The Red-throated Loon as an Indicator of Environmental Quality

A monitoring study was initiated in the mid-1980s to determine the effects of future offshore oil and gas production on the birds that use the coastal areas of the Beaufort Sea. The primary objective of the five-year predevelopment phase of the study was to determine the natural annual fluctuations in the abundance, breeding effort, and breeding success of the study's indicator species, the red-throated loon Gavia stellata.