Scientists race to understand why tufted puffins are disappearing from the Pacific Northwest

THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA — The R/V Puffin sliced through uncharacteristically calm waters near Smith Island, a lopsided pancake of land often buffeted by wind and waves at the end of the strait.

Just after a July sunrise, four researchers on the boat eyed a cracked and collapsing bluff, the home to about 25 breeding pairs of the tufted puffin , a bird in mysterious decline here.

“You are looking at the largest remaining colony of tufted puffins in the Salish Sea,” said Peter Hodum, a professor with the University of Puget Sound.

In Washington, the tufted puffin has seen a 90% reduction in population in recent decades with fewer than 2,000 of the birds remaining on the West Coast. The bird isn’t at risk for extinction (over a million still live in Alaska), but when Washington liste