The museum has a number of programs under way.
• A cooperative survey with Washington State of colonies of the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the Pacific Northwest. To limit disturbance, that survey is to be conducted at 5-year intervals beginning in the summer of 1975.
• A survey of all islands, whether or not they are supporting seabirds, in the Strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca Strait in 1980, to detect changes in populations after 1974.
• Monitoring changes in seabird populations along the west coast of Vancouver Island, gathering data for all islands there. Permanent quadrats will be established on ecological reserves in the area to help detect such changes. As a result of such quadrats having been set up in 1967 on Cleland Island and being re-examined in 1974, we can document a significant decrease in Leach's storm-petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) and a corresponding increase in rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata).
• Mapping vegetation substrate as it relates to seabird populations on selected islands in the Province.
• Investigating differences in eggshell thickness between eggs within clutches of glaucous-winged gulls (Larus glaucescens) near Victoria.
• A saturation banding program for cormorants (Phalacrocorax penicillatus, P. pelagicus, and P. auritus) on south-coast colonies.
• Continued banding of select colonies of glaucous-winged gulls which began in the 1960's. Life tables, survivorship curves, and dispersal patterns should result.
The museum also acts as a repository for information on seabirds in British Columbia and maintains files on the history of seabird islands as well as references to literature published on all seabirds in the Province. The references include unpublished theses and reports. This information is easily retrievable—not a small contribution in today's paper-producing society.
Future programs planned by the Provincial Museum, in addition to the continuance of some of those already mentioned, include a system of monitoring colonies every 5 to 10 years, depending on the sensitivity of the species involved, to detect changes in population numbers and distribution. It is also hoped that the first complete provincial census, with cooperation from Federal and provincial agencies, naturalist groups, and the like, can be budgeted and arranged for in the summer of 1980. That census could conceivably be expanded to include the entire Pacific coast of North America.