Britain's seabirds starve
The cliffs fall silent as hungry mouths are left
un-fed
13 December 2005
Widespread
seabird starvation has occurred in some of our largest and most
renowned colonies, a report by the Joint Nature Conservation
Committee (JNCC), the Government's advisers on UK nature
conservation, has revealed.
On St Kilda, one of the UK's largest seabird
colonies and a designated World Heritage Site, puffin chicks
starved to death in their burrows, as their parents failed to find
sufficient food for them. A pitiful sight confronted seabird
biologists, as adults brought back beak-fulls of inedible pipefish
in a vain attempt to nourish their offspring.
The reason for this mass starvation was a
widespread shortage of the lesser sandeel Ammodytes
marinus. This energy-rich fish is the staple diet of many
seabirds, and is key to their breeding and survival. But in
2005 shoals of this usually abundant species were largely absent
from the seas around western Scotland. While other fish were taken
as an alternative, few provide the energy required to raise the
growing chicks.
Poor breeding seasons have occurred before; for
many parts of the UK, 2004 was the worst on record, sparking fears
that global warming had fundamentally affected the ecosystem of the
North Sea, the area most badly affected. However, seabird colonies
on Scotland's north-west coast, which hold internationally
important numbers, have up to now been unaffected.
A reversal of fortune took place in 2005,
however, when food shortages struck the west coast colonies with
dramatic effect. Black-legged kittiwakes raised only a handful of
chicks from a colony of 1,000 pairs on the isle of Canna in the
inner Hebrides; this was the lowest number during the 37 years of
seabird study carried out on the island. In contrast, seabird
colonies along the North Sea coast that failed to raise any young
in 2004 fared better this year, but still produced fewer chicks
than usual. It appears that in many parts of the North Sea,
sandeels were still in short supply, since those birds that bred
successfully supplemented their chicks' diet with other fish not
normally taken.
The reasons for the shortages of sandeels in
recent years are complex and not fully understood. However, as
sandeels feed on plankton, it is on these tiny floating organisms
that many scientific studies have focused. There have been striking
changes in the abundance, species composition, and timing of
occurrence of plankton in our seas over the last few years. These
changes are related to an increase in the surface temperature of
the sea, which have occurred over the past three decades,
particularly in the North Sea.
Although no causal link has been identified
between seabird breeding performance and the industrial sandeel
fishery off south-east Scotland, the fishery has recently been
closed due to concerns about its potential effect on kittiwake
breeding success.
Dr Matthew Parsons of JNCC, who co-ordinates the UK's Seabird
Monitoring Programme, said "the seas around the British Isles are
changing, and it is clear that its seabird populations are
providing a barometer with which we can measure how these changes
work their way up the food chain. It is imperative that we continue
to monitor our seabird populations in the future, and so contribute
to a better understanding of how to conserve the diversity of life
around our coast."
- ENDS -
Notes for Editors:
- UK Seabirds in 2005 is a booklet summarising
the results of the UK Seabird Monitoring Programme (SMP). An
electronic version of the leaflet is available as a downloadable PDF. Led by JNCC, the programme
co-ordinates the monitoring of seabird breeding numbers and
breeding success throughout the UK. Data from the Republic of
Ireland is also collated, to set the results in a wider
geographical context. The results of the SMP are published annually
by JNCC in full as Seabird numbers and breeding success in Britain
and Ireland.
- The following organisations are partners with JNCC in
the SMP: Scottish Natural Heritage, Countryside Council for Wales,
English Nature, Environment and Heritage Service (Northern
Ireland), Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Centre for
Ecology and Hydrology, The Seabird Group, Shetland Oil Terminal
Environmental Advisory Group, BirdWatch Ireland, National Parks and
Wildlife Service (Dept. of Environment, Heritage and Local
Government – Republic of Ireland).
- Much of the information of the SMP is collected by volunteers,
some of whom are helped with expenses made available via the
Seabird Group (for which, see http://www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/).
- JNCC is the forum through which the three country
conservation agencies – the Countryside Council for Wales, English
Nature and Scottish Natural Heritage - deliver their statutory
responsibilities for Great Britain as a whole, and internationally.
These responsibilities contribute to sustaining and enriching
biological diversity, enhancing geological features and sustaining
natural systems. As well as a source of advice and knowledge for
the public, JNCC is the Government's wildlife adviser, providing
guidance on the development of policies for, or affecting, nature
conservation in GB or internationally. JNCC was created by
the Environmental Protection Act 1990. More details about JNCC's
work are available through its website at http://www.jncc.gov.uk/
Further information:
General media enquiries:
Communications Team, JNCC
Tel: 01733 866839 Fax: 01733 555948
For an interview with the project co-ordinator,
or answers to technical questions, please contact Dr Matt Parsons
at the Aberdeen office of JNCC, Tel 01224 655715;
A pdf (375 kb) is
available online. The following digital
images are also available upon request:
The following digital images may be obtained from
JNCC Communications, each available as jpeg (c.0.5 megabyte) and
TIF (c.35 megabyte):
Pair of common guillemots (Photograph by Matt
Parsons)
Black-legged kittiwake on its nest (Photograph by Matt
Parsons)
Northern fulmar (Photograph by Matt Parsons)
Pair of northern fulmars (Photograph by Matt Parsons)
Graphs showing changes in breeding numbers and
breeding success of northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, common
guillemot and European shag are also available from JNCC
Communications.
News Release JNCC