Despite having been spotted at the coastal village of Blakeney in Norfolk for the first time this week, one of the UK’s rarest seabirds will likely become extinct within the next 60 years unless drastic action is taken, according to a new Journal of Applied Ecology study.
The Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus), a medium-sized shearwater that is part of the seabird family Procellariidae, is typically spotted far out to see off the coast of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and west Wales, but as The Guardian reported on Friday, it was spotted at the village on the east coast for the first time ever during a recent nature survey in the area.
Even so, researchers from the University of Oxford Department of Zoology told BBC News that the critically endangered seabird – one of the rarest creatures of its kind on Earth – will be driven to extinction in less than six decades unless more is done to keep them from becoming tangled in fishing gear and drowning, or from being hunted by cats and other small mammals.
“The survival of adults from one year to the next and especially of young adults is much lower than we thought,” explained Professor Tim Guilford, co-author of the study and an instructor of animal behavior at Oxford. “The species is unsustainable – it is on the road to extinction.”
Nighttime fishing could help prevent the shearwater’s extinction
The approximately 33 centimeter-long bird, which has a wingspan of up to 90 centimeters, lays only one egg at a time and breeds in the coastal cliffs in the Balearic islands. At times, however, it sometimes finds its way into British waters while migrating north, BBC News explained.
There are only an estimated 3,000 breeding pairs of the Balearic shearwater left in the world, the researchers said, and nearly half of all deaths of this critically endangered species are due to their entrapment in fishing lines and nets. Seabed fishing is particularly dangerous to the birds, as they can be caught in the lines when they are immersed and drown, according to the authors.
“Population projections suggest that the actual impact of fisheries on Balearic shearwaters is unsustainable,” they wrote. “This study demonstrates that reducing the bycatch rates of fisheries is an unavoidable and urgent conservation measure for avoiding the extinction of the species.”
They are calling for “demographic long-term studies” that would “allow researchers to diagnose, with reliability, the effectiveness of management actions.” However, as Guilford told BBC News there are some simple actions that could help protect the species. For instance, setting up fishing gear during the night when the birds do not dive “could make a massive difference,” he said.
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Image credit: Joe Pender
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