower sits on a former U.S. Air Force installation now owned and managed by the Institute for Seabird Research and Conservation. This unique seabird laboratory allows scientists to observe seabirds up close, collecting long-term data that would be impossible to gather otherwise. Our team monitors seven species intensively—including kittiwakes, cormorants, and puffins—five of which rely on the artificial nesting habitat we maintain. But the tower, and the access it provides, is the center of it all.

Last fall, that work was suddenly put at risk. 

Dave Baxter, a longtime friend of the project and employee at the island’s Federal Aviation Administration station, sent a photo showing that one wall had blown in during a storm. Shattered glass littered the interior, and the hole in the side of the tower left it exposed to the elements, threatening both the structure itself and the research it supports. In a place where storms routinely batter the island, including the 60 mph winds that caused the blow-in, even minor damage can quickly escalate. For a small nonprofit, the scale and urgency of the repairs posed a serious challenge.

With support from Audubon Alaska and the Rasmuson Foundation, we were able to complete the much-needed repairs.

On March 20, our team of four arrived with a load of repair supplies to snowdrifts and an incoming blizzard. As we approached the tower, kittiwakes wheeled through the colony, a few landing briefly before being swept back into the wind. With only a narrow window between our arrival and when the birds need to settle onto their nest sites for the breeding season, we got to work replacing the three wind-damaged walls. On April 9, the repairs were complete.

On the rebuilt walls, we were able to increase the number of nesting sites from 81 to 192—an expansion that is already filling in.

That increase matters. Middleton Island once supported more than 80,000 breeding pairs of Black-legged Kittiwakes, many nesting on natural cliffs that have since eroded. The introduction of European rabbits in the mid-20th century accelerated that erosion and contributed to the establishment of resident Bald Eagles, which now heavily pressure seabird colonies.

Today, most kittiwakes and other cliff-nesting seabirds depend on human-made structures like the tower, where steep walls and enclosed nesting spaces offer protection from predators. With limited safe nesting habitat available, competition is intense—making each new site immediately valuable.

As the breeding season begins, the tower is once again alive with activity—and better equipped than ever to support both seabirds and the science that depends on them.

Projects like this ensure that Middleton Island remains a critical observation point in a rapidly changing ocean. With support from Audubon Alaska and partners, we can continue tracking the signals seabirds send us—and applying that knowledge to the conservation and management of Alaska’s marine ecosystems.

For more information about the Middleton Island seabird work, visit isrcmiddleton.org.

—Shannon Whelan is the Science Director of the Institute for Seabird Research and Conservation (ISRC). She leads the Core Research Program at ISRC, overseeing logistics and monitoring efforts at the Middleton Island research station.