Signs of recovery for seabird population

Scotland’s breeding seabird population has increased after more than 20 years in decline, according to a new report.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) said new statistics showed a “slight increase” in seabirds including Arctic terns, black-legged kittiwakes, common terns, little terns, northern gannets and sandwich terns.

However, they said some birds would have perished in the “Beast from the East” storm earlier this year, and the overall long-term picture for seabirds remains one of decline.

Simon Foster, SNH’S trends and indicator analyst, said: “We’re still a long way from reaching the high numbers of the 1980s and 1990s. It’s possible we may never see the same level as in the past, but it’s promising to see small increases instead of decreases over the last few years.

“The number of chicks produced was higher than the average over the past three decades. As seabirds are longlived and don’t start breeding until they’re three or four years old, it’s still too early to say if these birds will return to bolster colonies.

“It’s also too early to say what effect the ‘Beast from the East’ will have for Scotland’s seabirds, though we do know that some of our breeding seabirds will have died in the storm.”

Scotland’s breeding seabirds are of international importance. A total of 24 species of seabird regularly breed in Scotland, although they are currentlyinlong-termdecline.

SNH’S annual Biodiversity Indicator for Seabirds assesses breeding numbers and breeding success for 12 species, which were found to have declined by an average of 62 per cent from the 1986 level.

Despite the success of some species, others including the great skua, guillemot and herring gull have continued to fall.

Populations have been affected by factors such as food availability, climate, predation and pollution.

0 Scottish seabird numbers have risen after years of decline – but scientists warn this may be a temporary reprieve