Populations of gannets, puffins
and other marine birds are in freefall, but a crucial scientific study to
pinpoint the causes is being blocked, say experts
Robin McKieScience
editor
Sunday 20 August
2017 00.04 BSTLast modified on Sunday 20 August
2017 09.20 BST
Bempton
Cliffs bird reserve was in fine fettle last week. The last of its
population of puffins had departed for the winter a few weeks earlier, while
its thousands of young gannets were still being cared for by their parents on
the chalk cliffs of the East Yorkshire nature site. For good measure,
kittiwakes, cormorants and fulmars were also bathing in the sunshine.
It was a comforting sight for any
birdwatcher but this benign picture was in stark contrast to many other bird
reserves in Britain. Our populations of seabirds – arctic skuas, arctic terns
and kittiwakes – are in freefall. And, in some cases, the numbers are dire.
“For reasons that are not
entirely clear – though they are almost certainly concerned with climate change
– Bempton
Cliffs has not suffered from the precipitous declines in seabird
numbers that we see elsewhere,” said Euan Dunn, a principal policy officer for
the RSPB.
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