SANDPIPERS’ LAST SUPPER
is more than a documentary
The film is a central piece of an international impact campaign in collaboration with Birds Canada and a growing list of outreach partners that include Audubon Alaska and BC Nature.
Today, most people think of mudflats as an ecological wasteland with no value, which makes these critical habitats extremely vulnerable to destruction. Mudflats have declined starkly around the world in recent decades because of human activities.
Even fewer people understand the importance of biofilm and the fatty acids these systems generate. Yet mudflats are hugely productive systems just like rainforests and fatty acids not only feed shorebirds, but also pass through the food chain to entire ecosystems and people. SANDPIPERS’ LAST SUPPER raises the profile of this vital and highly vulnerable natural system.
The impact campaign supports the urgent goal of permanently protecting Roberts Bank in the Fraser River Estuary and Delta of British Columbia. Roberts Bank is an internationally recognized stopover site along the Pacific Flyway used by western sandpipers and other shorebirds.
This site is now under the immediate threat of the recently federally approved Port of Vancouver’s Roberts Banks Terminal 2 (RBT2) project, which will destroy the biofilm the western sandpipers need for their survival, with cascading negative impacts on the entire ecosystem, including commercial fisheries such as salmon and crab, and apex predators such as southern resident killer whales.
We have an opportunity now to keep Roberts Bank intact. Join us today to save intertidal mudflats and the critical food source they provide to migratory shorebirds and an entire ecosystem that includes pacific salmon and southern resident killer whales.
How you can help
Spread the word
Most people think of mudflats such Roberts Bank as nothing more than vast landscapes of barren mud, which makes these habitats extremely vulnerable to destruction worldwide. What’s more is that shorebirds are often an appreciated group of tiny birds, not well understood and uncharismatic. Yet mudflats are so much more than mud. They are productive systems just like rainforests, and the invisible fatty acid-rich biofilm in the mud is the dining table for shorebirds but also feeds an entire ecosystem, fish, killer whales and ultimately us humans. Sites like Roberts Bank are disappearing because they are under the radar.
You can help tell the story and change people’s perceptions about the importance of mudflats and shorebirds. Celebrate mudflats and shorebirds on social media, speak up for the conservation of these unique elements of rich biodiversity to your friends, family and colleagues. Everybody can be an influencer.