Marine plastic is taking its toll on Grassholm Island's gannets

9th May

By David Lynch  @Davidintherain Reporter

VOLUNTEERS are risking their lives to save seabirds from plastic pollution on one of Pembrokeshire’s islands, according to a photographer.

Bristol-based wildlife photographer Sam Hobson visited Grassholm Island, eight miles off the Pembrokeshire coast, to document an RSPB rescue mission to cut free gannets entangled in manmade waste.

While on the island, which is a breeding ground for 36,000 gannet pairs, he took a photograph of one of the birds with trapped in a net.

"This panicked adult gannet struggled as it dangled from a cliff side, with ropes twisted around its neck like a hangman's noose.

"The brave volunteers risked their own lives to creep to the edge of the cliff top and rescue this bird from its death sentence," Mr Hobson told the BBC.

The birds fly out to sea to collect seaweed to line their nest, but often pick up piece of plastic and other manmade waste.

"The gannets line their nests with these man-made plastic fibres and their nests become death-traps, entangling adult birds and juveniles as they develop inside the nest," Mr Hobson added.

There are an estimated 20 tonnes of plastic waste on Grassholm Island.

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Grown-up gannets find favorite fishing grounds

Date: July 27, 2017

Source: University of Exeter

Summary: Like humans, some birds can spend years learning and exploring before developing more settled habits. A study of northern gannets has shown adults return to the same patch of sea over and over again to find food.

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Offshore wind farms could be more risky for gannets than previously thought, study shows

Date:September 28, 2015

Source:University of Leeds

Offshore wind farms which are to be built in waters around the UK could pose a greater threat to protected populations of gannets than previously thought, according to a new study by researchers at the universities of Leeds, Exeter and Glasgow.

It was previously thought that gannets, which breed in the UK between April and September each year, generally flew well below the minimum height of 22 metres above sea level swept by the blades of offshore wind turbines.

However, while this is the case when the birds are simply commuting between their nest sites and distant feeding grounds, this new study shows that they fly at an average height of 27 metres above sea level when actively searching and diving for prey.

Crucially, the study also shows that the birds' feeding grounds overlap extensively with planned wind farm sites in the Firth of Forth, heightening their risk of colliding with turbine blades.

The researchers estimate that up to 12 times more gannets could be killed by turbines than current figures suggest, although they stress that the figure is based on calculations using current typical turbine sizes, which could be different to those actually installed, and that there is great uncertainty over actual turbine avoidance rates.

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Fake birds and droppings lure gannets

DIANA WORTHY

Last updated 12:53 28/05/2014

Things are not quite what they seem on Rotoroa Island in Auckland where fake seabirds and droppings are being used to attract a whole new type of visitor.

Australasian gannets are what Auckland Zoo and the Rotoroa Island Trust are after - and lots of them.

They want to get the birds interested in forming a new nesting colony on the island as another conservation attraction and to benefit its ecosystem.

But the gannets won't want to know unless they can be convinced that others of their species are already living there.

That is why 16 plastic decoy gannets from the United States, man-made nest mounds splashed with white paint to resemble guano (droppings) and recordings of gannet cries are now in place.

The sound system was officially turned on two weeks ago and the daily bird calls are being monitored by trust and zoo staff.

Cameras, like the elephant cams and others used in David Attenborough's television wildlife series, are being installed in some of the fakes.

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Gannet chick-eating championships provoke anger from wildlife lovers

The first “world championship” for eating pickled baby gannets, known as “guga”, has sparked new calls for a total ban on the Hebridean tradition of hunting chicks by clubbing them with sticks.

The inaugural world guga-eating contest takes place tonight at Ness Football Club on the Isle of Lewis. Its social club is staging the competition despite opposition from animal rights campaigners, who claim the hunting method is cruel. Twenty contestants will race to eat half a gannet chick with a side dish of potatoes in the quickest time.

The birds are hunted on Sula Sgeir, a rocky, uninhabited islet 40 miles north of Lewis. It takes the first part of its name from the old Norse word for gannet, and residents of Ness district are awarded a special licence to cull 2,000 gannets each year. It is the only place in Britain that hunting seabirds is still allowed after a ban was introduced in 1954.

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Incredible 'gannet cam' video captures birds' eye view at Pembrokeshire colony

12 Nov 2013 06:12

Researchers attached miniature cameras to some of the gannets nesting at Grassholm in Pembrokeshire with stunning results.

Scientists in Pembrokeshire have captured incredible footage which show what it’s like to fly with the UK’s largest seabird.

Researchers from The University of Exeter and the RSPB working on the island nature reserve of RSPB Grassholm in west Wales, attached miniature cameras to some of the gannets that nest there with stunning results.

Researcher leader Dr Steve Votier from the University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute has been carrying out research of gannets on the tiny island of Grassholm for the last eight years.

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Gannets Don't Eat Off Each Other's Plates

June 6, 2013 — Colonies of gannets maintain vast exclusive fishing ranges despite doing nothing to defend their territory from rival colonies, scientists have discovered.

A team of researchers led by the University of Leeds and the University of Exeter observed that northern gannets, which can fly hundreds of kilometres on a single fishing trip, avoided visiting the fishing grounds of gannets from neighbouring colonies.

The findings, published in the journal Science, could transform our understanding of animals' foraging patterns because individual gannets do nothing to enforce this territory or communicate its boundaries when out at sea. A bird entering from a neighbouring colony would be free to fly and fish unhindered.

Co-lead author Dr Ewan Wakefield, postdoctoral researcher in the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences, said: "The accepted view is that exclusive foraging territories are associated with species such as ants, which aggressively defend the feeding areas around their colonies, but this opens the door to a completely new way of thinking about territory. We found the gannet colonies also had neatly abutting and clearly defined feeding areas. Gannets may be a byword for gluttony but, clearly, they don't eat off each other's plates."
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Bird-borne cameras reveal gannet habits

The gannets captured more than 20,000 images, providing fresh insights into seabird behaviour. 'All birds that had a camera attached photographed a fishing boat, showing how important fishing is,' says Dr Steve Votier of Plymouth University, the study's lead author. 

'Of those a significant proportion was foraging at fishing boats, not just flying past.' The cameras, normally used for tracking pets, were originally attached facing forwards. But after failing to cope with the sheer force of the gannets' characteristic sea-dive, striking the water at speeds of more than 60 miles an hour, they had to be reversed. Previously, researchers have tried monitoring the birds from boats or with GPS location trackers. The team hoped that, by employing the cameras, they would be able to reveal a more detailed picture of the birds' behaviour and the extent to which they rely on discards.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-bird-borne-cameras-reveal-gannet-habits.html#jCp

Gannets Could Be Affected by Offshore Energy Developments

ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2012) — Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that proposed offshore renewable energy developments in the English Channel have the potential to affect the foraging behaviour of northern gannets from Alderney in the Channel Islands.

The study by the University of Liverpool, the British Trust for Ornithology and Alderney Wildlife Trust, funded by the Alderney Commission for Renewable Energy, used GPS technology to track 15 northern gannets breeding on Les Etacs in North West Alderney to find out about their feeding habits and whether the routes they travelled could be affected by proposed English and French offshore energy developments.

Not dependent on specific feeding sites

The study found that on the whole gannets flew in the same direction and for the same distance but they vary significantly in the amount of time they spend searching for food which suggests that individual gannets do not depend on specific feeding sites.

Louise Soanes, from the School of Environmental Sciences, said: "We found that the area where the gannets travelled for food overlapped with nine sites earmarked for offshore marine energy developments which suggests that the feeding habits of these birds could be affected, as well as the potential for collision with wind turbine developments.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121109091200.htm

Shining a light on gannet numbers at RSPB Bempton Cliffs

Gannet numbers at RSPB Bempton Cliffs have soared in the last three years.

Research this summer has revealed that since 2009, there has been a remarkable rise of 40% in the number of birds breeding on the sheer chalk cliffs at the nature reserve between Bridlington and Filey, which is the UK’s largest mainland breeding gannet colony.

Previous surveys by RSPB staff and volunteers have shown a year-on-year growth since records began in 1969, when there were only 22 pairs at Bempton Cliffs. 

But this year’s figures reveal there are now 11,061 breeding pairs, a leap of 3,202 pairs since the last survey in 2009.

The researchers also counted 798 non-breeding birds, which, when they are old enough to find mates, will add to the numbers which turn the cliffs into an amazing wildlife spectacle throughout spring and summer.

Assistant Warden David Aitken, who led the boat-based survey that recorded the figures, is thrilled that these spectacular birds are going from strength to strength.

“Gannets and some other seabirds can fly huge distances – sometimes as far as 600km round trips – in their search for food,” he said.

“This is one of the reasons why vital offshore Marine Protected Areas are needed to safeguard not just seabirds but also other sealife and the important areas where they feed. 

Continued:  http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/326575-shining-a-light-on-gannet-numbers-at-rspb-bempton-cliffs