After the rearing period, murrelet fledglings fly to the sea when they leave their nest. Marbled murrelets occur in loose aggregations in predictable locations near dependable food sources. Habitat The general habitat of the Marbled Murrelet is near coastal waters, tide-rips, bays, and mountains. Nest sites are large, moss covered, horizontal branches with an average height of 45 meters. Also, there are indirect commercial benefits.
Marine birds play significant roles in their complex ecosystem.
Disruption of that ecosystem by the extinction of sea birds could have an adverse affect on the fishing industry. If additional research finds that the marbled murrelet lives exclusively in old-growth forests and that their numbers decrease proportionally with the decrease in acres of forest, then it could be deemed an indicator species thus a justifiable deterent for further logging operations. This represents the bulk of the North American population. Logging efforts are expanding in the areas of the greatest murrelet population. Continued logging will produce major declines in murrelet numbers.