Lost to climate change... half of our seabirds

ALMOST half of Scotland’s breeding seabird population is feared lost to global warming over the past 25 years, according to a leading expert.

And delays in ordering a key census of nesting colonies may have obscured the true picture of the catastrophic decline in our marine bird species, claims the RSPB’s Dr Euan Dunn.

He points to studies showing populations of species including kittiwakes, puffins, fulmars, guillemots, arctic skuas and Arctic terns have been in freefall since the 1990s.

Meanwhile, rising water temperatures caused by climate change have been blamed for a shortage of the marine life on which the birds feed.

Dr Dunn says the UK Government is supposed to set up a crucial 15-year census of bird numbers to pinpoint areas that need special attention.

The most recent study, the Seabird 2000 survey, cost £1.6million to complete.

‘Things have got much worse since then,’ Dr Dunn told the Observer newspaper. ‘We are supposed to have a national census every 15 years but now that is slipping towards 20 years – just at a time when populations of so many seabirds are clearly in freefall.

‘Our seabird colonies, especially those in northern Scotland, are withering away. At the same time, the Government has displayed a complete dereliction of duty in failing to properly track this calamity.

‘In particular, it has ignored calls to carry out its statutory duty to organise a comprehensive national census. That would at least reveal the extent of the crisis and help highlight possible solutions.’

One example of the devastating losses is found on St Kilda, one of the most significant seabird colonies in the North Atlantic where there has been a 99 per cent reduction in kittiwake nests since 1990.

Last year only one pair bred in all St Kilda’s monitored sites, and that single chick died.

In the middle of the last century, the distinctive dark-eyed gulls thrived across the island as they did at the once-bustling kittiwake colony at Marwick Head in Orkney, which is now deserted. Numbers of Fair Isle puffins have halved from 20,000 to 10,000 in 30 years, while on Orkney and Shetland guillemots have shrunk by a similar amount with several colonies wiped out. Fulmars, arctic skuas and arctic terns have suffered huge losses.

Dr Dunn called it a ‘lamentable failure of government’ not to have given the UK’s statutory nature conservation agencies, including Scottish Natural Heritage, funds for a new census.

He added: ‘We desperately need to have an accurate assessment of what is going on, a census that will pinpoint the varying fortunes of all our colonies and which will tell us where we may need to bolster particular sites and build resilience.

‘We may need to establish marine protected areas offshore or take action to rid an island of rats. But until we have the whole picture, which only a comprehensive census can provide, we cannot work out where to deploy our resources.

‘Climate change is only going to worsen. We need to do something to give our seabirds a fighting chance of survival.’

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) initiates national surveys through the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

A Defra spokesman said the committee runs an annual seabird monitoring programme, adding: ‘While some species are thriving, we are working to help reverse the decline of others.’

‘Populations are clearly in freefall’