Major decline in seabirds
Jun 11th, 2009 | By ssacn | Category: ConservationA report published on 11 June, 2009 by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee has revealed major declines in many UK seabirds since the late 1960s.
The report by JNCC – using information from the UK’s Seabird Monitoring Programme – reveals that the UK populations of at least nine of the UK’s 25 species seabird have decreased dramatically. Some species have suffered dramatic reductions. Since 2000: the UK kittiwake population has dropped by 40 per cent; the shag population has dropped by 25 per cent; the Arctic skua population has dropped by 57 per cent; and the herring gull population has dropped by one third.
Shag © Jeremy McClements, from the surfbirds galleries
Over one third of the world population of shag nests in the UK, but our population
has dropped by 25 per cent in less than 10 years.
Overall the report shows the UK’s seabird population has reduced by nine per cent since 2000, but in Scotland, where the majority of the UK’s seabirds occur, numbers have crashed by nearly one fifth (19 per cent).
Douglas Gilbert, is reserve ecologist with RSPB Scotland. He said: “We are now beginning to see the effects of many years of poor breeding success for some seabirds. There just aren’t the numbers of young birds being produced to maintain stable breeding populations into the future. The situation on Fair Isle, reported by JNCC, reflects what is happening on our reserves as well – particularly on Orkney where kittiwakes and terns have virtually failed to produce any young for several years now.”
Population counts last year of Copinsay, an isolated island off the east coast of Orkney mainland, showed a 70 per cent decline in razorbills, 57 per cent decline in kittiwakes and a 25 per cent decline in guillemots since 2000.
Doug continued: “If the declines continue at this alarming rate, then many of Scotland’s famous seabird cities could be virtually deserted within a decade. In the past decade, the hopes of a good breeding season have been crushed, as eggs are deserted or young chicks starve in their nests because the adult birds cannot find enough fish.
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