Makivik Magazine Issue 90
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The Thick-billed Murre<br />
By Paul Smith and Tony Gaston, Environment Canada<br />
E ach spring, the thick-billed murres return to cliffs at Digges Sound,<br />
near Ivujivik and on Akpatok Island, in Ungava Bay to breed. These colonies<br />
are the largest in the Canadian Arctic—home to well over a million<br />
birds. People from Ivujivik harvest eggs and the birds are also hunted at<br />
sea as an important source of nutritious country food.<br />
Despite their abundance in the region, these birds are sensitive to<br />
the changing Arctic climate, and scientists are currently working to predict<br />
what these changes may mean for the future of murre populations.<br />
Tony Gaston of Environment Canada and Bill Montevecchi of Memorial<br />
University in Newfoundland are leading a research project, funded by<br />
the Government of Canada’s IPY program, to study the ecology of murres<br />
across their range, from their wintering areas in the North Atlantic to<br />
their breeding colonies across the Canadian Arctic.<br />
Building on 30 years of research, Gaston’s team documented a<br />
switch in the types of fish that thick-billed murres bring back to the colony<br />
to feed their chicks. Previously, the murres specialized on arctic cod.<br />
More recently, however, they have been capturing mainly capelin, a fish<br />
more characteristic of lower latitude waters. Because capelin are less
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