In 1990 Marbled Murrelets were designated as Threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Once a species is listed as threatened by COSEWIC, a recovery strategy is developed by a Recovery Team in accordance with guidelines formulated by the Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife program (RENEW). The national Recovery Team is an apolitical group with the goal to improve the status of the species. The team provides advice to government but decision-making and accountability for decisions rest with the responsible jurisdictions. The current Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team has members from the B.C. government, federal government, industry, academic, and non government environmental groups (see table below).

Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team Members - 2003

An initial Recovery Plan developed for the Marbled Murrelet in 1994 highlighted the need for more basic information about Marbled Murrelets, including their distribution and abundance within B.C., characteristics of nesting habitat, the status of suitable habitat, mortality from oil spills and fishery by-catch, and the development of a simple population model.  Since 1994, there has been considerable effort devoted to Marbled Murrelet research and monitoring by universities, federal and provincial agencies, and industry.

To aid in the development of a new Recovery Plan, the Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team is conducting a Conservation Assessment composed of three major parts.  The first part is a review of the science that has been conducted on Marbled Murrelets to date in British Columbia. The document, authored by Alan Burger, can be downloaded as a pdf file . The second part of the Conservation Assessment, written by the Recovery Team, is an advisory document about conservation and management of the Marbled Murrelet (pdf file). The third part of the Conservation Assessment is a risk analysis that examines the impacts of alternative land use scenarios on Marbled Murrelet populations (to be written by Doug Steventon, MOF, and Glenn Sutherland, Cortex Consultants).

When Part C of the Conservation Assessment is completed, the Identified Wildlife Management Strategy for Marbled Murrelets will be rewritten by the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection. The federal Recovery Plan for the species will also be updated following the completion of the Conservation Assessment.