Tea & Talk: Counting Penguins with Bronte Evans Rayward

Counting Penguins: Assessing the Significance of the Falkland Islands Seabird Monitoring Programme

Bronte Evans Rayward completed her PhD at the Scott Polar Research Institute with a focus on examining the environmental history of Bird Island, South Georgia, with a particular focus on sea bird monitoring. Her talk is an exploration of the annual Falkland Islands Seabird Monitoring Programme (FISMP).

From Bronte:

"I provide an overview of the organisation of the survey, the scientific methods, and the geography of the programme. My description of the monitoring in the remote farmland of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) highlights how this activity, and science more generally, is entangled in the broader history and culture of the Islands. I will describe how Gentoo and Southern Rockhopper penguins, whom are being counted, interact with the Programme, and how it is adapted to them. The monitoring programme itself, I argue, is an important relationship-building activity that enables continued connection across vast distances. It offers a snapshot of the population of the penguins and a hint at the health of the ecosystems of the Islands, but more subtly, it also offers insight into a complex human community."